
Why I Left the Thiel Fellowship for Quora - gailees
http://lucyguo.quora.com/Why-I-left-the-Thiel-Fellowship-For-Quora?share=1
======
_qc3o
Hmm, the essay does sound like it was written by a 20 year old indeed.
Unfortunate then that she is maximizing learning by going to Quora. What
exactly is she going to learn at Quora? The industry has very little to offer
in terms of learning unless you are in the top echelons of Google's,
Microsoft's, and Facebook's research divisions. Most software and product
engineering is mundane drudgery and even if there is room to learn and grow
you still have to deal with workplace politics, credit stealing, jealousy,
etc. All those things are detrimental to learning.

Within the first 3 months she is going to learn everything there is to learn
about Quora. By her own admission she will then move on to the next learning
experience until one day she will realize academia is the only place that true
learning happens.

~~~
CaveTech
What a horribly depressing view of engineering culture.

I've dealt with very little politics, credit stealing, and jealousy as a % of
my time since joining the workforce. They definitely exist, but to say they're
so bad that they prevent you from learning is laughable.

I still find opportunities to grow and learn on a weekly basis. I don't work
at one of the worlds top research divisions, but that's never stopped me from
improving/developing myself.

~~~
dkarapetyan
Most work is what you make of it but don't fool yourself into thinking that
you are going to learn and grow at an optimum rate in an industrial setting.
Your emotional reaction to the reality of the situation does not change the
fact that learning is maximized in an academic setting.

~~~
CaveTech
With what end goal? I could also never leave a library, ever, and maximize my
learning that way. And I'd die alone and inexperienced. Of course there's some
give and take...

I trade my "pure learning" opportunities to be able to still grow and develop
while earning an income that empowers me to live my life as I desire. I get to
solve real world problems and challenges, rather than open ended ones.

I'm not trying to take anything from academics, but the most useful result
will always come from a combination of academia and business. Neither would
exist without the other, and there's and endless amount to learn from either
side.

~~~
dkarapetyan
Any end goal. The fact that there are no distractions to purely pursue a
specific goal is what makes an academic setting special. There are no managers
and business specialists hovering over every single decision being made.

~~~
icebraining
That doesn't jive with everything I've read - some of which here on HN - about
universities. Grants, tenure, cost-cutting by administrators, ego, are all
said to be sources of politics and distractions. And teaching, of course. Are
they wrong?

~~~
dkarapetyan
They are not wrong. If I were to go back then the situation for me would be
quite different. If your intent is to go for a tenure track position then you
have to put up with all sorts of stuff but if your goal is to learn and write
a thesis with the intent of going back to industry then you'll have a much
easier time. The usual teaching and class load is easy to handle and you don't
have to worry about grants and all the other stuff especially if you have a
bit of savings.

The difference is between maximizing tenure-track job prospects vs learning.
Surprisingly those two goals can sometimes be at odds and that is usually what
you hear about on HN. People that were trying to maximize for both learning
and future job prospects inadvertently running up against academic
bureaucracy. If you have a clear goal then you'll have a much easier time.

------
logn
_Grinding is okay and sometimes necessary for a startup, but it was during
this time that I realized I was not passionate about ours._ ...

 _I tried convincing myself that "changing people’s behavior and making
delivery the default way to get food" was a mission important to me. That
revelation along with the fact that my learning had slowed meant that it was
time to quit._

If that's really your feeling, you should be in college. Any job is like this.

~~~
fossuser
It might be that 'making delivery the default way to get food' is just an
uninteresting goal to dedicate your life to working on.

I'm unconvinced Quora is much better.

------
drawkbox
It is rare to get one infinitesimal chance (CMU), then another (Thiel
Fellowship), and move on from both. She is either a genius or squandering
opportunity.

Opportunities can become what you make them if you go all in, hopefully she is
doing that at Quora, there are only so many opportunities in life.

~~~
logicallee
>She is either a genius or squandering opportunity.

what a ridiculous meme. I guess if it works out we should praise her and if it
doesn't we should lambast her. you know, for being a genius or squandering
opportunity, respectively.

~~~
maaku
I would lambast anyone who leaves a top-tier university for the Thiel
fellowship, regardless of whether they are financially successful or not.

~~~
edanm
Why?

------
ahmacleod
"However, we continued our attempts at possibly making our product work but by
mid-February, we realized that we were grinding through our days. Grinding is
okay and sometimes necessary for a startup, but it was during this time that I
realized I was not passionate about ours."

Five months in, grinding is pretty much the job. Everybody’s passion wanes
when faced with (potentially) years of hard work. It’s legit to decide you
don’t want that for yourself, but it’s sad to see someone abandon a viable
funded business.

As an aside, I dislike the criticism “doing a startup for the sake of a
startup.” It implies that someone needs a special calling, and provides an
easy out in the absence of one. “Starting a business thinking it looks easy,”
might be closer to the truth.

------
bhayden
I find it odd that anyone respects Quora when they do the horrifically
annoying bullshit of hiding answers to questions you Google until you log in.
They also require you to log in to view their front page (coming from Google)
which is another extremely annoying trend. They are a step below Yahoo Answers
in my opinion.

------
zeeshanm
I think passion is a function of success. If you are not seeing any signs of
"success" it is really easy to lose "passion." I think if you keep a bigger
picture in focus and can bare the pain from short-term failed experiments
things will work out in the future. And a good thing is you can make decisions
to change your direction. :)

------
bambax
From Thiel Fellowship to Quora??

If you've never heard the phrase "from charybde to scylla", now is the time to
look it up.

------
mathattack
I'm trying to figure out if I find the focus on Learning refreshing or self-
centered. I've worked with a lot of folks who optimize their lives around
short term money and title. A focus on Learning will help grow both in the
long term, and it is good to work with curious people. Is the highest level a
commitment to customers, team and mission? Will someone optimizing for
learning drop those three at the first sign of a shiny new toy?

------
cafebeen
Either college has gotten way less fun or Quora is a lot more fun than other
tech companies

------
jak0bbbb
I am little sad that she choose to accept her fellowship just for the sake of
doing a startup. She probably took the spot of someone really interested in
making a difference rather than hanging out at mundane events, branding
yourself as "thiel fellow and startup CEO".

Good luck to her but that kind of people make me sick to my stomach.

~~~
kzhahou
Sick to your stomach? Such outrage!

Thiel Fellowship is all about startup-for-startup's-sake. The premise is you
get more out of startup than school, or joining a company. Now this person
decided Nope, I followed a lame idea with no huge biz potential, and it's time
to get out. Kudos for NOT sticking to the startup for its own sake!

Maybe Thiel, with his experience, could have seen that food delivery is an
insanely hard operations challenge?

~~~
jak0bbbb
I am not sure how familiar you are with the Thiel fellowship but the
application process is designed to make sure that applicants think twice about
what they want to accomplish. You can't realistically get accepted without
convincing the admission committee that you are not this kind of person.

If she made it to the fellowship she must have lied on her intentions to be an
Entrepreneur. Don't be naive.

She gamed the system, fair enough. Let's just not pretend that all of this
happened by chance and that she did not know what was going on.

~~~
loopyz
Hi! Id just like to clarify a few things:

a) I have never actually introduced myself as a Thiel Fellow because I didn't
want to immediately be associated with the stereotypes that come along with
the title. It's not on my resume nor my LinkedIn.

b) I completed my application the night it was due. I told the foundation &
mentors it was rushed. They noticed this too because my responses were pretty
incomplete.

c) I had full intentions, and still do, of becoming an entrepreneur and
working on my own startup. However, I don't think now is the time. I thought I
had all the skills I needed, but I realize that I have a lot more to learn. In
a few years, I'll be much better equipped. I also need time to come up with
something I'm _really_ passionate about. There are lots of successful startups
that solve first world problems, but I don't think I can dedicate the rest of
my life to one.

~~~
dang
Thank you for posting so admirably level-headed a response! I wish all HN
users would respond so well when treated poorly.

Best of luck going forward, and please feel more than welcome to participate
in Hacker News discussions.

