http://www.slate.com/id/2271265/ I don’t get why the author is so appalled by Thiel’s idea.
I read it, and I don’t know why I can’t make any sense out of it. Only thing that’s clear in this article is that writer loathes Thiel, can’t figure out why and what he’s trying to prove!
The article is about Peter Thiel’s perceived contempt towards societal and moral convention. The author assumes that Peter Thiel’s award is a way to encourage students to say “F you” to educational establishments. I disagree with this conclusion. It seems like Peter Thiel is trying to encourage smart people to take more risks to pursue their ideas.
its his money and instead of blowing it on more cars, houses and jets, he is doing crazy stuff.
But personally I think Zukerberg et al are proving bad examples for kids. I’ve seen some people I know starting an “internet start up” straight out of college, for which they had no idea/plan about how they are going to generate revenue, and business model is some alien thing to them. But, they think their idea will bring the sweeping changes, they have no idea about how that will happen, or if that’s possible. To me it feels disturbing and funny at same time when people write (in their linked in profile) in their skills/expertise as, “youth” (yes, seen it), “blogging”, “social media”, “entrepreneurship”, and yes “climate change”, “social investing”, yes yes… “networking”, and what not. I mean, I don’t know if it’s just me to whom it seems that someone who is writing “social media” or “climate change” in expertise has no idea about it, unless he/she is a big shot. And “blogging”, what the f**k man, is it a real skill. I mean this is mediocrity at best. I’m not against starting a business right after college, the whole point is about these internet startups, it seems like madness stretching too far, killing many many careers.
Blogging can be well paid. Social media marketing can be a skill, if you have done something there. Climate change awareness is more like what you are interested in, however it can be a profession, as climate strategy, even climate strategy and securitization. Networking is a skill, however I wouldn’t put it there unless you are famous for that, or a professional networking coach. Youth, well. I’ve seen in the other thread that there are professional designations which include “senior” in them. Youth marketing, that be. Entrepreneurship sounds fine to me.
Hmmm… No point discussing!
Bernanke Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Hmmm… No point discussing! Don’t hate the playa, hate the game. I know a guy who’s a multimillionaire right now and he started out by creating Southpark fan pages. Tell me how many Ivy league grad Goldman analysts have that kind of net worth out of school? Bill Gates dropped out in 1975, did you see that as a bad example and changing society? Zuckerberg is just one really really smart dude.
adehbone Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Bernanke Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > Hmmm… No point discussing! > > > Don’t hate the playa, hate the game. I know a guy > who’s a multimillionaire right now and he started > out by creating Southpark fan pages. Tell me how > many Ivy league grad Goldman analysts have that > kind of net worth out of school? > > Bill Gates dropped out in 1975, did you see that > as a bad example and changing society? Zuckerberg > is just one really really smart dude. That’s the point. Bill gates had a solid product in which he invested a great deal of effort, more importantly he had a solid business plan, he wasn’t shooting arrows in the dark. He’s a good inspiration. He dropped out after he had the product and the plan, his risks were very smartly calculated. But Zuckerberg, may be extremely smart, was shooting in the dark, luckily it hit the bulls eye, that isn’t a good inspiration. And there was social networking funding madness that was going on at that time, I don’t know if VCs have same taste for social networking ventures now after millions of Zukerberg wannabees made their investments illiquid. That was a time, which is past now, that’s the whole point!
^ Entrepreneurship for the sake of entrepreneurship is madness, like Japanese say “Vision without action is daydream, and action without vision is nightmare”
the problem with colleges and universities is that there are too many of low quality. thiel offering the brightest students 100k is not going to help the real problem, which is the student loan system. it should be as simple as this. make school so expensive that you either have to get a partial scholarship to consider (they would be a larger % of total tuition), you’re rich off your wagon or you just don’t go to school. the issue doesn’t lie with individuals who are smart enough to go get a reputable professional degree or a quality masters/phd/jd, it lies with those who get a degree and then do administrative/McD work that did not require said degree. he should be paying the dumbest students 5-10k towards their college tuition rather than paying 100k to the brightest students towards builiding a business they likely would have built anyway. they’re both idiots.