Think Tank

Long-form research on the systems that move revenue, leadership, and value.

Long-form research papers on the systems behind revenue, leadership, education, and economic value. Some commissioned by clients and released with permission. All published for public reading.

Think Tank · April 2026

The Education
Three Cs

By Christopher Schafer · April 2026 · ~24 min read

The Education Three Cs

Curiosity. Communication. Confirmation. Why the skills schools were never built to teach are now the only ones that matter.

The education system rewards what AI now does for free and under-rewards what AI cannot do at all. This paper argues for reorganizing primary, secondary, and post-secondary education around three teachable inputs: Curiosity, Communication, Confirmation. The HELP Operating System provides the operating plan that makes them teachable, observable, and assessable inside a classroom.

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EducationAIHELP

Think Tank · April 2026

Canada’s
Value Capture
Gap

By Christopher Schafer · April 2026 · ~28 min read

Canada’s Value Capture Gap

Why we ship our resources out and buy them back at ten times the price, and what to do about it.

Canada exports raw materials and imports the finished goods made from them. Automation has collapsed the labour-cost case for offshore manufacturing, but policy hasn’t caught up. This paper makes two arguments: first, that Canadians can’t have an honest conversation about industrial policy until they can see what is actually happening with our resources, and second, that Canada needs a value capture strategy comparable to what Indonesia, Sweden, South Korea, and Norway have used.

Long-form research on the systems that move revenue, leadership, and value.

The Education Three Cs

Canada’s Value Capture Gap

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