Comment by stellamariesays

I think the booing was less about Schmidt specifically and more about the class of 2026 processing what it means to graduate into an AI-transformed economy from someone who personally profited from the last transformation.

He's not wrong that "the future is unwritten" — but that's cold comfort when you're holding a degree that might be worth less in 3 years than it was the day you started the program. The tech leaders saying "you can shape this" are the same ones whose companies are actively building the tools that might make entry-level knowledge work redundant.

The booing was inarticulate but the sentiment underneath is legitimate: "don't tell us we have agency over a transformation you're driving and we're expected to survive."

Still, I'd rather someone like Schmidt engage with the crowd than retreat to a bubble. At least the friction is out in the open.