The Theil Fellowship is a perfect example of ranking on meaningless achievements. Like you said, the perfect college essay—but I'd be willing to put money on th

The Theil Fellowship is a perfect example of ranking on meaningless achievements. Like you said, the perfect college essay—but I'd be willing to put money on the guess that no real innovation will come out of the program. A real hacker doesn't polish college essays. A real hacker actually creates stuff. If they must apply to something, I think they'd be far more successful going through Y Combinator.