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Peter Thiel Gives Whiz Kids $100K To Quit College, Start Businesses

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Re: Peter Thiel Gives Whiz Kids $100K To Quit College, Start Businesses

#11

Post by _delirium »

I'd be somewhat more interested in a program like this if it were being run by someone I believed actually wanted in good faith to improve education/business, rather than having ulterior political motives. Thiel is quite open that his main motivation is that he thinks universities promote politics he dislikes, so he'd like to destroy them for that reason. He also claims that in doing so he'd improve education, but it seems like a secondary motivation. My guess is that he would be willing to accept education even getting slightly worse as a tradeoff, if it got rid of the negative influence (in his view) of universities for libertarian politics.

(See Woz and Salman Khan for examples of education reformers who seem to have education reform as their actual #1 goal.)

edit: Of course, as full disclosure I'm in academia, so perhaps have my own ulterior motives. =] But honestly I think Salman Khan's approach is a bigger threat to the higher-education status quo than Thiel's is, mainly because it's much more scalable. So from a pure self-interest point of view I ought to dislike that one more!

Re: Peter Thiel Gives Whiz Kids $100K To Quit College, Start Businesses

#12

Post by hugh3 »

daimyoyo wrote: post #2

This feels ageist to me. I'm 30 and I am getting the feeling that even though I am more than willing to work 100+ hours a week for my idea, my age condemns me. I'm washed up before I even had the chance to get started. It's important to remember that not everyone starts their business before they can drink legally.

So what's stopping you? Do you need a hundred thousand before you can proceed any further? At the age of 30 you'll have a much easier time with the traditional angel funding slash venture capitalist route than a nineteen-year-old kid would.

Re: Peter Thiel Gives Whiz Kids $100K To Quit College, Start Businesses

#13

Post by dinkumthinkum »

Doesn't seem like that much money to quit college over. You could just go get a job I guess and make that in a couple years or less, if these are really the "whiz kids." Also, I'm sure these kids are very smart but some of those ideas look extremely lofty. Are these kids really at that level in their education and is 100K really even close to enough money to fund a 1-man research lab? I'm just a bit skeptical.

Re: Peter Thiel Gives Whiz Kids $100K To Quit College, Start Businesses

#14

Post by daimyoyo »

rick888 wrote: post #4
daimyoyo wrote: post #2

This feels ageist to me. I'm 30 and I am getting the feeling that even though I am more than willing to work 100+ hours a week for my idea, my age condemns me. I'm washed up before I even had the chance to get started. It's important to remember that not everyone starts their business before they can drink legally.

You don't need funding to get your idea off the ground. If you are 30, you probably have a better credit score than these guys and can more easily get a traditional loan.

Although I'd love to fund my idea using my credit, the fact is that the sins I'd committed in college follow me today. I literally can't finance a toaster. Is that a black mark on my profile? Perhaps. But I don't think I should live in a permanent state of poverty simply because I blew off a few cards years ago.

Re: Peter Thiel Gives Whiz Kids $100K To Quit College, Start Businesses

#15

Post by szany »

_delirium wrote: post #11

I'd be somewhat more interested in a program like this if it were being run by someone I believed actually wanted in good faith to improve education/business, rather than having ulterior political motives. Thiel is quite open that his main motivation is that he thinks universities promote politics he dislikes, so he'd like to destroy them for that reason. He also claims that in doing so he'd improve education, but it…

Source?

I hope you're not implying that the point of the Fellowship is to destroy academia.

Re: Peter Thiel Gives Whiz Kids $100K To Quit College, Start Businesses

#18

Post by hugh3 »

Tichy wrote: post #6
neebz wrote: post #3

I am seriously lost in terms of innovation. You may give kids money and they'll open up their Lemonade bars but how can you expect innovation without any research? And research without any education? I can't fathom any kid dropping out and then inventing a satellite? or solve any medical problem? And if they don't innovate then how can they even think of ways of bringing it to the consumers (which is the difficult ne…

All I know is that I certainly did not invent any satellites or solved any medical problems while at university. Instead I tried to collect points in an artificial game system.

Really? That's unfortunate.

I spent my first three years at university learning complicated sciencey shit until knew enough to be set free on real research problems; then I spent the rest of my time doing research.

Re: Peter Thiel Gives Whiz Kids $100K To Quit College, Start Businesses

#19

Post by szany »

dinkumthinkum wrote: post #13

Doesn't seem like that much money to quit college over. You could just go get a job I guess and make that in a couple years or less, if these are really the "whiz kids." Also, I'm sure these kids are very smart but some of those ideas look extremely lofty. Are these kids really at that level in their education and is 100K really even close to enough money to fund a 1-man research lab? I'm just a bit skeptical.

The 100K is meant for living expenses. Getting outside funding is encouraged (just not a job). A lot of these kids are frighteningly smart, and yeah some of the ideas are very lofty (asteroid mining!) and probably will change in time, but pivoting is also encouraged. Also bear in mind that Thiel is offering access to an astounding network of mentors, which for the lofty projects is even more valuable than the money.

Re: Peter Thiel Gives Whiz Kids $100K To Quit College, Start Businesses

#20

Post by jeffool »

dmazin wrote: post #16

These kids' parents must hate Thiel. What does this guy know about what's good for their futures?

To read the article, a bunch of these kids seemed to have already decided to leave school. Though I'm sure you're absolutely right about some.
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