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Students: You Are Probably Not Mark Zuckerberg, So Stay In School

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31–40 of 69 posts

Re: Students: You Are Probably Not Mark Zuckerberg, So Stay In School

#31
post #30
post #4

One commonality between many successful dropouts like Zuckerberg and Gates is that they dropped out to do something specific, not because they were too lazy or undisciplined to finish. Had the right opportunity not come along, I suspect many celebrity dropouts would have cruised to graduation.

why did steve jobs drop out?

To figure out who he was and what he wanted in life.

Re: Students: You Are Probably Not Mark Zuckerberg, So Stay In School

#32
post #4

One commonality between many successful dropouts like Zuckerberg and Gates is that they dropped out to do something specific, not because they were too lazy or undisciplined to finish. Had the right opportunity not come along, I suspect many celebrity dropouts would have cruised to graduation.

That's an interesting point (re: doing something specific) which applies not just to college students. The truth is once you have clarity and vision, what ever it is you are doing seems like poor usage of your time. Having said, it's not easy arrive at that kind of clarity or vision.

One can argue that there is no clarity of vision involved. Rather, for every individual like Gates who gets lucky with a good business opportunity, there may be many equally qualified individuals who do not get a lucky break with a good idea.

It is always assumed that success and failure in business corresponds directly to skill. I doubt this assumption and suspect luck has a lot to do with it. Once you get your first success earning you several million, many doors open to you.

Re: Students: You Are Probably Not Mark Zuckerberg, So Stay In School

#33
It's a fallacy that one should avoid ambitious choices because few succeed at them. On average the odds of starting a successful startup are low, but the reason that's so is that it's an average of a few people for whom the probability of success is high (not 100%, but still high considering the risks) and a large number for whom it's practically zero.

I suppose in a sense he's doing students a favor with this article, because the ones who don't perceive the fallacy are probably the ones with a low chance of succeeding.

Re: Students: You Are Probably Not Mark Zuckerberg, So Stay In School

#34
post #27

Students: You are probably not Mark Zuckerberg, so pay $200,000 to put up with old-fashioned syllabi and badly-designed courses employing poor methods of evaluation and professors who do their best to make feel as mediocre as possible!

The thing is, you are mediocre.

So what? Why live your life with that perspective? There's absolutely nothing good coming out of having the belief that you are mediocre, notwithstanding whether you actually are or not.

Re: Students: You Are Probably Not Mark Zuckerberg, So Stay In School

#35
post #12

Students: You are probably not Mark Zuckerberg, so pay $200,000 to put up with old-fashioned syllabi and badly-designed courses employing poor methods of evaluation and professors who do their best to make feel as mediocre as possible!

Those that can do, those that can't, teach, and those that can't teach get tenure. If this guy was an econ professor at least he would know he was just talking his book. You don't need a symposium on entrepreneurship you need to sell stuff at a higher price than you bought it to paying customers. Thats it, it's a sentence not a 2 year degree program.

Those that can do, those that can't, teach, and those that can't teach get tenure.

This is an extremely ignorant and insulting statement. Further, you have just asserted that the worlds best minds, and many of histories great figures, are all incapable fools. I hope you realize how this statement makes you look.

Re: Students: You Are Probably Not Mark Zuckerberg, So Stay In School

#36
post #30
post #4

One commonality between many successful dropouts like Zuckerberg and Gates is that they dropped out to do something specific, not because they were too lazy or undisciplined to finish. Had the right opportunity not come along, I suspect many celebrity dropouts would have cruised to graduation.

why did steve jobs drop out?

http://news.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html "all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it."

Re: Students: You Are Probably Not Mark Zuckerberg, So Stay In School

#37
post #4

One commonality between many successful dropouts like Zuckerberg and Gates is that they dropped out to do something specific, not because they were too lazy or undisciplined to finish. Had the right opportunity not come along, I suspect many celebrity dropouts would have cruised to graduation.

I like to think of it as they went out and made the opportunity happen for themselves instead of waiting for the opportunity to present itself.

Yes and no. Gates had a large amount of experience with programming in an era where most people had not seen a computer, and had very wealthy parents who supported him dropping out. Now you may argue that he "made the opportunity" by convincing his parents that this whole software thing was a good idea, etc., but the reality is that he was born at the right time, in the right place, with the right set of parents, etc. This is not to lessen what he did: he grabbed the opportunity by the tail. He did no less than any other wildly successful entrepreneur. But for a vast majority of college students out there, the resources and experiences he had at the time are untouchable. To use an analogy: you can have all the willpower, drive, motivation, etc. to move the world, but you still need that damn big lever.

Re: Students: You Are Probably Not Mark Zuckerberg, So Stay In School

#38
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing is, you are mediocre.

So what? Why live your life with that perspective? There's absolutely nothing good coming out of having the belief that you are mediocre, notwithstanding whether you actually are or not.

The consequences are that if you don't understand this and drop out of school to become a programming rockstar, you might be in rough shape... which I believe was the point of the article.

Re: Students: You Are Probably Not Mark Zuckerberg, So Stay In School

#39
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amen. Whereas graduate studies in certain disciplines can help advance your career, the basic undergraduate curriculum has become increasingly useless. Work experience is what counts for more than anything. Ideally you would attend a reasonably priced institution with good teachers and be given enough time to explore independent projects - business ideas or artistic pursuits depending on what your interests in life a…

"basic undergraduate curriculum has become increasingly useless" Why do you think that has happened? From my perspective (I graduated over 20 years ago) things like CS degrees seem to have been tried to become far more directly useful by becoming rather more like vocational training than pure academic subjects. [NB I'm largely interested because I have a son who is starting to think about what he might do at Universi…

Well I think the problem is the way the job market has changed, not the way that the curricula have changed; they've remained remarkably static. It used to be that if you had a college degree in something you could get an entry level position in... something. Nowadays you have to have had some sort of vocational training in that field. If you have a degree in history there aren't many fields that applies to. And the problem in C.S. isn't that C.S. programs aren't teaching advanced algorithms well, it's that all the job listings want you to know RoR. Computer science != programming, as my C.S. Ph.d. friends like to frequently point out. You could (theoretically) get a graduate degree in C.S. without ever opening your text editor, if you're into proofs and the like.

Re: Students: You Are Probably Not Mark Zuckerberg, So Stay In School

#40
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"basic undergraduate curriculum has become increasingly useless" Why do you think that has happened? From my perspective (I graduated over 20 years ago) things like CS degrees seem to have been tried to become far more directly useful by becoming rather more like vocational training than pure academic subjects. [NB I'm largely interested because I have a son who is starting to think about what he might do at Universi…

Well I think the problem is the way the job market has changed, not the way that the curricula have changed; they've remained remarkably static. It used to be that if you had a college degree in something you could get an entry level position in... something. Nowadays you have to have had some sort of vocational training in that field. If you have a degree in history there aren't many fields that applies to. And the…

"You could (theoretically) get a graduate degree in C.S. without ever opening your text editor, if you're into proofs and the like."

Other than to edit your LaTeX document files, or course! :-)

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