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Did I miss the essay where PG advises all kids to skip school and do a startup instead? If so, I'd be pretty disappointed because that's terrible advice for the

Did I miss the essay where PG advises all kids to skip school and do a startup instead? If so, I'd be pretty disappointed because that's terrible advice for the vast majority of teenagers.

zeynel1 16y ago
this is the essay i had in mind http://www.paulgraham.com/mit.html http://www.paulgraham.com/mit.html
- ryanwaggoner 16y ago
  Did you read it? I get pretty much the exact opposite of "school is stupid, everyone should drop out and start companies!" When we first started Y Combinator we encouraged people to start startups while they were still in college. That's partly because Y Combinator began as a kind of summer program. We've kept the program shape—all of us having dinner together once a week turns out to be a good idea—but we've decided now that the party line should be to tell people to wait till they graduate.
neurotech1 16y ago
I believe pg was referring to college, and grad school not high school. Few people can argue that dropping out of PhD school to start a start-up was a bad move for Larry Page & Sergey Brin.
- loewenskind 16y ago
  Yea... for Larry, Sergey and Bill Gates it turned out really well. For the rest? Must not have turned out well since we haven't even heard of them. Further, in all the examples I can think of they dropped out because they already had a company going or at least had a really strong idea for a company. That's pretty different than dropping out hoping you'll come up with something.
  - Tichy 16y ago
    We hear only about very few people, doesn't mean they are all failures.
    - loewenskind 16y ago
      Ok, I should have said "must not have turned out as well". But would they have done better if they would have stuck with their PhD? My point is just, if you're going to drop out of (any) school you better make sure you have a really good plan because it's a big deal. You're leaving some real advantages on the table so you better be able to justify it.
ams6110 16y ago
Might have been the one where he advises high schoolers to treat school like a day job. Not exactly the same thing as dropping out.

Did I miss the essay where PG advises all kids to skip school and do a startup instead? If so, I'd be pretty disappointed because that's terrible advice for the vast majority of teenagers.

zeynel1 16y ago

this is the essay i had in mind http://www.paulgraham.com/mit.html http://www.paulgraham.com/mit.html

ryanwaggoner 16y ago
Did you read it? I get pretty much the exact opposite of "school is stupid, everyone should drop out and start companies!" When we first started Y Combinator we encouraged people to start startups while they were still in college. That's partly because Y Combinator began as a kind of summer program. We've kept the program shape—all of us having dinner together once a week turns out to be a good idea—but we've decided now that the party line should be to tell people to wait till they graduate.

neurotech1 16y ago

I believe pg was referring to college, and grad school not high school. Few people can argue that dropping out of PhD school to start a start-up was a bad move for Larry Page & Sergey Brin.

loewenskind 16y ago
Yea... for Larry, Sergey and Bill Gates it turned out really well. For the rest? Must not have turned out well since we haven't even heard of them. Further, in all the examples I can think of they dropped out because they already had a company going or at least had a really strong idea for a company. That's pretty different than dropping out hoping you'll come up with something.
- Tichy 16y ago
  We hear only about very few people, doesn't mean they are all failures.
  - loewenskind 16y ago
    Ok, I should have said "must not have turned out as well". But would they have done better if they would have stuck with their PhD? My point is just, if you're going to drop out of (any) school you better make sure you have a really good plan because it's a big deal. You're leaving some real advantages on the table so you better be able to justify it.

ams6110 16y ago

Might have been the one where he advises high schoolers to treat school like a day job. Not exactly the same thing as dropping out.