School and real-world problems are structurally different

School problems and real-world problems aren't just different in difficulty — they're different in kind. The habits that work in one actively mislead you in the other.

Dimension	School	Real world
Problem definition	Crisp, pre-stated	Vague, self-discovered
Success metric	Single (letter grade)	Many, often unknown
Performance ceiling	Low (A+)	Orders of magnitude (lives changed)
Execution guide	Rubric provided	None

"Help people in sub-Saharan Africa solve their money problems" has no rubric. You don't know what all the success dimensions are, let alone which matter most. Reading the question carefully and optimizing for the stated metric isn't a strategy here — there's no stated metric.

The gap isn't skill. It's that school never asked you to define the problem, prioritize the dimensions, or figure out what success even looks like.

Source claim: Real-world problems are structurally unlike school problems, making school-trained habits actively counterproductive.