4 ms·

I don't get this obsession with skipping college. When you finish college, you're still a "kid" as in totally young and nothing to loose. There's absolutely not

by siva7 3y ago

I don't get this obsession with skipping college. When you finish college, you're still a "kid" as in totally young and nothing to loose. There's absolutely nothing lost time-wise in the greater scheme of life. Peter Thiel is playing on the insecurity of these young people like they will loose out on something if they don't do this.

echelon 3y ago
The debt a lot of kids incur certainly sets them back. Even community colleges have absurd tuitions now. I studied biochem and computer science in college. The biochem parts I absolutely could not have learned at home without a lab and domain experts teaching me. The computer science bits, not so much. I was already programming by college and was doing capstone-level work in my freshman courses. I suspect this is true of many students who get started with learning their field in high school. I get the sense that for many degrees that are not hands on with labs and equipment, a university setting is unnecessary. None of my "connections" from university mattered. I made it much further by making my own outside of classes. So, at least anecdotally, I can't buy that argument either.
- siva7 3y ago
  It's not necessary the knowledge but the social experience which makes it worth for many. You can always become part of the corporate world later. Though i'm aware that not everyone is given those chances.
  - echelon 3y ago
    > social experience It shouldn't cost so much! Perhaps college aged kids could join something like the Peace Corps instead? Community college costs need to return to <$10k/yr, too.
  - kcplate 3y ago
    I was well experienced in getting wasted and hanging out with my friends long before I went to college.
gaws 3y ago
> I don't get this obsession with skipping college. From a political standpoint, many colleges are "liberal" institutions, and people don't want to be involved with that.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- siva7 3y ago
  So Thiel is paying the top % of a generation to get brainwashed with his agenda?
  - kcplate 3y ago
    I think the point is not to get brainwashed to any specific agenda but your own…and not to come out of college with a $100k debt for what many people is a degree that often has very little to do with the career they end up pursuing.
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
  - EchoChamberMan 3y ago
    Nailed it > Thiel explained in a 2009 essay that he had come to "no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible", due in large part to welfare beneficiaries and women in general being "notoriously tough for libertarians" constituencies, and that he had focused efforts on new technologies (namely cyberspace, space colonization and seasteading) that could create "a new space for freedom" beyond current politics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Thiel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Thiel
- archagon 3y ago
  Which "people"?
wdr1 3y ago
> When you finish college, you're still a "kid" as in totally young and nothing to loose. A lot of kids walk out having lost quite a bit of money to tuition. Worse, the degrees they paid a small fortune for won't provide them jobs to payoff that debt.

by siva7 3y ago

echelon 3y ago

The debt a lot of kids incur certainly sets them back. Even community colleges have absurd tuitions now. I studied biochem and computer science in college. The biochem parts I absolutely could not have learned at home without a lab and domain experts teaching me. The computer science bits, not so much. I was already programming by college and was doing capstone-level work in my freshman courses. I suspect this is true of many students who get started with learning their field in high school. I get the sense that for many degrees that are not hands on with labs and equipment, a university setting is unnecessary. None of my "connections" from university mattered. I made it much further by making my own outside of classes. So, at least anecdotally, I can't buy that argument either.

siva7 3y ago
It's not necessary the knowledge but the social experience which makes it worth for many. You can always become part of the corporate world later. Though i'm aware that not everyone is given those chances.
- echelon 3y ago
  > social experience It shouldn't cost so much! Perhaps college aged kids could join something like the Peace Corps instead? Community college costs need to return to <$10k/yr, too.
- kcplate 3y ago
  I was well experienced in getting wasted and hanging out with my friends long before I went to college.

gaws 3y ago

> I don't get this obsession with skipping college. From a political standpoint, many colleges are "liberal" institutions, and people don't want to be involved with that.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
siva7 3y ago
So Thiel is paying the top % of a generation to get brainwashed with his agenda?
- kcplate 3y ago
  I think the point is not to get brainwashed to any specific agenda but your own…and not to come out of college with a $100k debt for what many people is a degree that often has very little to do with the career they end up pursuing.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
- EchoChamberMan 3y ago
  Nailed it > Thiel explained in a 2009 essay that he had come to "no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible", due in large part to welfare beneficiaries and women in general being "notoriously tough for libertarians" constituencies, and that he had focused efforts on new technologies (namely cyberspace, space colonization and seasteading) that could create "a new space for freedom" beyond current politics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Thiel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Thiel
archagon 3y ago
Which "people"?

wdr1 3y ago

> When you finish college, you're still a "kid" as in totally young and nothing to loose. A lot of kids walk out having lost quite a bit of money to tuition. Worse, the degrees they paid a small fortune for won't provide them jobs to payoff that debt.