Peter Thiel Gives Whiz Kids $100K To Quit College, Start Businesses • Hacker News Board

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

#21

Post by hugh3 » Wed, May 25, 2011, 2:31 PM UTC

skidooer wrote: post #10

kiteaton wrote: post #7

Tricky, tricky. Because sometimes you need the training that a degree (or even advanced degree) gives you to come up with certain high tech notions...

Oftentimes preconceived notions about tech will cloud your vision on implementation. If you are aware of a certain challenge, you will, more often than not, change your design to simplify the challenge. Someone without the experience will not be bound by those limitations and can always figure out how to do it later. When we look to high profile businessmen, more often then not they do not have the education behind t…

There are a few successful businessmen with no or very limited higher education... but they're quite few. You'll find more CEOs with PhDs than with high school diplomas.

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

#22

Post by [deleted] » Wed, May 25, 2011, 2:31 PM UTC

guynamedloren wrote: post #5

The statement about Thiel requiring these kids to 'stop out of college' is slightly disingenuous when many received college degrees before they could legally drive a car. Nevertheless, as a recent college graduate I think this is a fantastic idea, and I'm excited to see how everything turns out.

[deleted]

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

#23

Post by szany » Wed, May 25, 2011, 2:34 PM UTC

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.

It's ageist only because it's targeting college students before they accumulate tons of student loan debt.

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

#24

Post by arn » Wed, May 25, 2011, 2:37 PM UTC

daimyoyo wrote: post #14

rick888 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

so then it's not your age that's condemns you, but your credit score.

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

#25

Post by edanm » Wed, May 25, 2011, 2:38 PM UTC

While I somewhat agree with the whole "degrees aren't always a good idea" meme, this feels like something of a "stunt" by Thiel. Taking people who are so incredibly smart and giving them money is an interesting concept, but it sure won't prove much about whether Universities are a good idea for us "ordinary" people.

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

#26

Post by skidooer » Wed, May 25, 2011, 2:39 PM UTC

hugh3 wrote: post #21

skidooer wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oftentimes preconceived notions about tech will cloud your vision on implementation. If you are aware of a certain challenge, you will, more often than not, change your design to simplify the challenge. Someone without the experience will not be bound by those limitations and can always figure out how to do it later. When we look to high profile businessmen, more often then not they do not have the education behind t…

There are a few successful businessmen with no or very limited higher education... but they're quite few. You'll find more CEOs with PhDs than with high school diplomas.

CEOs are often hired into the position, so there may be some educational bias. What would be interesting by this discussion is how many of those CEOs were founders of the company?

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

#27

Post by larsberg » Wed, May 25, 2011, 2:40 PM UTC

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.

You definitely missed an opportunity. My first year, I volunteered without pay in a research lab just to see what was going on, and then by the second through fourth years I was contributing to actual research.

Of course, it's not entirely clear that I was more help than hindrance to the group until midway through my third year, but I certainly learned a lot and got a lot of mentoring you can't get via youtube and e-books :-)

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

#28

Post by krasmark » Wed, May 25, 2011, 2:45 PM UTC

szany wrote: post #15

_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.

I'm not sure this is exactly a source, but this article by Thiel tends to imply that he thinks the system is pretty broken : http://www.cato-unbound.org/2009/04/13/peter-thiel/the-educa.... And then Thiel has talked about the education bubble (links on HN previously, too) : http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2431431.

Thiel is definitely pro "different" from the current system.

I think the idea of promoting more entrepreneurial activities earlier is great, but it seems very anti-university/higher ed in his vision rather than as an alternative path.

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

#29

Post by alexandros » Wed, May 25, 2011, 2:53 PM UTC

_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…

"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."

[citation needed]

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

#30

Post by inthewoods » Wed, May 25, 2011, 2:54 PM UTC

edanm wrote: post #25

While I somewhat agree with the whole "degrees aren't always a good idea" meme, this feels like something of a "stunt" by Thiel. Taking people who are so incredibly smart and giving them money is an interesting concept, but it sure won't prove much about whether Universities are a good idea for us "ordinary" people.

Yes, I agree - smart people like this are likely to succeed in any context. I suppose you could make the argument that their success will likely be heightened by the involvement in the program because of the connections they'll make - but the program doesn't really prove or disprove the idea that the system works or doesn't work. In my opinion, he'd be better off taking a group of kids that are perhaps borderline college material and training them.