Don't Glorify Dropping Out
theatlantic.com
Don't Glorify Dropping Out
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Re: Don't Glorify Dropping Out
#2With all due respect, Peter Thiel doesn't encourage everyone to drop out. He thought that college is indeed suitable for probably a great majority of young people.
Re: Don't Glorify Dropping Out
#3This man offering the scholarship to 'stop-outs' won't instantly make the university system collapse.
If I had a great idea and an investor was $100k confident in the monetization of it, I would probably drop out, too. The author's whole premise is that dropping out is universally bad and should be discouraged, and that staying in school is universally good. Neither are true.
The article also misses the point: Where might we be if some of the 'usual celebrity dropouts' hadn't dropped out? What if they had said, "I'll get a real job first, then work on my idea." The world might look very different.
Non-Ph.D. entrepreneurs and academics can peacefully coexist.
EDIT: I concede to gxti that my statement about the author's premise is false. I stand by my other opinions: The scholarship is a neat idea and will not convince most people to drop out.
Re: Don't Glorify Dropping Out
#4College is broken.
Anyone who paid and went for 4 years, knows its an inefficient use of time and money.
What we need to do is stop glorifying college.
Re: Don't Glorify Dropping Out
#5This man offering the scholarship to 'stop-outs' won't instantly make the university system collapse. If I had a great idea and an investor was $100k confident in the monetization of it, I would probably drop out, too. The author's whole premise is that dropping out is universally bad and should be discouraged, and that staying in school is universally good. Neither are true. The article also misses the point: Where…
The article also misses the point: Where might we be if some of the 'usual celebrity dropouts' hadn't dropped out?
I don't think the article misses the point. He never says Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg should never have dropped out. He's just saying that dropping out should be rare. For the vast majority of people, it's not the right thing to do, financially. The "right people" will ignore all the discouragement and drop out anyway. People like Sergey Brin & Larry Page will drop out, with or without Thiel's investment.
"It's better to discourage than to encourage dropping out, so that it's done only for compelling reasons."
Re: Don't Glorify Dropping Out
#6Speaking as a high school drop out, I wouldn't recommend it for the vast majority of people. College is useful for the people you meet as much as the education you receive.
That said, in Silicon Valley, a few companies on your résumé, a single high profile company and/or a major achievement is more than enough to compensate for a lack of education.
Outside of Silicon Valley? Well that's another story.
Re: Don't Glorify Dropping Out
#7If you drop out, you can always "drop in" again. People drop out all the time for all kinds of reasons, then go back a year or two later and finish.
Re: Don't Glorify Dropping Out
#8College is broken. Anyone who paid and went for 4 years, knows its an inefficient use of time and money. What we need to do is stop glorifying college.
It would be amazing if there was similar financial support and culture around some other structured success environment - imagine $100,000 to spend learning a craft? You could become a god in four years of concentration, not worrying about a career.
Re: Don't Glorify Dropping Out
#9This man offering the scholarship to 'stop-outs' won't instantly make the university system collapse. If I had a great idea and an investor was $100k confident in the monetization of it, I would probably drop out, too. The author's whole premise is that dropping out is universally bad and should be discouraged, and that staying in school is universally good. Neither are true. The article also misses the point: Where…
The article also misses the point: Where might we be if some of the 'usual celebrity dropouts' hadn't dropped out? I don't think the article misses the point. He never says Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg should never have dropped out. He's just saying that dropping out should be rare . For the vast majority of people, it's not the right thing to do, financially. The "right people" will ignore all the discouragement a…
> People like Sergey Brin & Larry Page will drop out, with or without Thiel's investment.
That is probably precisely the part that Thiel disagrees with you about. Who knows how many would-be Brins and Pages couldn't afford the risk?
Re: Don't Glorify Dropping Out
#10[deleted]