Eric Weinstein is a Jewish-American public intellectual. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1985 with a combined BS and MS degree in mathematics and received a Ph.D. in mathematical physics from Harvard University in 1992. After briefly holding research positions at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and MIT, Eric exited academia completely and has since become an outspoken critic of the educational institution. He devised the term “Intellectual Dark Web” to describe a group of truth-seeking, independent thinkers who communicate to their audiences outside the confines of traditional media outlets. Currently, Weinstein is the managing director of Thiel Capital and host of the podcast “The Portal,” where he’s interviewed influential experts ranging from physicist Sir Roger Penrose to adult-film performer Riley Reid.
Weinstein’s grievances with the education system are informed by his personal experience as a student with dyslexia and kinesthetic reinforcement deficits. He believes that the harm done by educators is generally grossly overlooked to protect a system designed solely for a narrow set of neurotypical learners. On February 4, 2021, Weinstein took to the audio-chat room application Clubhouse to present one of his paramount goals, “to destroy the education system’s ability to harm people with learning disabilities.” From a letter grade standpoint, Eric was an average student but he ran into trouble when he couldn’t pass the language requirement at the University of Pennsylvania. His girlfriend and editor of the school newspaper then wrote an article about how the requirement was an unfair barrier creating a net loss for the school, and the administrators proceeded to amend the policy.
Because of this, Weinstein sees the benefits of learning differences and says his dyslexia and other “[learning] disabilities are the most profound genetic gift that I was given. But it was a gift in disguise.” During college, Eric was in danger of failing an abstract math course, then one day, his teacher wrote a problem on the board and announced that any student who could solve it would receive an automatic A. Eric solved the problem in just a few days, discovering that he had a strong proclivity for abstraction after years of struggling with symbolic math. This turning point helped Eric pinpoint a tragic flaw in the education system: most subjects are taught in the wrong order. Elegantly beautiful principles that have the potential to vastly cut down learning time are saved until last. Weinstein calls these “the compressions of every field,” and they spark passion and deep curiosity within students. So why are these concepts so often buried underneath so many excruciatingly difficult technical topics? Why can’t a student get a straight answer when they ask a teacher, “What’s the point of learning this?” Weinstein believes it’s because our educational institutions have extractive incentives, calling them “extinction farms for the creative human mind.”
The school system’s hostility towards neurodivergent individuals, especially in K-12, generates Weinstein’s (self-admitted) righteous indignation. In parent-teacher conferences, most emphasis is placed on the student’s classroom behavior rather than their understanding of course content. Teachers label kinesthetic learners as disruptive, reprimand the color-blind for wasting time, and tell those with ADHD that they are disrespectful. These students struggle not due to a lack of intelligence but because they pose challenges for educators with teaching disabilities. When teachers withhold praise and encouragement because “it wouldn't be fair to the other children,” they are hindering student's self-worth, limiting their future paths.
Indeed, it is heartbreaking to imagine the sheer amount of potential that we have thrown into the dummy pile. The potential to ease the suffering of a large minority of students is why Weinstein cares so deeply about bringing attention to this issue and stimulating debate on workable solutions. Through voicing his opinions and experiences, Weinstein helps families realize that their children aren’t the problem— the cookie-cutter system that tries to squeeze them into a mold and measure them using crude tools is. Eric proves that thinking outside the box has huge advantages, and because of that, the Weinstein family slogan goes, “You can have my learning disability when you pry it from my cold dead fingers.”
Weinstein believes that, on top of harming students, the educational institution disincentivizes innovative research and pushes well-reasoned intellectuals out of academia. Actually, many members of the “Intellectual Dark Web” (I.D.W.) are former professors, including Eric’s brother Brett Weinstein and his sister-in-law Heather Heying, who received serious threats after posing a reasonable objection. In 2017, Weinstein and Heying were mislabeled as racists after objecting to a “Day of Absence” at Evergreen State College where white students and faculty were encouraged not to come to campus. This incident highlighted the importance of allowing criticism of the progressive movement from within and not allowing fear to hinder rationality. Similarly, I.D.W. member Dr. Deborah Soh left academia after realizing that research yielding unpopular conclusions could cost someone their job, and Eric points to a reduction in funding as a possible cause for the stagnation of theoretical physics in recent decades.
Weinstein’s views on education serve as a microcosm for his disdain towards every institution and individual that exercises power through pushing misleading narratives, effectively trying to think for the public. In order to cut through the noise and avoid the possibility of being censored while being accessible to a wide audience, Weinstein communicates through three main avenues: his podcast, Twitter, and Clubhouse. These casual platforms allow Eric to circumvent being pushed out of the conversation by gatekeepers without insulating him from public criticism. Notably absent from this list are research papers and books. This makes him a target for intellectual purists such as prominent legal theorist Richard Posner, author of Public Intellectuals: A Study of Decline, who would almost certainly reject Weinstein as a public intellectual based on his existence outside of academia. Still, Weinstein routinely performs one of the most important functions of a public intellectual, being a disagreeable party pooper who keeps the pot boiling. His brand of responsible heterodoxy invites his audience to think critically about the issues that shape our lives and not shy away from nuance. He’s fostered an online community committed to expanding their knowledge and who despise echo chambers. Weinstein is primarily concerned with the struggle of finding the right solutions to humanity's existential problems, so he is not frightened of criticism, or engaging in debate.
The danger he poses to educational institutions is still relatively small, but as his ideas become more widespread, it will be interesting to see who tries to discredit him and how. So far, there have been no valid controversies about his character. Although, his unorthodox route of presenting his theory of Geometric Unity invited valid criticism from peers who think it’s irresponsible to present the public with a potential unified theory of physics without at least a published paper. It seems that the main complaint against Eric Weinstein is that he lectures publicly about advanced mathematical subjects to an audience that can’t easily tell if what he’s saying is factual, possibly building undeserved trust. But it seems that he has not been called out by another mathematician for propagating a falsehood. He is also careful to use appropriate disclaimers, for example, stating on the Lex Friedman podcast that he is “not a physicist.”
Whereas typical intellectuals rely on research papers and institutional backing, Weinstein’s credibility is built upon his persona as a well-intentioned and rigorous critic. To uphold his integrity, he maintains the independence of his podcast by means of only allowing product advertisers who can’t control any of his content. He was offered a private sponsorship but turned it down in order to be as transparent as possible with his audience.
Weinstein’s existence outside of academia and government shows that he is more focused on introducing individuals to new modes of thinking, unlike many of his podcast guests who are more in the business of formulating and proposing concrete policies. Weinstein goes about being the change he wants to see in the world not through infiltrating and changing institutions from within but by alerting a larger number of people to an issue. Weinstein challenges his audience to think outside the box and clearly recognizes that the best way to find solutions is through collaboration.
Whether Eric Weinstein will be directly responsible for fixing the educational system or breaking managed reality remains to be seen. But to use his own words, he hopes to be remembered as someone who tried, and as someone who didn’t listen to the voices telling him to stop expressing his ideas.
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