4 ms·

Too Young to Fail

38 points by llambda 15y ago

szany 15y ago
See also: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3458611 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3458611
polynomial 15y ago
Article's first page ends with a quote from her father: "What I say to Laura is 'The biggest problem you have so far, kid, is you haven't failed yet.'" I'm not sure if the author is intending to create a sense of dramatic irony here, or it's purely accidental, but it does suggest a reading of Peter Thiel gives 17 year old $100k so she can fail. Which in a sense isn't too far from the truth. She's not too young to fail, she's just too young to have failed yet. Hoping this comment isn't misconstrued, as I'm just musing about the article itself. I wish Laura (and all the participants in Peter's program) the best of luck!
howcool 15y ago
I like the fact that universities are pressured into offering these types of courses. Education system is a bubble, so true!
outside1234 15y ago
i never even considered this when i was in school so I don't know the answer to this queestion: what is the usual policy for leaves of absence for students at somewhere like MIT?
- teej 15y ago
  From what I understand, a student can take a single year off pretty easily. After that year, your only options are to continue school or drop out.
  - jtchang 15y ago
    For something this highly publicized I would only imagine an admission board deciding to grant admission again would not even be a problem.
bh42222 15y ago
I can't help but cheer for any kid (yes, I'm old, so they are all kids) who takes Peter Thiel's offer. Laura Deming is especially easy to cheer for, as she's working on age extension. (Did I mention I'm old?) It's great to hear she's meeting with other investors as biotech has always suffered from high capitol requirements. Super science ain't cheap. I really, really hope this sparks a fire in Silicon Valley for funding biotech startups. The other major thing biotech startups suffer form is regulation. It's just so SLOW and expensive to approve any new drug, device or treatment. I am not sure if regulation can be "hacked". My only advice is to mention industrial and veterinary biotech, were a lot of advances can be made much, much quicker. Life extension for dogs and cats, why not.
maeon3 15y ago
Too big to fail... too small to fail... Doublethink is everywhere! Reading phrases like these makes me feel like a hashmap is being crammed into a boolean. All these people can fail! It's like people are intentionally trying to cause confusion with nonsense phrases. Stop it.

38 points by llambda 15y ago

szany 15y ago

See also: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3458611 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3458611

Article's first page ends with a quote from her father: "What I say to Laura is 'The biggest problem you have so far, kid, is you haven't failed yet.'" I'm not sure if the author is intending to create a sense of dramatic irony here, or it's purely accidental, but it does suggest a reading of Peter Thiel gives 17 year old $100k so she can fail. Which in a sense isn't too far from the truth. She's not too young to fail, she's just too young to have failed yet. Hoping this comment isn't misconstrued, as I'm just musing about the article itself. I wish Laura (and all the participants in Peter's program) the best of luck!

howcool 15y ago

I like the fact that universities are pressured into offering these types of courses. Education system is a bubble, so true!

outside1234 15y ago

i never even considered this when i was in school so I don't know the answer to this queestion: what is the usual policy for leaves of absence for students at somewhere like MIT?

teej 15y ago
From what I understand, a student can take a single year off pretty easily. After that year, your only options are to continue school or drop out.
- jtchang 15y ago
  For something this highly publicized I would only imagine an admission board deciding to grant admission again would not even be a problem.

bh42222 15y ago

I can't help but cheer for any kid (yes, I'm old, so they are all kids) who takes Peter Thiel's offer. Laura Deming is especially easy to cheer for, as she's working on age extension. (Did I mention I'm old?) It's great to hear she's meeting with other investors as biotech has always suffered from high capitol requirements. Super science ain't cheap. I really, really hope this sparks a fire in Silicon Valley for funding biotech startups. The other major thing biotech startups suffer form is regulation. It's just so SLOW and expensive to approve any new drug, device or treatment. I am not sure if regulation can be "hacked". My only advice is to mention industrial and veterinary biotech, were a lot of advances can be made much, much quicker. Life extension for dogs and cats, why not.

maeon3 15y ago

Too big to fail... too small to fail... Doublethink is everywhere! Reading phrases like these makes me feel like a hashmap is being crammed into a boolean. All these people can fail! It's like people are intentionally trying to cause confusion with nonsense phrases. Stop it.