Comments | academics_anon: The enemy of education has a name. It's Peter Thiel, and he's giving away $100,000* to make a point.

sensaes in academics_anon

The enemy of education has a name. It's Peter Thiel, and he's giving away $100,000* to make a point.

May 31, 2011 23:32

"Universities and colleges are thought of as incubators of big ideas, places where students in labs or classrooms not only learn but think thoughts that end up changing the world. Then, there are the people who say higher education is overrated. Entrepreneur and venture capitalist Peter Thiel is one of them. He has deep pockets as a result of ( Read more... )

academia-in-the-media, general-musings-on-academia

Comments 26

chatnoire May 31 2011, 23:49:17 UTC

And then what happened?

goose_entity May 31 2011, 23:57:40 UTC

Thiel vanished up his own backside in a puff of arrogant self-satisfaction?

sensaes June 1 2011, 00:00:00 UTC

That's probably where he keeps the cash.

goose_entity June 1 2011, 00:18:15 UTC

Nicely played :D

(The comment has been removed)

chatnoire June 1 2011, 01:15:30 UTC

The thing is, that's now what he's talking about in the article or interview at all. I *heard* the interview the first time it aired. He doesn't say that everyone should do this. He doesn't say that no college ever is a good idea. He has very specific development examples, and he isn't a "self-made" man - he went to school, and even law school. He just has an idea on entrepreneurship, and has the money to offer to students who want to take up that idea.

When people like senseless Sensaes post this hand wringing, angst inducing crap without any real context, reference or commentary, it's about as useful as an RSS feed for getting a full sense of the day's news if you don't click through.

coendou June 1 2011, 19:59:02 UTC

That sounds much more interesting. Not everyone needs a bachelor's, not even everyone who is easily capable of getting one. If this guy wants to set up an alternate pathway for certain types of people to pursue (or just make it easier to do so), good for him.

sensaes June 1 2011, 07:35:42 UTC

Although the baggage is mostly tacked-on hyperbole, Thiel's underlying mindset (as evidenced in the interview and his Foundation's promotional literature) is quite interesting. There's more than an element of causal frustration bubbling away beneath the faux optimism, but it seems oddly unfocused and non-specific.

knut_hamson June 1 2011, 01:14:48 UTC

I know lots of people who ditched school, and nobody gave them a dime to do it. I see no problem with this.

max_ambiguity June 1 2011, 01:31:36 UTC

I know people who've gotten money to start their own business from a bank. What he's doing is no different. I kind of doubt he'll be any less discriminatory than they are. Will anyone really be surprised if people given the money to start their own business are more successful at doing so than those who aren't?

trundle June 1 2011, 02:01:58 UTC

I like university education, obviously, and I enjoyed my own experiences with it. But he's right -- it's not for everyone, and it does sometimes stifle creative development.

vlion June 1 2011, 02:16:13 UTC

Thiel has a BA and JD from Stanford. Seems to have done pretty well with his...education.

Thiel's view is hugely popular in the web programmer space, because it's relatively easy to put together a web application without formal training. There are a lot of self-taught people in the software world. I can dig up and find provide various citations from that world upon request.