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The reason people who drop out of prestigious schools to pursue projects become the most successful is because they are 0% concerned about credentialism for the

by tmsh 6y ago

The reason people who drop out of prestigious schools to pursue projects become the most successful is because they are 0% concerned about credentialism for themselves. The minute you start hiding behind / pursuing opportunities because of social status is the minute you start your descent into laziness and lack of useful impact. Everything is a balance. I relate to how pursuing prestige in schools can lead to pursuing promos. But in general use Harvard or wherever for great learning, and with promo projects pursue actual meaningful work. It’s really the most sustainable way. Source: it’s a lot more satisfying to pursue a promo project that helps everyone on your team (e.g., engineering excellence etc). And yeah obviously students rarely have a correct idea about the real world (just haven’t seen enough of it yet). Interesting hypotheses though.

whimsicalism 6y ago
> use Harvard or wherever for great learning, There is literally 0 need for this. Use Harvard for: a. the name on your resume b. access to smart peers (even at Harvard, this takes searching, but if you're in the right classes is easy) c. access to professors That's pretty much it. You can learn the content just as well online.
- tmsh 6y ago
  Yeah totally. The best talk I ever heard related to YC was from Adam d’Angelo at a startup school (#2?) - where he spent most of his time quietly just saying to people: use your connections. And for 5% of the audience I’m sure it went in one ear and out the other. There’s a lot to be said for being forced to slow down and learn the content around smart peers and professors tho. Agreed possible online just requires more drive and focus and the number of people who can / have the time / interest / motivation to do that starts to trail off (but the world is large). The other big thing schools like this do to you is inject a healthy dose of competitiveness for the rest of your life since you know there are a lot of things that aren’t special about the people there but are about their results.

by tmsh 6y ago

whimsicalism 6y ago

> use Harvard or wherever for great learning, There is literally 0 need for this. Use Harvard for: a. the name on your resume b. access to smart peers (even at Harvard, this takes searching, but if you're in the right classes is easy) c. access to professors That's pretty much it. You can learn the content just as well online.

tmsh 6y ago
Yeah totally. The best talk I ever heard related to YC was from Adam d’Angelo at a startup school (#2?) - where he spent most of his time quietly just saying to people: use your connections. And for 5% of the audience I’m sure it went in one ear and out the other. There’s a lot to be said for being forced to slow down and learn the content around smart peers and professors tho. Agreed possible online just requires more drive and focus and the number of people who can / have the time / interest / motivation to do that starts to trail off (but the world is large). The other big thing schools like this do to you is inject a healthy dose of competitiveness for the rest of your life since you know there are a lot of things that aren’t special about the people there but are about their results.