

David Karp Quit School to Get Serious About Tumblr - wyclif
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/21/technology/david-karp-quit-school-to-get-serious-about-start-ups.html

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socillion
You could say I'm the flip side of the "drop out of high school and make a
million bucks" coin, although I'm not giving up yet. I dropped out of high
school 2 years in due to a confluence of factors (primarily boredom and some
family issues that resulted in me entering foster care.)

My perspective is that the academic aspect of high school is nearly worthless
for the long tail of people who have above-average intelligence. What _is_
valuable is the social interaction with peers and other extra-curricular
activities. You can get most or all of those activities elsewhere, but it's
harder. Additionally, if you have plans of attending a prestigious college you
may have more trouble getting in with a GED - although a reasonably high score
guarantees admission to a lot of state schools.

Unfortunately I wasted any potential gain by spending a few years not doing
much of anything except playing video games - in hindsight, probably due to
depression.

Currently I'm taking college classes and working independently on some
projects; I'd be happy to answer most questions.

~~~
yardie
This is a more recent occurrence in schools. From my experience, the best
place to be to be stimulated was school. But with budget cuts it's getting
harder to keep students interested, period. When I started middle school we
had a fully equipped science lab, week long camping trips to the everglades,
snorkelling, scuba, sailing and computer camps at various universities. All
paid for by the taxpayers. By the time I graduated highschool the money had
dried up through budget cuts and those programs were shuttered.

My old, college roommate worked in the admissions office told me exactly why
they don't bother with GED applicants. If you are that smart you are supposed
to be doing college prep courses. Getting a GED means you might be smart but
probably lazy. And they have no shortage of smart, college ready students
applying. If you didn't immediately enrole into community college after
getting your GED you're cooked. It also means you don't have any of the
minimum requirements (4 years english, 4 years math, physics, chemistry, 2
years language, etc.) to enrole to even the lowest ranked state school.

> Unfortunately I wasted any potential gain by spending a few years not doing
> much of anything

This is the type of the student universities tend to avoid.

Have you gotten treated for the depression? Are you working towards an AA?
Full-time or part-time student? Colleges will allocate some spaces for non-
traditional students but the good ones prefer FT students.

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socillion
State schools I've looked at just require minimum GED scores (I had no problem
getting perfect scores on several parts) and a few years of foreign language.

> This is the type of the student universities tend to avoid.

Agreed, but retroactively fixing mistakes is impossible so I have to settle
for not repeating them.

I'm taking classes full time right now, if I get into a "good school" it'll be
a transfer. I'm not sure if I'll get an AA; either way I'm planning to get a
computer science BS.

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mesozoic
Let's continue to preach anecdotal evidence about million to one chances of
becoming ridiculously rich.

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pyre
But Mark Zuckerberg didn't wash his socks for a whole month while fleshing out
the idea that would become Facebook! _No one_ should wash their socks.
Innovation would be through the roof! </sarcasm> ;-)

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hkmurakami
We should all emulate the 80's entrepreneurs and sport full beards </serious>

~~~
voltagex_
Currently sporting a reasonably full beard. I agree.

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intellegacy
This is bit of a nitpick but he did not quit school to work on tumblr. He was
homeschooled, first of all, while working at various startups. Secondly he
started tumblr in 2006?, long after he had dropped out of high school.

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jareds
I’m not a parent and this article may be 20/20 hind sight so parents please
correct me if I’m completely off base. Allowing your child to drop out of high
school is a poor choice assuming they are capable of finishing it. I could
maybe see this if you started the site when you were 11 and were looking at VC
funding when you were 15 but based on the article Tubmlr wasn’t even started
when he dropped out. There was no guarantee that David would have founded
Tumblr and you were basically taking a lottery ticket on something like this.
I’m glad it worked out for him but this isn’t a path any 15 year old with
decent tech skills should follow.

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wilfra
A big part of high school and even college is figuring out what you want to do
with the rest of your life. You learn a little bit about a lot of different
things and hopefully by the end have some sense of what you want to pursue
further.

He had already figured that out by 14.

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kamaal
>>A big part of high school and even college is figuring out what you want to
do with the rest of your life.

Frankly speaking, looking back what I was when I was 14. I am very glad I
didn't make that 'what to do with the rest of my life' decisions back then.
I'm sure 100% I would have made a very big mess of my life.

14 years is way to younger to make such decisions.

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nthj
It depends a lot on the person, and maybe quite a bit on how they've
invested/been raised those first 14 years. No need to extrapolate from one
anecdote.

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rshlo
Again the media fall in love in the "drop out of school makes millions story".
But that's not reality. only 0.0000000001% of school and college dropout will
get such a huge deal. Other will just waste their life. What's sad is that
somewhere a child is reading this and thinks he really got a chance to beat
the odds. It's no different than pumping out lottery raffles.

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robryan
Hardly, this is only true if you believe that high school is the most
effective way to gain the knowledge that high school teaches and/or that we
are still stuck in a credentials orientated world that won't let someone
without a high school completion (that basically says nothing about their
ability) should be given any kind of good job.

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mkoble11
_He speaks at a rapid clip and, often, for minutes without stopping_

Aaron Levie seems to speak this way as well.

I'm not sure what it stems from - but many founders/entrepreneurs have this
trait.

Has anyone else noticed this?

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anon808
usually folks that talk for minutes without stopping like the sound of their
voice.

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ekm2
I think it is more like he left formal schooling and started home school,which
is not exactly the same as quitting school.

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delcl
David Karp may or may not be in for a surprise. He may realize, after all this
time and all this work, that no amount of money will make up for a lost
childhood.

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Kudzu_Bob
Karp lost nothing, and gained a great deal. I suspect that he can only shake
his head at the notion that anybody with a three-digit IQ would step inside a
high school under any circumstances.

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tensor
Anti-intellectualism at its finest. You advocate that people not learn. What
Karp lost is knowledge. He can try to gain it back as an adult, but most
likely he'll be too preoccupied with his lottery winnings and socializing in
the business world to care. Meanwhile, others will make serious progress for
our society.

Unless you have the luxury of equivalent or better education than high schools
provide, you are choosing a life of ignorance.

~~~
robryan
Are you saying that he isn't at it above the level of the average high school
graduate?

I would argue that he has made more serious progress and impact that most of
us ever will. Of course no doubt some will say that Tumblr is worthless to
society, pretty much the same thing that crops up every time there is a thread
about Mark Zuckerburgs achievements.

