3 ms·

>If you do have very specific goals in mind during your stay in college, $100K isn't going to sway you away anyway I dunno. To a naive eighteen-year old, $100K

>If you do have very specific goals in mind during your stay in college, $100K isn't going to sway you away anyway I dunno. To a naive eighteen-year old, $100K is a lot of money, easily enough to sway them into making potentially dumb decisions. Mind you I assume Peter Thiel can't stop you from ever going to university, can he? [Can he???] So at worst you're putting it off for a few years.

randomdata 14y ago
It is, at best, equivalent to a salary anyone bright enough to graduate with a college degree could make straight out of high school. Perhaps often less, as the expenses of running a business can start to pile up even more quickly than that. The money alone isn't going to promote sway any more than the compensation out of any job would. What it does gain someone, however, is the ability to work on their own ideas full time. Given that you are reading HN, I'm sure you can see how that can be appealing. If they have something amazing that they are ready to run with at that age, going to college at that juncture would have probably been a poor idea anyway. College is not about finding a job or making money, so anyone who is interested in what college really has to offer is not going to find this offer by Thiel particularity appealing to begin with. Their sights are set on something much different.
- planetguy 14y ago
  It is, at best, equivalent to a salary anyone bright enough to graduate with a college degree could make straight out of high school. Oh, bullshit. There are lots of people fitting the rather low bar of "bright enough to graduate with a college degree", who do indeed get college degrees, and who never even get close to earning $100K. There are very, very few people who earn $100K just out of high school regardless of what they do. I can think of two categories: a) People who spent all their spare time in high school learning computer programming and who either have some really good contacts when they leave school or are amazingly good at hustling b) Particularly good-looking strippers
  - randomdata 14y ago
    There's a big difference between being paid $100K to start a business and being paid $100K to have fun with. Thiel is funding the former. Out of that money you will take living expenses, but most of the investment will go directly back into the business to make something of it. That is, after all, the goal. Almost nobody makes $100K, degree or not, ever, in their lifetime (the top 5% earners begin at just shy of $90K, from what I recall). You also won't make $100K to spend as you please by taking his offer either. The realities are that you will probably take $20-40K of that money to spend on yourself, which is definitely not an income out of reach of anyone with just a plain old job. Heck, flipping hamburgers at McDonalds will pay that much on the low end. It seems like a fantastic opportunity to me, but it's not a big money windfall. Not unless you can make something of your business.

randomdata 14y ago

It is, at best, equivalent to a salary anyone bright enough to graduate with a college degree could make straight out of high school. Perhaps often less, as the expenses of running a business can start to pile up even more quickly than that. The money alone isn't going to promote sway any more than the compensation out of any job would. What it does gain someone, however, is the ability to work on their own ideas full time. Given that you are reading HN, I'm sure you can see how that can be appealing. If they have something amazing that they are ready to run with at that age, going to college at that juncture would have probably been a poor idea anyway. College is not about finding a job or making money, so anyone who is interested in what college really has to offer is not going to find this offer by Thiel particularity appealing to begin with. Their sights are set on something much different.

planetguy 14y ago
It is, at best, equivalent to a salary anyone bright enough to graduate with a college degree could make straight out of high school. Oh, bullshit. There are lots of people fitting the rather low bar of "bright enough to graduate with a college degree", who do indeed get college degrees, and who never even get close to earning $100K. There are very, very few people who earn $100K just out of high school regardless of what they do. I can think of two categories: a) People who spent all their spare time in high school learning computer programming and who either have some really good contacts when they leave school or are amazingly good at hustling b) Particularly good-looking strippers
- randomdata 14y ago
  There's a big difference between being paid $100K to start a business and being paid $100K to have fun with. Thiel is funding the former. Out of that money you will take living expenses, but most of the investment will go directly back into the business to make something of it. That is, after all, the goal. Almost nobody makes $100K, degree or not, ever, in their lifetime (the top 5% earners begin at just shy of $90K, from what I recall). You also won't make $100K to spend as you please by taking his offer either. The realities are that you will probably take $20-40K of that money to spend on yourself, which is definitely not an income out of reach of anyone with just a plain old job. Heck, flipping hamburgers at McDonalds will pay that much on the low end. It seems like a fantastic opportunity to me, but it's not a big money windfall. Not unless you can make something of your business.