"Uncle Eric's" primary point is about models and their importance. Early in this transcript of his speaking notes, he conveys what a model is and how underused they are in education, policy evaluation, and personal decision making.

Models are refined through evidence and doing. The more important the topic, the more evidence one should require. He cites Austrian economics as an example of a model he accepts over the Keynesian and monetarist views so prevalent in policy debate. Regarding history, he points out that it would be much better taught as a series of models involving higher law vs. common law. Instead it is taught as a disjointed set of facts and dates. Regarding career, his main point is that the employee model was only successful from about 1900 to 1970, based on accumulated capital in advance of the more rapid pace now enabled by technology. He claims that teaching children to be employees is probably teaching them to fail in the future. ( )