

Thiel Fellow Says He’s Not Welcome At His Former College - ted0
http://betabeat.com/2013/02/thiel-fellow-says-hes-not-welcome-at-his-former-college-dale-stephens-20-under-20/

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Irishsteve
The article says

“The response, basically, was ‘You are not welcome here. We do not want you to
come back, at all. We are not interested in engaging, and steer clear,’” said
Mr. Stephens. ”I was just amazed that Hendrix was, like, so opposed to this
idea of even engaging in a conversation two years later,” he added.

Whomever reached out to the press office of the college was told the following

"Asked for comment, Hendrix spokesperson told Betabeat, “While we regularly
invite and promote speakers on a variety of topics that are relevant to our
academic program to campus for the benefit of our students, past and present,
faculty, and the community, Hendrix does not provide a venue for individuals
to promote personal projects.”

I can't see anything to indicate he is unwelcome. He couldn't give the exact
reason why they would not let him present his work (Which is obviously
disappointing).

The article title is misleading.

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mturmon
Right. It's OK to have a book tour, but it's not OK to gripe when you aren't
given a venue of your choice to promote your book.

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moocow01
There seems to be a gaggle of people who have popped up somewhere within the
intersection of entrepreneurship, online startups and lately education that
seem to effectively be self-help "experts" in disguise. In some ways it feels
like the social networking experts have found a new outfit.

The thing that feels a bit smarmy about it is how a lot of these folks pitch
tech entrepreneurship to inexperienced people as some form of paradise where
you just listen Seth Godin, finish codecademy, setup an iphone app and a life
of abundance falls from the sky. Perhaps I have this guy wrong but I think its
a trend that is pretty disingenuous. Colleges need to figure out how to
compete and realign their pricing thats for sure but the learn to code, slap
together an app, learn some web buzzwords and go pitch people is not exactly
much of a real alternative education. Perhaps its Silicon Valley's vision but
it seems to be more self serving than the traditional education industry of
today.

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strlen
That's what I'm seeing too. I support Thiel's ideas in general (and have
worked with and can vouch for at least one Thiel Fellow), but this case
appears to be a guy dropping out of college... to promote dropping out of
college. I am not saying this is actually the case, but it seems looks like
this -- I don't see as much substance in what's posted on the guy's site(s).

It might make sense for Thiel to limit the number of fellows who pursue the
"write a self-help book" strategy (limit, however, rather than exclude) --
otherwise this becomes quite similar to MLMs, where more money is made from
selling "business education tools" (books, lecture CDs) to MLM participants
rather than by actually selling the product. If the said fellow is reading
this: please don't view this post as an attack, merely as a suggestion on how
to better tailor your message.

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breakyerself
The guys acheivements seem to be entirely based on the fact that he's a Theil
fellow. Unschooling worked for him because he goes around getting paid to give
lectures on the merits of unschooling. It reminds me of the success guru's
who's entire success comes from telling people how to be successfull. It's
like a self help ponzi scheme. Not saying the school is being reasonable. Just
that this dude doesn't seem to have actually accomplished anything.

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spartango
Another Thiel fellow (2012) here.

I've had largely the opposite experience from Dale; I'm currently on leave
from Harvard, but still maintain strong ties with faculty members and other
members of the Harvard community. They are excited about what I'm working on,
and provide guidance and assistance as they can.

I've also maintained contact with the administration of the university, and
had a great conversation with its president last year. On the whole, I find
that Harvard's been quite supportive.

Frankly, I find Dale's comments here rather unhelpful and frustrating. Some of
the fellows maintain good relations with their universities, and some intend
to return when the time is appropriate. I very much dislike the idea of
burning bridges with universities, and this article seems to taunt to them.

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doktrin
The institution does not appear to be in the wrong, here. I'm a little
confused as to why this gentleman feels he should be entitled to take his self
help book tour to his (kinda sorta) alma mater.

In any event, what are his accomplishments? I would tend to think that if he
had something substantial to offer, he might stand a better chance of being
invited to speak. As Steve Martin once quipped, _"be so good they can't ignore
you"_. Clearly, this guy is quite ignore-able.

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eduardordm
If someone is trying to disrupt the very core of your business probably you
won't like them nowhere near you.

Stephens shouldn't be surprised.

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rhizome
His rationale is highly self-serving, bordering on disingenuous:

 _"I was just amazed that Hendrix was, like, so opposed to this idea of even
engaging in a conversation two years later,” he added."_

Pulling condescending word games about what he's doing as "a conversation."
"Hey man, _I just want to talk_." Well no, and this tack is practically
straight out of the book, "The Gift of Fear."

 _"It got me thinking that this had nothing all to do with Hendrix and
everything to do with the way the entire system is designed."_

Ah, see? It's not just Hendrix, but the entire system. Nothing personal, you
see.

If this is how people learn to act under the Thiel umbrella...

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dyno12345
It's not how they learn to act, it's what the program selects for - skill in
bullshit artistry.

I've met two or three few Thiel fellows - smart people who were very good at
presentation and toastmasters 101 cheap public speaking tricks, and whose
aggrandized claims often turned into a shrug whence I asked for specifics.

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jmduke
The site in question, UnCollege: <http://www.uncollege.org/>

Three of the top four headlines have the word 'hack' in their name.

His bio reads:

"He founded UnCollege in January 2011 because we are paying too much for
university and learning too little."

Ugh.

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gailees
I think it's fair that they are interpreting his visit as promotion of a
personal project. If he had asked them to simply engage in discourse on the
future of higher education, but with his book release and his for-profit,
Uncollege, I can totally see why this looks like self-promotion...because IT
IS!

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jiggy2011
So, you have a girlfriend and she leaves you for some other dude. Then several
years later she calls you and wants to come over for the purposes of telling
you how much better he is?

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scott_s
I recommend reading the comments.

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iyulaev
+1

For those too lazy to click, an excerpt

 __ _Having had the "honor" of attending class with Mr. Stephens, I would not
say that this rebuff is uncalled for. It is one thing to hold a contrary
opinion, it is another to act on the matter that Mr. Stephens consistently
did: snobbery. [...] It is not as if Hendrix's opinion is not well known to
Mr. Stephens, due to the dramatic and attention crazed way he departed the
campus._ __

It sounds like he has quite a reputation there.

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icambron
Not endorsing the guy's ideas (at all), and obviously Hendrix College doesn't
particularly owe him anything, but I thought this was interesting:

> Hendrix does not provide a venue for individuals to promote personal
> projects.

I don't see how it's more of a personal project than any other project being
advocated for by a person, which includes just about everything. I think they
mean to imply it's unserious or hobbyist in a way other
speakers/advocates/whatever are not. The actual merits of his ideas aside, it
seems reasonably serious, organized, and "real". Are they sure they don't just
think it's a "personal project" because he's so young?

