I was all ready to come back here and strenuously object to this since I really can't stand Peter Thiel, but after reading it, I agree with him (about this one thing). College, or any particular career field, isn't for everyone. I especially agree with the idea, and I've seen this in a couple places now, that college is just the final round of a long zero-sum tournament. You mess up early and you'll probably never win, regardless of actual talent or "merit". This seems like a broken system.
On the other hand, how do we do better? Massive companies still need hundreds of thousands of workers? How do they find them without college admissions offices providing signals? Hiring is a massive problem, as we can probably all agree, that isn't going to disappear just because people start skipping college or attending alternative institutions. How does a "nobody" 18 or 22 year old prove his or her value without a letter of admission or a diploma?
> College, or any particular career field, isn't for everyone. I especially agree with the idea, and I've seen this in a couple places now, that college is just the final round of a long zero-sum tournament. You mess up early and you'll probably never win, regardless of actual talent or "merit". This seems like a broken system.
This is a really important idea for the public to understand. It's not simply a class thing either, which is how it's typically portrayed (e.g. "you just want college to be for rich kids and poor kids can learn to be plumbers at community college"). It's more of a "how is a person's brain wired up" thing.
I was an amazingly mediocre student, but I've been very successful in industry. I think it's because in school, the curriculum is set in stone - you're just consuming it. There's no opportunity for self actualization. In "the field", you will have opportunities to drive real solutions and even innovate.
> How does a "nobody" 18 or 22 year old prove his or her value without a letter of admission or a diploma?
Usually side projects and a kind of radiant passion. If you can point to some solid code you're written and you sound passionate when you're talking about the technology and the job opportunity, many interviewers will sense that.
I don't even think it is a "how is a person's brain wired up" thing. I think it is a college instruction caters to a subset of the set of available students. Which is kind of the same thing you said, just couched from a different perspective. I guess some people think it is the student's fault because they failed to conform, and others blame the college for failing to adapt to a multitude of different students.
On the other hand, how do we do better? Massive companies still need hundreds of thousands of workers? How do they find them without college admissions offices providing signals? Hiring is a massive problem, as we can probably all agree, that isn't going to disappear just because people start skipping college or attending alternative institutions. How does a "nobody" 18 or 22 year old prove his or her value without a letter of admission or a diploma?