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Across the country, a growing sentiment suggests the university degree is an artifact of a bygone era, a depreciating asset in an economy obsessed with speed. A recent Gallup poll confirms this shift, revealing that Americans confidence in the value of a college education has plummeted to a 15-year low. Nowhere is this skepticism louder than in my own backyard. In Silicon Valley, the “skip college” mantra has evolved from a “hot take” to accepted wisdom. Fueled by the rise of generative AI, the logic is seductive: If artificial intelligence can code, write copy, and analyze data faster than a junior employee, why spend four years and a small fortune on skills a bot will master before you graduate? It is a compelling argument. It is also fundamentally wrong. As the CEO of an AI company, I witness the trajectory of automation daily. I see exactly what our models can do, and I recognize the massive disruption coming for knowledge work. Yet, my conclusion is the exact opposite of the current narrative. As AI automates technical execution, the core purpose of the university sharpens. Far from making college obsolete, the AI revolution is making the benefits of higher education like wisdom, maturity, and the forging of mental models, the most critical economic differentiator a human can possess. THE COMMODITY OF “HOW,” THE VALUE OF “WHY” For the last two decades, higher education has been sold largely as vocational training. You go to school to learn a hard skill like computer science, accounting, or law, that you then trade for a salary. Under this transactional model, the skeptics are right. If college is just a place to download technical syntax into your brain, it is inefficient. AI is rapidly demonetizing the ability to simply do things. However, the universitys true value was never entirely the how but it was always the why. In an AI-native world, the technical barrier to entry is collapsing. Soon, natural language will be the only programming language required. When anyone can build an app, draft a legal brief, or design a product with a few prompts, execution becomes a commodity. The premium shifts to the ability to discern what to build, why it matters, and how it impacts the human ecosystem. This requires a type of thinking that is rarely self-taught. It requires the kind of broad, interdisciplinary exposure that a university curriculum provides. We don’t need more people who can optimize a sorting algorithm; we need people who can debate the ethics of that algorithm, understand the sociological impact of its deployment, and navigate the geopolitical landscape it operates within. COLLEGE AS SCAFFOLDING FOR THE MIND Beyond the curriculum, the “skip college” contingent ignores the universitys profound developmental role. They view the four-year degree as a delay of adulthood. I view it as the necessary scaffolding for it. The years between 18 and 22 are a neurological and psychological crucible. The brain is finalizing its development; identities are solidifying. The university environment provides a unique sandbox where young adults can collide with diverse philosophies, navigate complex social hierarchies, and fail in a relatively low-stakes environment. When I hire for leadership roles, I rarely seek the fastest coder in the room. I seek resilience. I seek the ability to collaborate with dissenting voices and the maturity to navigate ambiguity. These are traits honed in lecture halls, seminar debates, and student organizations just as much as they are in internships. THE SHELF-LIFE OF SKILLS VERSUS MINDSET Critics often weigh the cost of tuition against the starting salary of a graduate’s first job. But in a world of accelerating technological velocity, the specific skills learned at 20 are often obsolete by 25. To skip college for a specific trade or tech stack is to bet one’s career on a snapshot in time. A university education, particularly one grounded in the liberal arts and fundamental sciences, plays a longer game. It teaches you how to learn. It builds a mental operating system capable of updating itself. Consider the “hallucination” problem in large language models. To effectively use these tools, a human must possess critical thinking skills robust enough to audit the machine. They need a foundational knowledge of history, logic, and science to discern when the AI is fabricating reality. The worker who skips college risks becoming a passive consumer of AI output while the college graduate becomes its orchestrator. That is a difference in career trajectory that may not appear in year-one earnings, but compounds exponentially over a lifetime. A CALL FOR A HUMAN RENAISSANCE Silicon Valley loves efficiency. We love to optimize. And yes, the modern university is often inefficient, expensive, and bureaucratic. It is ripe for disruption and reform. But lets not confuse the need for reform with the need for abolition. The “skip college” narrative is an oversimplification. It assumes that because machines are becoming more intelligent, humans can afford to be less educated. The opposite is true. As we hand over more cognitive labor to AI, we free humans to operate at the peak of their intelligence. We are entering an era where philosophy, ethics, creative synthesis, and interpersonal leadership will be the most high-value skills in the global economy. We should not encourage the next generation to skip the one institution dedicated to developing those traits. We should encourage them to go, but with a new purpose. Do not go to college just to get a job. Go to college to build the kind of complex, adaptable, and nuanced mind that no AI can replicate. The future isn’t about competing with machines. It is about becoming more human. That is an education worth the investment. Bhavin Shah is CEO and cofounder of Moveworks.
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E-Commerce
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Novo Nordisk’s weight-loss pill on Monday, giving the Danish drugmaker a leg up in the race to market a potent oral medication for shedding pounds as it looks to regain lost ground from rival Eli Lilly. The pill is 25 milligrams of semaglutide, the same active ingredient in injectable Wegovy and Ozempic, and will be sold under the brand name Wegovy. Novo already sells an oral semaglutide for type 2 diabetes, Rybelsus. The approval could help spur a turnaround for Novo after a rocky year of sliding shares, profit warnings and slowing sales of its injectable Wegovy amid intense competition from Lilly and pressure from compounded versions. U.S.-listed shares of Novo jumped 8% and Lilly fell 1% in extended trading after the approval announcement. A 64-week, late-stage study showed participants who took 25 mg of oral semaglutide once daily lost an average of 16.6% of their body weight, compared with 2.7% for those on a placebo. The pill was approved for chronic weight management in adults with obesity or overweight and at least one related health condition, broadening the potential patient pool at a time when insurers, employers and governments are wrestling with spiraling healthcare costs related to obesity. It could help open the door to tens of millions of untapped patients in a global market, forecast to be worth some $150 billion a year by next decade. “You’re going to see a huge uptake in the patient base as new indications open up and as oral versions hit the market,” said Anand Iyer, chief AI officer at telehealth firm Welldoc. Novo is banking on the pill’s first-to-market advantage to revitalize sales in the U.S., where it has lost ground to Lilly. Lilly’s next-generation weight-loss pill orforglipron could be approved as soon as late March. David Moore, Novo’s executive vice president of U.S. operations, said a daily pill could boost interest and uptake of the drug. Novo is manufacturing the pill in the United States in North Carolina and has been building up supplies of the pill “for some time” to ensure that it has “ample supply”, he said. Some 40% of American adults are obese, U.S. government data shows, and around 12% say they currently take GLP-1 drugs, according to a poll published last month by health policy research organization KFF. Novo had a first-to-market advantage with injectables, but initially struggled to meet explosive demand. Eventually, Lilly got ahead with its rival Zepbound, which now leads for weekly U.S. prescriptions. Novo and analysts say a weight-loss pill would address injection hesitancy and expand access. Analysts say pills could capture around a one-fifth share of the market by 2030, particularly among patients who prefer simpler and less invasive treatment options. “The pills will not displace or replace the injections,” said Christopher Chrisman, a managing director and partner at consultancy BCG, adding some patients may prefer to continue with weekly injections. “But pills offer clear advantages to some people. There’s travel convenience and no need for a fridge,” he added. PRICING AGREEMENTS Novo said the 1.5-milligram starting dose of the Wegovy pill will be available in early January. Novo and Lilly had agreed to offer starter doses of their weightloss pills at $149 per month for the U.S. government Medicare and Medicaid health insurance programs and to cash-paying customers via the White House’s direct-to-consumer TrumpRx site. Novo recently cut the cash price for Wegovy to $349 a month, from $499. U.S. list prices are about $1,000 per month or more. Novo CEO Mike Doustdar said in November that people using weight-loss drugs show more “consumer-like” behavior than its traditional diabetes patients, acknowledging that the company needs to adapt to this and bring in new expertise. Whether another semaglutide product can solve Novo’s current ills remains to be seen. Novo’s oral semaglutide needs to be taken in the morning on an empty stomach, 30 minutes before eating, drinking or using any other oral medication. Lilly’s pill does not have those restrictions. (Reporting by Maggie Fick, Patrick Wingrove, Mariam Sunny, Christy Santhosh and Mrinalika Roy; Editing by Adam Jourdan, Bill Berkrot, Rosalba O’Brien and Jamie Freed) Maggie Fick and Mariam Sunny, Reuters
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E-Commerce
Markets are flat early Tuesday in holiday-thinned trading before head of the release of new data on how the U.S. economy fared in the third quarter.Futures for the S&P 500, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq are all essentially unchanged before the opening bell.Shares of the Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk jumped more than 7% overnight after U.S. regulators approved a pill version of the blockbuster weight-loss drug Wegovy, the first daily oral medication to treat obesity. Novo’s Wegovy is a GLP-1 drug that works like widely used injectables to mimic a natural hormone that controls appetite and feelings of fullness.Again touching new records, the price of gold rose 1.2% early Tuesday to $4,523.30 an ounce, adding to its consistent gains throughout the year. Silver rose 1.7%, to $69.71 an ounce.Oil prices edged higher early Tuesday after jumping more than 2% on Monday when the U.S. Coast Guard said it was pursuing another sanctioned oil tanker in the Caribbean.U.S. benchmark crude added 4 cents to $58.05 per barrel. The price of Brent crude, the international standard, gained 7 cents to $62.14 per barrel.Even after five straight days of gains, oil prices are down about 19% since the beginning of 2025 with demand lagging. U.S. factory conditions are weakening with activity readings hitting five-month lows, according to S&P Global.Markets in the U.S. will close early on Wednesday and remain closed on Thursday for the Christmas holiday. Yet several economic reports during the shortened week could shed more light on the condition and direction of the U.S. economy.The government on Tuesday releases the first of three estimates on gross domestic product, a reflection of how the broader U.S. economy fared in the third quarter. Also, the Conference Board will offer results from its December consumer confidence survey.Wednesday will bring a weekly update from the Labor Department on applications for jobless benefits, a proxy for U.S. layoffs.In Europe at midday Germany’s DAX edged 0.1% higher, while the CAC 40 in Paris slipped 0.2%. Britain’s FTSE 100 was unchanged.In Asian, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 was flat at 50,412,87 and the dollar fell against the Japanese yen after officials in Tokyo warned they would intervene if the yen weakened further.The dollar traded at 155.95 yen, down from 157.04 yen late Monday. Instead of gaining after the Bank of Japan raised its key policy rate on Friday, the yen had weakened, drawing the usual objections from the Finance Ministry to larger than usual currency fluctuations.“The hint of currency intervention proved to be such a serious threat that the yen, which had been significantly oversold after the Bank of Japan meeting, rose from the ashes,” Alex Kruptsikevich of FXPro said in a commentary.The euro climbed to $1.1797 from $1.1762.Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gave up early gains to fall 0.1% to 25,774.14. The Shanghai Composite index edged 0.1% higher, to 3,919.98.South Korea’s Kospi added 0.3% to 4,117.32. Shipbuilder Hanwha Ocean’s shares jumped 12.5% after President Donald Trump said it would help build a new class of U.S. battleship at the Hanwha Philly shipyard.The S&P/ASX 200 in Australia jumped 1.1% to 8,795.70.In Taiwan, the Taiex advanced 0.6%, while India’s Sensex was nearly unchanged. Elaine Kurtenbach and Matt Ott, AP Business Writers
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E-Commerce
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