

Thiel Fellowship: 20 Under 20 Winners Released - nicklovescode
http://thielfoundation.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=15&Itemid=19

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wickedchicken
I worry sometimes about our current culture's fascination with on-paper
achievements and crafting lives around the perfect college essay -- ironic
given the point of the Thiel Fellowship from what I understand. Have we
replaced climbing the 80's corporate ladder with the hyperyuppies of 2011? Are
there organizations that foster self-discovery, even to the detriment of
relentless productivity and 'hustle?' To me, a hacker seeks nothing short of
enlightenment.

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SeoxyS
The Theil Fellowship is a perfect example of ranking on meaningless
achievements. Like you said, the perfect college essay—but I'd be willing to
put money on the guess that no real innovation will come out of the program.

A real hacker doesn't polish college essays. A real hacker actually creates
stuff. If they must apply to something, I think they'd be far more successful
going through Y Combinator.

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IsaacL
Certainly an impressive bunch - when I first saw the publicity for the 20
under 20 program, I was miffed that they weren't taking 21-year-olds. But I
see now I'd have had no chance of getting accepted - no chance against people
who were doing research at the age when I was collecting pokemon cards.
Seriously, who are these people? Best of luck to them all anyway.

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timr
The short answer? They're people with connections.

It doesn't matter how smart you are: you don't work in a university lab at age
11 without someone pulling strings for you. (Unless they're counting stuff
like gifted/talented summer camps as "work".)

You occasionally see high school kids in the lab in summer doing some sort of
trivial research. The best cases are disadvantaged kids who have access to
science advocacy programs. The worst cases are kids whose parents have
influence and/or work at the university. It's one of the things that drives me
nuts about dog-and-pony shows like the Intel science fair -- smart kids who
don't have access via ambitious/overzealous parents don't have a chance.

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InquilineKea
While it's true that they benefit from connections (I've seen SO many smart
students lose their lives away through K-12 public education, which wastes FAR
more talent than any college/university education system - and connections
help them get out of it), the fact is that the Internet is now making it
easier for us to make connections with people (you can just email the right
person who can pull the strings for you now). In fact, you could get
connections simply by friending them on Facebook, and they, being
entrepreneurs, are probably more likely than others to accept if they think
you're interesting.

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crasshopper
^ why people hang out on Quora.

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jkuria
I think for Andrew Hsu this is a big mistake. Looks like this guy has the
potential of an Einstein or Newton and his academic gifts should be nurtured
to the greatest extent possible. It is the equivalent of 'eating up our own
seed corn' that happened during the industrial revolutions when 12 year olds
were made to work in factories!

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izendejas
I think he's got an interesting mission: he wants to change the way kids learn
using his knowledge of neuroscience.
<http://www.andrewhsu.com/projects/project_overview.htm>

If he doesn't succeed with his startup, I'm sure he'll go on to do great
things anyway.

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wickedchicken
Odd that a man who is developing a company around 'learning by play' is
depriving himself of the very playground late teens need -- a time for
academic, physical, and emotional exploration with little supervision and few
repercussions. I wish him the best of luck though.

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hristov
My favorite is Jefferey Lim who apparently figured out a way to get two 100K
scholarships.

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wyclif
Jeffrey Lim must be _double_ motivated.

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rms
Double Copy Plus Paste Good.

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patrickod
Having gotten to the final round of the Fellowship application process and met
all of these people individually I can say with confidence that we will see
some very very cool things from them in the next 2 years. Every single one of
them is highly intelligent and motivated and well deserving of the Fellowship

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Bootvis
The editing is horrible but the list is impressive. I'm surprised to see so
many having an academic background. I thought the whole point was that the
fellowship is before an a academic education.

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geofflewis
It is for stopping out of school.

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crasshopper
I think Bootvis' point is that Thiel seems just as swayed by academic
credentials as the rest of us. How many busking hobos made the 20?

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joshu
i think "under" is too vague. i want to start the "23 exactly 23" award.

(I got on a "35 Under 35" thing once. Now I'm too old and have to shoot for
"40 under 40")

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smanek
I'm assuming there's a typo for 'Faheem Zaman'. It said he got "5580 points
across 5 [SATs]."

Even assuming they were all on the 1600 point scale, I had a higher aggregate
score across only 4 sittings of the SAT (2 in HS, 2 in Junior High), and I'm
not particularly unusual in my scores.

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leelin
My guess is SAT (2400 scale) plus 4 of those SAT II tests (800 scale). For
example:

Main SAT: 2400 Math IIC: 800 Physics: 800 Biology: 790 Chemistry: 790

Solid scores for sure, but certainly not his only accomplishment I'm guessing.

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alphaoverlord
By far the least impressive paragraph. I have the same numbers, but thats
really nothing to write home about. I would be the first to admit that test
scores doesn't really show creativity or potential. While the other applicants
described true achievements, I think test scores only show that one has Asian
parents and buckled down for a summer and studied hard.

SAT I: 2380 (V: 790, M: 800, W: 790), SAT II: Math L2: 800, Mol. Biology: 800,
Chemistry: 800, World History: 800

I really hope they put the brunt of their evaluation on the interview process
- I think at 20, there isn't really enough time for a track record of doing
independent things well. They have clearly shown excellence at what they have
been doing, but what they have been doing as a whole seems to be on the well-
worn path of education and extracurricular activities/research.

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rmerstein
Usually with these things, the kids have no input in their bios- some PR nut
who got a 1950 on his SAT thinks it's impressive and puts it up. Whatever the
scores are, I'm a fan of microfinance- glad to see a lot of these kids
focusing on big picture problems.

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sabj
Knowing some of the person(s) on here, I'm really excited to see what will
come out of their fellowships. While I remain a little skeptical of the
project as a whole, for these promising individuals it's really not an end-of-
the-world decision if things don't work out and they don't revolutionize the
universe in 2 years; they could always go back to their usual tracks. That
being said, I think that the Thiel fellowships are a good springboard such
that, whatever their immediate success, they will have learned interesting
skills.

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geofflewis
Very impressive group of recipients. The program feels sort of like Rhodes
meets YCombinator

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crasshopper
I'm struck by the grandness of these ideas. It seems Thiel, like many people,
is drawn to those who promise a lot.

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crasshopper
Bi-o-ge-ron-to-lo-gy. Besides having 7 syllables, how is it different from
gerontology?

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mkramlich
And now we're in a bubble. ;)

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agib
Only 2 girls out of 20?

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geofflewis
I wonder how many girls applied. Can't really make a judgement without knowing
that figure.

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agib
If 2 applied, then I take back my outrage.

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geofflewis
I'd be outraged if only 2 applied.

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geofflewis
To whomever downvoted, my use of the word "outraged here was in jest :-)

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suking
Looks more like a McKinsey line-up vs. a CEO line-up. We shall see how it goes
- picking the brightest doesn't mean they'll be a good CEO.

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JulianMorrison
Two women. Gender balance much?

