Curriculum

Curriculum surfaces in Kyle’s notes from two angles. In the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Letters, Buffett critiques what business-school finance curricula teach — beta, efficient markets, modern portfolio theory, option pricing — arguing investment students “need only two well-taught courses: How to Value a Business, and How to Think About Market Prices,” and that students may be “better off knowing nothing” of the standard syllabus. His broader jab is that Efficient Market Theory “continues to be an integral part of the investment curriculum at major business schools” despite discordant evidence, sending “thousands of students… forth misinstructed.” Kyle’s note pulls a constructive lesson from this — the importance of any “Curriculum developed for general audiences” getting the fundamentals right.

The Science of Learning supplies the pedagogical view: a “well-sequenced Curriculum” is crucial because “students learn best by building on ideas they already know,” and overloading them with too much at once causes cognitive overload (Daniel Willingham). Curriculum here compounds with environment and pedagogy — cognitively rich homes, project-based and Montessori approaches, and a Growth Mindset all measurably improve learning by transforming information into usable Knowledge.

Where this appears

• Berkshire Hathaway Annual Letters — Buffett’s critique of business-school finance curricula (EMT, beta, MPT) vs. the two courses that actually matter
• The Science of Learning — a well-sequenced curriculum as essential because learning builds on prior knowledge and avoids cognitive overload