4 ms·

It is rare to get one infinitesimal chance (CMU), then another (Thiel Fellowship), and move on from both. She is either a genius or squandering opportunity. Op

It is rare to get one infinitesimal chance (CMU), then another (Thiel Fellowship), and move on from both. She is either a genius or squandering opportunity. Opportunities can become what you make them if you go all in, hopefully she is doing that at Quora, there are only so many opportunities in life.

Nate75Sanders 12y ago
Actually this will enable her to get more opportunities.
logicallee 12y ago
>She is either a genius or squandering opportunity. what a ridiculous meme. I guess if it works out we should praise her and if it doesn't we should lambast her. you know, for being a genius or squandering opportunity, respectively.
- maaku 12y ago
  I would lambast anyone who leaves a top-tier university for the Thiel fellowship, regardless of whether they are financially successful or not.
  - edanm 12y ago
    Why?
moab 12y ago
CMU provides a good education that's very heavy on theory. I knew a lot of people in CS who didn't really think theory had much bearing on what they wanted to do after undergrad, and for the majority of them this will probably be true. The sad reality is that anything more interesting than having an idea and building the next social x, or ephemeral y over app-engine will probably require understanding that boring stuff from parallel or distributed quite well. I really wish the school could find a better way to provide for people mainly interested in joining industry after graduation without watering down the difficult systems/theory courses that are the foundation of a good CS education. The real benefit of a good education should be giving you the initial knowledge and desire to become an outstanding contributor to your area of interest whether you end up in academia or industry. I know a lot of folks who missed this and viewed the specialized classes they had to take as one more roadblock before being handed a pretty piece of paper and going off to work at fb/google/etc.

Nate75Sanders 12y ago

Actually this will enable her to get more opportunities.

logicallee 12y ago

>She is either a genius or squandering opportunity. what a ridiculous meme. I guess if it works out we should praise her and if it doesn't we should lambast her. you know, for being a genius or squandering opportunity, respectively.

maaku 12y ago
I would lambast anyone who leaves a top-tier university for the Thiel fellowship, regardless of whether they are financially successful or not.
- edanm 12y ago
  Why?

moab 12y ago

CMU provides a good education that's very heavy on theory. I knew a lot of people in CS who didn't really think theory had much bearing on what they wanted to do after undergrad, and for the majority of them this will probably be true. The sad reality is that anything more interesting than having an idea and building the next social x, or ephemeral y over app-engine will probably require understanding that boring stuff from parallel or distributed quite well. I really wish the school could find a better way to provide for people mainly interested in joining industry after graduation without watering down the difficult systems/theory courses that are the foundation of a good CS education. The real benefit of a good education should be giving you the initial knowledge and desire to become an outstanding contributor to your area of interest whether you end up in academia or industry. I know a lot of folks who missed this and viewed the specialized classes they had to take as one more roadblock before being handed a pretty piece of paper and going off to work at fb/google/etc.