It's an interesting essay, but just to be argumentative, I think it takes the wrong path to the conclusion. I posit that South Korea has only one highly regarde

It's an interesting essay, but just to be argumentative, I think it takes the wrong path to the conclusion. I posit that South Korea has only one highly regarded university or some other suitably small number. Maybe it's the University of Seoul. If you get into U of S, you are a superior being, you get the choice government jobs, you get to be the department head, you get the industrial fast track. If you don't get in, you are dross, just second class. In Japan it's the University of Tokyo. Neither university is particularly good or even much better than some of the others but they have the reputations to make the careers of their students. Contrast that with the USA. Of the top 50 universities in the world, we probably have 40. If you get into Harvard, MIT, Stanford, or Cal Tech, it certainly helps you career. If you don't, you aren't automatically second class, because there are so many other good schools. Then there is our culture a meme of the irrepressible underdog, the New England inventor, the riverboat gambler, the mountain prospector, the Silicon Valley programmer. Business failure is not career or reputation ending, it's character building. It probably enhances you chances the second time around. In contrast I remember reading that in Germany if you failed you were done; no one would give you another chance. Banks controlled everything and were so risk adverse you probably couldn't get the money in the first place. My brother in law's business in Brazil went bankrupt. He didn't get a fresh start. He just stayed out of jail until he could pay it back. He was a chemical engineer, but he had to work in a grocery store. It is amazing how low the barriers to entry are here. Anyone interested in how Silicon Valley became Silicon Valley should read Regional Advantage: Culture and Competition in Silicon Valley and Route 128 by AnnaLee Saxenian. In most of the world it is difficult to start a business. According to the Economist it takes $20,000 in fees and deposits to start a business. In many countries it takes one or two years plus bribes to get permission to start. In San Luis Obispo County it took me $120 and an hour at the county offices. And YC may even give you the money. I think I agree with Paul's conclusion if not with his antecedents. I think we are moving away from a credentials based culture to a reputation based one, not because parental manipulation can falsify credentials, but because an individual on the web can build a reputation through a web of contacts, through writing, through performance, through reputons (small quanta of reputation). I went to Harvard. That's a reputon. I got my degree in economics. That's probably an anti-reputon. At least in the software industry, you can build a reputation thats worth more than a bunch of certificates.