I'm auditing the class as well and I like it quite a lot. Make sure to not get TLDR discouraged and at least scroll all the way down for the (very amusing) video that was played in class. Direct link:
From the notes: "by late 1998, the NASDAQ was at about 1400—just 400 points higher than it was in August ’95. "
A 40% increase in a stock index in ~3 years is an amazingly huge bull market and the sense of frothiness was everywhere at the time. In general, telescoping the "bubble" to 18 months doesn't make sense to me -- the craziness really started with the Netscape IPO. But it was a hockey stick and so those 28 months of the curve look particularly crazy.
I know you're being snarky, but I really don't see the contradiction. These students haven't graduated yet, so they can still drop out if they're inspired by his class.
Moreover, he likely advocates/d dropping out because college courses are not useful in the industry... By teaching himself, he can change/influence that.
If you have any legitimate criticisms of Peter Thiel, or the essay mentioned in that gawker article ( http://www.cato-unbound.org/2009/04/13/peter-thiel/the-educa... ), please consider elaborating on them in a new post. I'm sure many here would be interested.
But linking to gawker in the comments of an unrelated story probably isn't the best way to express your concerns.
>But linking to gawker in the comments of an unrelated story probably isn't the best way to express your concerns.
I agree that the concern should be expressed differently, but the concern sounds genuine. The OP is a lay-history of Silicon Valley of the 90's and it's very interesting history at that. Concerns about the historian's background are not ad hominem attacks; they are relevant to understanding the narrative. For example, I was personally unaware that Thiel is a die-hard libertarian, and agree or disagree, surely that colors his narrative and affects my interpretation of it to some extent.
To use Thiel's own (quite wonderful) metaphor that culture is like a dinner conversation, it's important to know who these people are that are at the table.
Go write a compelling, well-cited account of all the things he's done to upset you or--even better--all the ways he's discriminated against women.
Publish it somewhere. On a blog, in a municipal paper, on TechCrunch, whatever. If you can actually write that story, do it. Make it good enough that people care.
