The View | Why simplicity is the solution to the world’s complex problems

Here is my contrarian tip for preparing kids to compete in the modern knowledge economy: raise ‘em dumb. They will get richer and may help prevent world war three.

This seems, on the surface, an unreasonable approach. The modern world is increasingly complex, and the knowledgeable and intelligent have an economic edge. Thus the entire parenting and educational infrastructure is geared towards making the next generation as smart as possible.

The latest advice from cognitive psychologists is that we start reading to kids – as infants. Give them simple puzzles by one year. Ask “what if” questions to encourage abstract thinking and expose them to multifaceted narratives. If they ask why the sky is blue, let them know that it has to do with molecules in the air scattering blue light more than red.

Raising excruciatingly clever kids has been a successful strategy for the past few generations. These are the types of kids who could breeze through one of those physics-blender questions to get a job at Google.

A generation previously, your whizkid may have worshipped, for example, at the altar of Efficient Market Theory. The math behind EMT is impressively rigorous and complex, giving followers a feeling of superiority and exclusivity.

But these days the EMT’s math is mocked as stardust that blinded followers from the obvious: that markets aren’t always efficient at all.