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Eric Schmidt is working to launch a university

businessinsider.com

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Re: Eric Schmidt is working to launch a university

#51

Post by ideals »

bluedevil2k wrote: post #43
ghaff wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a federal commission that Schmidt co-chairs. >haven't built universities like Stanford, Duke, Cornell etc. I assume the answer is that they generally find that it makes a lot more sense to give oodles of cash to their alma mater or some favored school to get your name on a building and/or really beef up a department than to try to found a new school which would likely take decades to establish any sort of reputa…

You're underestimating the egos of billionaires and how they love winning compared to other billionaires. A name on a building is nice. A name on a university that's mentioned with Duke and MIT...now that's something you can brag about. The owners of NBA teams - all billionaires, most willing to lose money year-to-year in order to win and beat the other billionaires. The women's basketball league in Russia - teams ow…

Owning sports teams was cool last decade, now it's about having your own space company to really separate yourself from the other billionaires

Re: Eric Schmidt is working to launch a university

#52

Post by ghaff »

bluedevil2k wrote: post #43
ghaff wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a federal commission that Schmidt co-chairs. >haven't built universities like Stanford, Duke, Cornell etc. I assume the answer is that they generally find that it makes a lot more sense to give oodles of cash to their alma mater or some favored school to get your name on a building and/or really beef up a department than to try to found a new school which would likely take decades to establish any sort of reputa…

You're underestimating the egos of billionaires and how they love winning compared to other billionaires. A name on a building is nice. A name on a university that's mentioned with Duke and MIT...now that's something you can brag about. The owners of NBA teams - all billionaires, most willing to lose money year-to-year in order to win and beat the other billionaires. The women's basketball league in Russia - teams ow…

>A name on a university that's mentioned with Duke and MIT...now that's something you can brag about.

That's the rub though, isn't it. I'm not sure even Bezos has money that would be needed to pull that off over, say, a 10 year horizon. MIT has almost a $20 billion endowment to give some idea of the sorts of money flows we're talking about here. To say nothing of the fact that they already have the faculty, physical plant, reputation, etc.

Re: Eric Schmidt is working to launch a university

#54

Post by tehlike »

jonwachob91 wrote: post #22
x87678r wrote: post #9

> funnel tech workers into government work Government work doesn't pay well, so it will never be as prestigious as Stanford or MIT. EDIT - previous title had the headline part where it said it will "rival Stanford and MIT"

Not everything in the world can be measured by pay. Sure, an FBI Criminal Profiler earns a tiny fraction of what a google dev earns. But one can take serial killers off the street, and the other just makes ads more annoying. A Social Worker earns almost nothing, but they get to help the most needy of people get the help they need. A FB engineer earns 10x the pay, but just makes ads more annoying. A teacher earns almo…

"the other just makes ads more annoying"

The meme that never dies. Advertising funded tons of tons of businesses on apps and on web, employed hundreds of thousands directly and created a large economy.

Disclaimer: Former google, current facebook employee, working in ads.

Re: Eric Schmidt is working to launch a university

#55

Post by throw_m239339 »

Jtsummers wrote: post #39

Interesting. I don't see the point, though. The issue with the US government and software is not a lack of talent (within the country, or even within the government itself). But a poor structuring and assigning of responsibilities and a severely risk-averse culture, paired with the overreaction of a risk-accepting culture occasionally showing up and fucking it all. There is, or will be, sufficient talent in the US to…

> The issue with the US government and software is not a lack of talent (within the country, or even within the government itself). But a poor structuring and assigning of responsibilities and a severely risk-averse culture, paired with the overreaction of a risk-accepting culture occasionally showing up and fucking it all.

Bureaucracy in a nutshell. I wonder if there is a single country the western world where it is actually efficient...

Re: Eric Schmidt is working to launch a university

#56

Post by bpodgursky »

Upvoter33 wrote: post #47
curiousllama wrote: post #31

This will fail not because it's a bad idea, but because the government will reject it. Contrary to popular belief, established universities do a very effective job of preparing tech talent for government jobs. The issues, which Schmidt seems to miss, are twofold: (1) the government, with few exceptions, is a TERRIBLE place to build effective tech skills. Slow, heavily outsourced, bureaucratic beyond belief, and low p…

"(1) the government, with few exceptions, is a TERRIBLE place to build effective tech skills. Slow, heavily outsourced, bureaucratic beyond belief, and low paid, there is very little creativity and variety in which to build unique technology, and no reward for the BS." Strong claim; links or citations to back it up? (Not necessarily doubting you, but it sounds a bit like a right-wing talking point, and hence I ask) Y…

I think the null hypothesis is more useful here; assume that NOWHERE builds tech skills until otherwise demonstrated.

What you see: a bunch of tech startups founded by ex-Google, ex-FB, ex-Amazon employees.

What you never see: hot tech startups founded by ex-government bureaucrats

At very best/worst, you get beltway contractors who have "skills" at extracting money from the government. Those contractor firms NEVER end up selling back to private industry, because they have nothing to offer.

I think that this is one of those cases where "citation needed" is a way to avoid the blindingly obvious truth of the statement. No, we haven't done a controlled experiment on the government vs private enterprise in skill creation. Sometimes you have to use common sense and obvious experience.

Re: Eric Schmidt is working to launch a university

#57

Post by tehabe »

I remember a story that Leland Stanford asked what is needed to found a university and the answer was 200 million dollars. What they didn't tell him, that it also takes 200 hundred years.

Universities are a longterm project, if a university is good or not, is something you don't really realise while you are there but when you are finished and try to use your knowledge.

Re: Eric Schmidt is working to launch a university

#58

Post by korla »

brlewis wrote: post #50
ghaff wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could argue that we could use better schools or schools that have more of a focus on subjects needed by a modern workforce. But there's no real shortage of colleges and universities. Yes, existing universities come with lots of legacy entanglements (which can be good as well as bad) but for the most part you're probably better off investing in those schools than tearing down and starting from scratch on a prairie…

When a school rejects qualified applicants because there are too many, doesn't that indicate a shortage of that kind of school?

No, it might indicate a lack of demand for that particular qualification.

Re: Eric Schmidt is working to launch a university

#59

Post by bluedevil2k »

ideals wrote: post #51
bluedevil2k wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're underestimating the egos of billionaires and how they love winning compared to other billionaires. A name on a building is nice. A name on a university that's mentioned with Duke and MIT...now that's something you can brag about. The owners of NBA teams - all billionaires, most willing to lose money year-to-year in order to win and beat the other billionaires. The women's basketball league in Russia - teams ow…

Owning sports teams was cool last decade, now it's about having your own space company to really separate yourself from the other billionaires

These guys have so much money they can own both

Re: Eric Schmidt is working to launch a university

#60

Post by knzhou »

brlewis wrote: post #50
ghaff wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could argue that we could use better schools or schools that have more of a focus on subjects needed by a modern workforce. But there's no real shortage of colleges and universities. Yes, existing universities come with lots of legacy entanglements (which can be good as well as bad) but for the most part you're probably better off investing in those schools than tearing down and starting from scratch on a prairie…

When a school rejects qualified applicants because there are too many, doesn't that indicate a shortage of that kind of school?

No, because school prestige is a positional good. This is like saying you can address the shortage of Olympic gold medals by just manufacturing tons of them.
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