I'm fairly depressed by this continuous attack on getting higher education by Peter Thiel. Previously he famously offered students money to drop out of college. This is especially scary considering his sphere of influence and amount of money-power he can throw in. Why someone as smart as him would do this?
To me it looks like he has got it all wrong here: Higher education is not an investment. It's not a preparation to get a job. People should not be considering higher education as a way of getting lots of money in future. Higher education is an opportunity to delve in to subject that you dreamed about all your teenage life. Did you wanted to become astronomer? Physicists? Mathematician? Painter? Were you interested in learning why biggest wars in history happened? How our ancestors lived 10,000 years ago? Do you want to build airplanes? If you asked these questions and were intensely interested in some subject, higher education is a tremendous gateway to do what you love for rest of your life as opposed to possibility of becoming millionaire first and then do all these things. No one should be persuaded to be turned away from it. Not everyone needs to be in rush for making million and retire before 30. Some people wants to do what they love to their last dying day. Not everyone needs to be startup founder either. As Guy Kawasaki said, jobs are for rest of your life (even if you are "boss" - it's still a job), education is just those few early years when your brain is hungry and eager to absorb everything. Your best years should be spent in studying something cool and worthwhile rather than selling underwears and rental apartments to people. You should take advantage of it. I consider advising youth to drop out from their selected area of study with a lure of making millions in startups a sin.
To me it looks like he has got it all wrong here: Higher education is not an investment. It's not a preparation to get a job. People should not be considering higher education as a way of getting lots of money in future. Higher education is an opportunity to delve in to subject that you dreamed about all your teenage life. Did you wanted to become astronomer? Physicists? Mathematician? Painter? Were you interested in learning why biggest wars in history happened? How our ancestors lived 10,000 years ago? Do you want to build airplanes? If you asked these questions and were intensely interested in some subject, higher education is a tremendous gateway to do what you love for rest of your life as opposed to possibility of becoming millionaire first and then do all these things. No one should be persuaded to be turned away from it. Not everyone needs to be in rush for making million and retire before 30. Some people wants to do what they love to their last dying day. Not everyone needs to be startup founder either. As Guy Kawasaki said, jobs are for rest of your life (even if you are "boss" - it's still a job), education is just those few early years when your brain is hungry and eager to absorb everything. Your best years should be spent in studying something cool and worthwhile rather than selling underwears and rental apartments to people. You should take advantage of it. I consider advising youth to drop out from their selected area of study with a lure of making millions in startups a sin.