http://www.slate.com/id/2271265/
The ultimate disrespect for the American university system comes in the form of paying students NOT to go to school. Jacob Weisberg (chairman and editor-in-chief of the Slate Group) chronicles in his 10/16 article (attached) what Peter Thiel has decided to do with some of his fortune: the Thiel Fellowship will pay would-be entrepreneurs UNDER 20 $100,000 in cash to DROP OUT of school.
What a concept!
In announcing the "program," Thiel made clear his contempt for American universities which, like governments (according to him), cost more than they're worth and hinder what really matters in life: starting tech companies. His scholarships are meant as an escape hatch from those "... insufficiently capitalistic institutions of higher learning."
Thiel has a profile: he was the first outside investor in Facebook, putting up $500,000 to finance the site's original expansion in 2004. And, that deal buys him a brief on screen character appearance in the plot of "The Social Network."
According to Weisberg, Thiel has a "big vision" and has been spending the millions he has made from PayPal, Facebook and a hedge fund called Clarium trying to advance it. Weisberg goes on: "Thiel's philosophy demands attention not because it is original or interesting in any way ... but because it epitomizes an ugly side of Silicon Valley's politics."
Thiel's belief system is based on unapologetic selfishness and economic Darwinism. His most famous quote (borrowed from Vince Lombardi) is: "Show me a good loser and I'll show you a loser." His "personal statement" produced last year for the Cato Institute was: "I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible."
Our thought here is that Thiel should, indeed, go someplace else if he feels that freedom and democracy aren't compatible. And, if he doesn't see that the same $100,000 grants from his foundation would be better used giving a young adult a "chance" to go to college (when that person would otherwise not have that chance), then he's missing his own best possibility of making a contribution to mankind.
Compare Thiel's philosophy to what Gates and Buffet are doing with their foundations. The money they're investing in Africa is saving lives.
GG, Jr. comes up short. We're guessing Vince Lombardi would have thought so too.
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I agree, with one caveat. Thiel is trying to turn all these students into the next Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, or Mark Zuckerburg, who all dropped out of college to found visionary tech companies. The problem with this is that those three entrepreneurs had their ideas while in college. Steve Jobs said in his commencement speech at Stanford (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc, definitely worth watching), that he discovered things like typography, art, and design in a few semesters at Reed college. Opening his mind to those things is what allowed him to better understand design, which is what helps him push the envelope in tech today. Zuckerburg developed Facebook while at college. They all left college for a "better" opportunity. Not everyone can do this - the majority of entrepreneurs have something to learn from college. Most entrepreneurs are really older, the concept of the 20 year old founding his own multi-million dollar company is very rare. You're better off having the safety net of college. Plus, you'll never have more free time than you do during your undergrad. If you're an entrepreneur, that's the time to learn and bootstrap a company - it's also the easiest time to fail, you probably don't have a family to feed and a mortgage to pay.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I still think this doesn't address some of the issues with our higher education system. Charlie, your classes aside of course, I think our universities are sometimes filled with professors who don't really want to teach. It's hard to be engaged when someone just shows up, reads off a few powerpoint slides (usually prepared by the textbook publisher) and isn't overly invested in their students. They're really there to do research, because that's what academics want to do.
In MHP, we were lucky to be surrounded by professors who loved teaching and wanted to give back to their students, but not all students are lucky enough to have this.
Regardless, your college education is what you make of it, and there's no reason why as a student entrepreneur you can't bootstrap a company and make some money. Our Entrepreneur program at UTD is full of students who have done this. Even Mark Cuban, when he spoke at UTD, gave this advice.
Marcelo: great comments! I totally agree with everything you've said here. Overall, we need to upgrade education from K thru 12 and at the university level. "Incenting" drop outs is just the height of "ignorance!"
ReplyDeleteYou all are overreacting. No significant amount of people cares about this guy.
ReplyDeleteEntrepreneurship almost always requires industrial expertise gained through years of experience working at companies, which require a 4 year college degree.
Josh: it's always refreshing to hear a different take on what we write or say. Thiel is unique and different which is why we think he is interesting. We disagree with your perspective on a four year college degree since people like Jobs, Gates or Zuckerberg (and others) did not finish college before their entrepreneurial success. But, they are the "Outliers." What "Entrepreneurship" requires is a creative idea that has a practical market niche and the necessary capital to get it started.
ReplyDeleteAnti-intellectualism is a scary thing.
ReplyDeleteCraig: great point! My thought is that Thiel will start his own cult on the planet Mars and then freeze himself to await a thaw in 1,000 years.
ReplyDelete