Posted on 04/12/2011 6:10:39 AM PDT by Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus
Fair warning: This article will piss off a lot of you.
I can say that with confidence because it’s about Peter Thiel. And Thiel – the PayPal co-founder, hedge fund manager and venture capitalist – not only has a special talent for making money, he has a special talent for making people furious.
Some people are contrarian for the sake of getting headlines or outsmarting the markets. For Thiel, it’s simply how he views the world. Of course a side benefit for the natural contrarian is it frequently leads to things like headlines and money.
Consider the 2000 Nasdaq crash. Thiel was one of the few who saw in coming. There’s a famous story about PayPal’s March 2000 venture capital round. The offer was “only” at a $500 million-or-so valuation. Nearly everyone on the board and the management team balked, except Thiel who calmly told the room that this was a bubble at its peak, and the company needed to take every dime it could right now. That’s how close PayPal came to being dot com roadkill a la WebVan or Pets.com.
And after the crash, Thiel insisted there hadn’t really been a crash: He argued the equity bubble had simply shifted onto the housing market. Thiel was so convinced of this thesis that until recently, he refused to buy property, despite his soaring personal net worth. And, again, he was right....
(Excerpt) Read more at techcrunch.com ...
I think his point is that Harvard grads are successful more because of the abilities they had to show in order TO GET IN, rather than due to what they learned while they were there.
Bill Gates is a successful guy who went to Harvard -- but he never got past his sophomore year, correctly judging that taking advantage of business opportunities in the computer area was a better idea than going to class.
Which is why they are a benchmark.
And my point is, is that if a kid was able to get a certificate at 18 that he passed the Harvard entrance criteria, and companies were able to set hiring conditions to recognize that in their hiring decisions without running afoul of the EEOC, that kids could go into corporate "fast track" programs at 18 INSTEAD OF going to college, while doing distance-learning through the company, and come out way ahead in total lifetime achievement.
Absolutely false. The root construct of education is to contribute to the "body of knowledge." It's not run like a business....and it should not be. Not everything needs to be corporate funded applied research.
Thiel's solution: Pick the best twenty kids he could find under 20 years of age and pay them $100,000 over two years to leave school and start a company instead.
It's his money...that's great. But when the next tech bubble dries up, these students will have no funding and no degree. Good experience, perhaps. Reminds me of the NFL...after the big leagues so many athletes go broke.
Thiel: he’s arguing everyone should be an entrepreneur
Yawn. So is every b-school in the US.
counter narrative on programs like CNBC and in papers like the Wall Street Journal
I don't think so. The only time they turned sour on the housing market was when it was too late. By then, everyone knew about it...the scammers were long gone at the point the MSM reported on the bubble.
Thiel makes broad generalizations with nothing to back it up. For long term earnings, a college degree is still valuable (for most people).
Best advice I didn't hear Thiel say: learn a trade, then get a college degree.
Nah. Just saying you met the criteria for getting in won’t give you the same cache. Nevermind the friends you won’t make while not there. Anyway, any certificate program that wants to can try to duplicate the requirements of Harvard and offer a cert. and see what it’s worth. Won’t be worth a Harvard degree, that’s for sure.
Ain't THAT the truth! I wish they taught trades in public school instead of a lot of the dumb stuff they do teach. I'd be better off knowing heating and cooling plus basic math than I would be not knowing a useful trade, but knowing advanced math.
Author of this piece went to liberal arts school Rhodes College. Notice her handle "sarahcuda"
Excellent.
If everyone were an entrepeneur, who would they hire? Robots? Service animals?
Plumbing, heat/cooling, electric. in 2007 i knew an independent dump truck driver making over $200k...he admitted it was a high water mark...but still - CDL and willingness to work.
Some of the most respected people in my line of work (engineering) went into the military first.
With the economy the way it is now many who graduate even with grad school are not going to find work in their field for years to come if ever. Hubby says out of the past 50 people hired where he works most of them have degrees.Some even found jobs in their field but did not make enough to pay their loans and live.There are many professions out there tht pay well will always be needed and do not take a 4-8 year degree.Plumbers,electricians,car mechanics are but a few examples.
Thanks for the info! I hav a very gifted nephew who is in the 5th grade and tells everyone that he will go to Harvard someday. Nice to know that it might actually be possible.
I’ll not read the article, however, can one imagine Galileo, Pasteur, Franklin, Rockefeller, Van Gogh, Monet, Degas, etc., in one of these institutions of today?
Everything you wrote. I have no reason to take it on faith that what you've said is anything more than your own, uninformed, opinion. Sorry.
Oh, I agree. Harvard can do what they like. I just think it's time that we step in and change the paradigm.
You are incorrect on one thing you said earlier - the situation with the Ivies has not always been this way. There was a time, way back when, when you primarily got in based on merit and industry, rather than because you were the scion of an alumni family. It was in those days that we saw a governing class that was actually worth the name.
But, as the English used to say in the 17th century, the quality of our nobles has degraded.
It isn't my opinion that the financial aid estimators at these schools give the results they give. You can go to the schools’ sites and check them for yourselves. If you don't, you're trafficking in unsubstantiated rubbish.
The bottom line is, if you can qualify academically for these schools, if they will admit you, then they will go a far way to make sure that your family can afford to send you there, and thus, most folks don't pay the sticker price.
As for the folks who go to these schools, you can check the SAT scores for yourself, the average GPAs, etc. These schools attract the very top students, and few of them are rich enough to pay a “Harvard Number.”
Have you ever met anyone who has a degree from an Ivy League school? I have. My alma mater (where my sons currently attend high school) regularly turns out a few each year. These kids are usually from upper middle class families, but not rich kids. Not families that can afford $50K per year and more. They're kids who are getting large grants of financial aid. Again, go check it out for yourself. Go to the schools’ websites, find the financial aid calculators, and put in sets of numbers.
That's not my “uninformed opinion,” that's the representation the schools make for themselves.
If you wish to say that they're liars, well, then you may so assert.
But that would be just that, an assertion. Of your own uninformed opinion.
sitetest
Dear sitetest,
Sorry, but you’ve still not given me any good reason to credit you with anything.
Cheers.
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