I think he's on to something for education, too. There's an inherent sort of non-monotonicity in the admissions process: you want to admit the "best" students in order to make up the "best" class and give them all the "best" college experience, but even if you could somehow omnisciently rank the best 250 or 500 or 1000 applicants and accept from the top of the list, you would lose so much in heterogeneity (which is, I think, part of a good education) that it would no longer make up the "best" class or experience. (Of course you have problems if you admit too many from the low end, too, but that's why you put weights on the random process. :)
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I think he's on to something for education, too. There's an inherent sort of non-monotonicity in the admissions process: you want to admit the "best" students in order to make up the "best" class and give them all the "best" college experience, but even if you could somehow omnisciently rank the best 250 or 500 or 1000 applicants and accept from the top of the list, you would lose so much in heterogeneity (which is, I think, part of a good education) that it would no longer make up the "best" class or experience. (Of course you have problems if you admit too many from the low end, too, but that's why you put weights on the random process. :)