[Blackhawk]

Four years ago, billionaire entrepreneur Peter Thiel announced the Thiel Fellowship, a two-year start-up accelerator for young science and tech prodigies. The program awards 20 kids under age 20 $100,000 each to pursue world-changing innovations and businesses. The one caveat: They have to drop out of school to get it. (source)

Working for $50k a year for two years in a tech incubator and building work experience seems smarter than wasting time on credentialism and hoping you might somehow get a job afterwards.

[Old Fritz]

Peter Theil is a cool dude. Very invested into many different things.

[Collide]

If you're interested Peter Thiel and Charles Murray debate that too many kids go to college here.

[Troll King]

I have to say that I keep getting annoyed by all this stuff targeting youngsters. I am a millennial, and yeah I will go ahead and say that I probably did waste a lot of years doing stupid shit but c'mon. How much farther are we gonna go? I can kinds of see something like a Field Medal, but even that is somewhat preposterous in that you have to have actually invented new math before the age of 30, but now we are talking about people who can't even drink legally.

All this really does is provide something trendy for these people with power. Maybe I am just a bit jealous, but I seriously doubt that most of these people are going to make it big. But, even if they do. What happens then? They will still end up wasting years of their life, cause we know it won't end at 20 and presto they are millionaires, for some one else to be able to take their ideas and put into reality.

I dunno, I guess I see the value but it still screams of some sort of trendy SWPL scam.

If these types are so interested in actually helping them then what is the harm in waiting 5 more years??? Oh wait, surely they aren't worried that at 25 or so they may not be as connected to the youth demographic as they are at 16 or 18 or even 20???

Also, how much can most 20 yr olds have to bargain with or bring to the table. I have known a few rare geniuses in that age range and they, by-and-large, are just as immature as other kids in their age range. Maybe not to the same extent but not far off either.

I don't know. I just don't understand the constant push for younger and younger these days. It seems like every month or so I read about someone doing something amazing, but then I realize that the only amazing thing about it is that they did it at a younger age than normal. Why is this supposed to be so great? If anything, it seems that a better choice would be to open the programs up to anyone. Who knows, maybe some 80 yr old grandpa has the next big thing sitting in their shed but no one knows because we are only interested in finding some 12 yr old girl who will create the next microchip or cure cancer.

/rant over

[Cattle Rustler]

The thing they don't say.....this program is aimed at smart kids, not your football player or average joe.

The kids were going to top school and are now able to work in their personal projects, network, and not be broke.

The program is not a tech incubator, and it's stated early on the application. It can whatever you want to work on.....robotics, healthcare, tech, etc

[monster]

(09-05-2014 05:25 PM)Cattle Rustler Wrote:  

The thing they don't say.....this program is aimed at smart kids, not your football player or average joe.

The kids were going to top school and are now able to work in their personal projects, network, and not be broke.

The program is not a tech incubator, and it's stated early on the application. It can whatever you want to work on.....robotics, healthcare, tech, etc

Exactly.

Most people should stay in school. Only a very few self-starters should drop out of school.

It's interesting that most of the people who say, "Kids should drop out of school to achieve something" or high-achieving, motivated self-starters who would do well whether or not they stayed in school. I think less than 1% of the population has this level of talent, and I think it's wrong of them to generalize that everyone else is like them.

[Feisbook Control]

(09-05-2014 11:39 AM)Collide Wrote:  

If you're interested Peter Thiel and Charles Murray debate that too many kids go to college here.

I remember watching that video a year or more ago. The Indian guy is really frustrated during the entire debate and he is clearly extremely butt hurt when Murray and Thiel win.

[Cattle Rustler]

(09-05-2014 07:32 PM)monster Wrote:  

(09-05-2014 05:25 PM)Cattle Rustler Wrote:  

The thing they don't say.....this program is aimed at smart kids, not your football player or average joe.

The kids were going to top school and are now able to work in their personal projects, network, and not be broke.

The program is not a tech incubator, and it's stated early on the application. It can whatever you want to work on.....robotics, healthcare, tech, etc

Exactly.

Most people should stay in school. Only a very few self-starters should drop out of school.

It's interesting that most of the people who say, "Kids should drop out of school to achieve something" or high-achieving, motivated self-starters who would do well whether or not they stayed in school. I think less than 1% of the population has this level of talent, and I think it's wrong of them to generalize that everyone else is like them.

Pretty much, it reminds me when people say "Oh, well Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg dropped out of college".........they dropped out of Harvard, not Bumfuck State University!

I applied for it since I could graduate by 20 and still apply for the program. Then I read the profiles of people who were part of it, they're a cool and smart bunch.....they'll make it in life. Nonetheless they're really passionate about their causes and aren't into partying much as they spend their time fundraising and networking, along with learning from their mentors.

[puckerman]

Peter Thiel is the only billionaire who is actually doing anything worthwhile. I'm so glad he's out there.

We've had lots of successful people who made it with very little schooling. In fact, they made it because they realized that life was their education.

[Cattle Rustler]

(09-06-2014 12:12 AM)puckerman Wrote:  

Peter Thiel is the only billionaire who is actually doing anything worthwhile. I'm so glad he's out there.

We've had lots of successful people who made it with very little schooling. In fact, they made it because they realized that life was their education.

Pretty much, smart people get bored and realize they don't need schooling so they drop out and do their own thing. Others just audit the courses they need.

I know a couple of folks who are work 3M+, one of them never graduated from college, another has a bachelors, and the other is an alcoholic PhD from Cambridge

[Jack198]

(09-05-2014 11:51 PM)Cattle Rustler Wrote:  

(09-05-2014 07:32 PM)monster Wrote:  

(09-05-2014 05:25 PM)Cattle Rustler Wrote:  

The thing they don't say.....this program is aimed at smart kids, not your football player or average joe.

The kids were going to top school and are now able to work in their personal projects, network, and not be broke.

The program is not a tech incubator, and it's stated early on the application. It can whatever you want to work on.....robotics, healthcare, tech, etc

Exactly.

Most people should stay in school. Only a very few self-starters should drop out of school.

It's interesting that most of the people who say, "Kids should drop out of school to achieve something" or high-achieving, motivated self-starters who would do well whether or not they stayed in school. I think less than 1% of the population has this level of talent, and I think it's wrong of them to generalize that everyone else is like them.

Pretty much, it reminds me when people say "Oh, well Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg dropped out of college".........they dropped out of Harvard, not Bumfuck State University!

I applied for it since I could graduate by 20 and still apply for the program. Then I read the profiles of people who were part of it, they're a cool and smart bunch.....they'll make it in life. Nonetheless they're really passionate about their causes and aren't into partying much as they spend their time fundraising and networking, along with learning from their mentors.

This is the rub - Theil is targeting people who already have the ability to go to the best schools in the country. So, they could either drop out and experiment with Theil and probably do ok, or they could finish their degree at the Harvard/Yale/Stanford and then go do their thing, while bragging about how they turned down Theil and his SWPL trendy thing.

I think the real challenge for Theil would be to take average Joes and make the same pitch. If you can show that an average Joe doesn't need anything more than motivation and connections to make his way in life, that is a more convincing message than offering alternatives to the kids who don't need them. Anything Theil could do to demonstrate that four years spent at Bumfuck University majoring in Hospitality Management (the most popular major nowadays, by the way) would be huge in disproving the middle class drivel about how everybody needs a college degree and the mountain of debt that goes with it.

College for the sake of college is more about the ego of the parents than it is about preparing the kid for the challenges of life.

[Beyond Borders]

(09-06-2014 12:12 AM)puckerman Wrote:  

Peter Thiel is the only billionaire who is actually doing anything worthwhile.

[Jack198]

Roosh was right when he said nerds would rule the world.

Theil kind of said the same thing, recently.

"Thiel, whose $500,000 investment in Facebook netted a $1 billion return, added, “I’ve come to think of tech, and the tech industry, as one of the best ways for people to impact our world today. It’s not actually clear that making money by itself gets you that much impact. There’s no shortage of money; there is a shortage of ideas. That’s what’s much more valuable in our world.” "

Maybe the nerds are already ruling the world....