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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

#31

Post by szany »

There seems to be a common misconception about the purpose of the Thiel Fellowship. Two things the Fellowship is not claiming to do:

1) Testing the hypothesis that university is bad

2) Testing the hypothesis that university is not worth the cost for the vast majority of people

What the Fellowship might plausibly be doing:

1) Testing the hypothesis that university is not worth the cost for people like the Thiel fellows

The actual motivation of the Fellowship, which is all over the press and has been related to me by Thiel Foundation workers, is that students with great potential accumulate tons of student loan debt in college and subsequently, instead of taking on projects that might actually help the world, are financially pressured into working at hedge funds and the like. The Fellowship is offered to these students as a two year break to attempt these projects supported by 100K for living expenses and, crucially, extensive mentorship.

Again, the point is not to discredit universities, but to keep talented kids away from hedge funds (ironic coming from Thiel but there you have it).

Edit: Also note that a failure of the Thiel Fellowship project does not disprove the education bubble in general, since it only applies to a very small group of people.

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

#32

Post by szany »

krasmark wrote: post #28
szany wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 en…

See my comment here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2584159

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

#33

Post by hugh3 »

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 don't think Thiel is naive enough to think that anything you can do with twenty people and two million dollars will "destroy" academia, but he does seem to have an agenda and the desire to prove a point.

The point, however, is silly. Cherrypick the twenty brightest students you can find, give 'em a bunch of money and all the connections that come from having Peter Thiel invested in your success, and I'm sure that a lot of 'em will do well. But that doesn't scale.

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

#34

Post by thedaveoflife »

Great minds will go on to do great things no matter if they go to college or not, but you should start a business because you are passionate about a product or service, not because a billionaire entrepreneur is bribing you to do so.

This program could very well be successful, but I would argue the participants would have gone on to do great things regardless of thiel’s invovlement.

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

#35

Post by cfinke »

> And yet another scored 5580 on the SATs (on a total of 5 tests, but still).

So he averaged 1116 on the SATs? Even before the switch from a 1600-point test to a 2400-point test, there's nothing impressive about that except that he bothered to take the SATs five times.

> Faheem Zaman has shot the moon on nearly every SAT test he’s ever taken: 5580 points across 5 tests.

Clearly I'm missing something...

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

#36

Post by jeffool »

For the record, I'd love someone to cook up a blog and keep tabs on these people and their endeavors. Hell, I've got half a mind to do it myself, if only I knew more about the startup world.

Of course, that said, I'm curious if one of the things they'd suggest is "keep the media a good distance away until you're ready." I imagine so.

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

#37

Post by grammr »

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…

There are definitely different magnitudes of innovation. There's innovation in terms creating new products and services that people will pay for, and there's innovation that nudges the entire human race forward a little bit.

The scientists and engineers who enable the first manned mission to Mars will not be college dropouts.

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

#38

Post by ryanisinallofus »

Would the reaction be as mixed here if it was PG doing it? Because YC in effect does the same thing right?

I enjoyed my college experience and as the first ever college graduate in my family I wouldn't do anything different. Colleges provide something far more beneficial than the shot at FU money.

That said, some people are better off dropping out or never going at all. I'm highly suspect of learning how to be an Entrepreneur in a college setting and guess something like YC is probably better for that.

I think of YC as almost a trade school for start ups but it still doesn't replace college. I wonder how many successful start uppers go back to college later? Any of you? Like Shaq and Troy Polamalu? :)

And I guess that school-like vibe is why YC is better than simply dropping out and taking 100k. Even if you fail, you still get the YC experience to help you with your next venture.

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

#39

Post by [deleted] »

cfinke wrote: post #35

> And yet another scored 5580 on the SATs (on a total of 5 tests, but still). So he averaged 1116 on the SATs? Even before the switch from a 1600-point test to a 2400-point test, there's nothing impressive about that except that he bothered to take the SATs five times. > Faheem Zaman has shot the moon on nearly every SAT test he’s ever taken: 5580 points across 5 tests. Clearly I'm missing something...

[deleted]

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

#40

Post by Birejji »

cfinke wrote: post #35

> And yet another scored 5580 on the SATs (on a total of 5 tests, but still). So he averaged 1116 on the SATs? Even before the switch from a 1600-point test to a 2400-point test, there's nothing impressive about that except that he bothered to take the SATs five times. > Faheem Zaman has shot the moon on nearly every SAT test he’s ever taken: 5580 points across 5 tests. Clearly I'm missing something...

SAT Subject Tests: 800 pts * 4 = 3200

Actual SAT Test: 2380

Total: 5580

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