

Peter Thiel heads to campus - connorlee
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/11/us-stanford-thiel-idUSBRE82A0EO20120311

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pg
I notice the writer doesn't actually quote any specific things Peter has said
that would make this a hypocritical move.

~~~
yummyfajitas
The writer certainly doesn't quote Thiel's actual views:

"The elitist view in the U.S. is that even if people concede that college is
not for education, the caveat will be that, well, surely it’s for all the
smart people. What we want to suggest is that _there are some very smart and
very talented people who don’t need college._ "

[http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/257531/back-future-
pe...](http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/257531/back-future-peter-thiel-
interview?pg=5)

"...are there 20 of those 60,000 who should perhaps not go to college--that
does not seem like a terribly controversial statement. _That the more talented
you are, the more narrow the set of choices you should make?_ And that if
you're a really smart person, the only thing in the world you can do is to go
to Harvard?"

[http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-20114584-281/talking-
tech-...](http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-20114584-281/talking-tech-with-
peter-thiel-investor-and-philanthropist-q-a/)

~~~
fl3tch
> are there 20 of those 60,000 who should perhaps not go to college

And he presumes he and his staff are uniquely qualified in identifying those
20 out of 60,000?

~~~
patio11
He isn't saying "There exist exactly 20 people out of 60k who should not go to
college and I have oracular ability for identifying them." He is saying "It is
arrogant to assume that, out of 60,000 people attending college, it is
impossible to find so many as 20 of them who would be better served by another
alternative." Presumably, he thinks the actual numbers is substantially higher
than 20, but he doesn't have to get locked in to the extremist position of
saying "60,000 of 60,000 people should not go to college" to believe that. It
could plausibly be that 99% of people are served perfectly adequately by
college and identifying only 20 of the remaining 600 isn't really rocket
science compared to the _actual rocket science_ that other Paypal alums are
doing.

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SkyMarshal
I haven't followed _everything_ he has said about college education, but I do
believe he doesn't hate universities so much as their current value
proposition.

The amount of debt students have to take on now to get a degree, in contrast
to what a motivated person can learn and do on their own now with alternative
educational sources and a cheap computer, means that most of that debt is
paying for just the credential, whose value is being increasingly undermined
while its cost continues increasing.

So he believes student loan debt is the next big financial bubble due to
collapse, given that there is more of it than credit card debt [1], and that
it's being loaned for any major regardless of its expected ROI, among other
things.

1\. [http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/college-
inc/post/student...](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/college-
inc/post/student-loans-surpass-auto-credit-card-
debt/2012/03/06/gIQARFQnuR_blog.html)

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zweinz
A few things:

\- Thiel really hates that college puts undergraduates in serious debt.
Stanford doesn't -- take a look at its financial aid.

\- When someone decides to drop out to pursue a startup or stay in school,
it's often not just about the "value" they think education has. Travis Kiefer
is the entrepreneur's entrepreneur: he can survive on the adrenaline of his
company until it succeeds. He lives for this. I considered senior year with my
best friends a once in a lifetime opportunity and didn't drop out. I live for
this.

\- This startup class shouldn't surprise anyone from Stanford's perspective.
It has encouraged entrepreneurship forever -- there will even be an
entrepreneurship themed dorm next year -- and Thiel is as good as any to teach
it.

\- Zuckerberg routinely appears as a guest lecturer in CS106A, the
introductory CS class.

\- As an aside, Stanford can sell out a football game, and the stuff about
Khosla's daughters is way exaggerated (I was quoted).

------
hendzen

      "Would Noam Chomsky object to his works being sold at Barnes & Noble? 
      No, because that's where people buy their books." 
      - Tom Morello
    

Seems like Thiel is finally willing to work within the system to bring about
change, rather than quixotically working outside of it.

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nchuhoai
He doesn't hate college, he just wants us to think more deeply about whether
we should go to college. It's gotten more pricey over the years, yet
enrollment has increased. College has become the default option for anyone who
has the intellectual or financial ability and he questions whether that is
good

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2pasc
Maybe he will convince a few Stanford students to focus on their startup
before the end of their graduation and drop out! What is for sure is the more
you spend money on your education (with college, an MBA, etc...), the higher
the opportunity cost of starting a Company (vs. getting a well paid job). When
you drop out, you have nothing to lose, and so you are "all in", which allows
you to take bigger risks.

~~~
wtvanhest
_the higher the opportunity cost of starting a Company (vs. getting a well
paid job)_

I know that my education, and work experience will payout huge when I start a
company. The emotional and intellectual development learned in school and
working for companies afterwards will be an amazing asset and would be for
anyone.

 _When you drop out, you have nothing to lose, and so you are "all in", which
allows you to take bigger risks._

Using the poker example, when you have nothing to loose you are effectively
playing "on tilt". When I was broke (limited commissions coming in), and I
didn't know what to do I started a wedding photography business. I made a
profit, but I wasn't making real money and there was no real big opportunity.
The next thing I work on will be massive in ambition since the opportunity
cost would be leaving my insanely awesome job.

Having nothing makes most people focus on survival, having some income and
confidence that there is another job out there if it doesn't work has to help
people more than it hurts them.

And, as you read this, you are probably thinking about your friends working at
big companies that would never leave to start a company. I would argue that
the vast majority of people are not entrepreneurs and not going to school
wouldn't change that. They would just have a worse job.

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damncabbage
I'm a little confused as to why this is offered as "Computer Science 183". Is
"Computer Science" used as a heading for anything computer-related at
Stanford, or is this an exception?

~~~
jorgeortiz85
Classes at Stanford are offered by a particular department. They also have a
course number and a title. They can be described as "DEPT ### - Title". In
this case, it will be "CS 183: Startup".

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redschell
A lot of misinformation in this article regarding Peter Thiel's position on
higher education in America, but the posters here have addressed that. What I
find surprising is that this course, at least from what I read, will not be
available online. I know that an online option would require a greater effort
on his part, and that he would also have to be a little less personal/direct
in his lectures to make it work, but if Peter Thiel believes that self-
learners using online educational resources are the future, he should do his
part to contribute to that future by doing something like this (a class on
startups) in the future for a virtual classroom, perhaps through Udacity.

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dsrguru
He doesn't like universities because he thinks they're too costly and not good
at preparing students for the real world. He now intends to teach a class that
prepares students for the real world and will not increase the marginal cost
of their tuition. There doesn't seem to be a contradiction.

