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Comment by Eliezer | Hacker News Reader

This is not an experiment. This is challenging the blind assumption of higher education, taking direct aim at the prestige of higher education, and disproving the belief that anyone who can stays in college and that people who drop out are automatically losers. Peter Thiel is saying with his money that he believes that bright, ambitious people are better off staying out of college. Will this prove it to the rigorous standards of science? No. Feel free to donate another $2M if you want to run that experiment your way.

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Do people actually hold that assumption to begin with? There are already plenty of examples of successful dropouts, Bill Gates being one of the more famous. They're talked about in mainstream media relatively frequently, and most Americans know about them. The skepticism is over what the odds are if an average person tries it without connections & assistance, not whether it's possible, especially if it's relatively few kids who are explicitly given money/connections/assistance. I don't see this initiative as doing much to address that particular piece of skepticism.

I don't even oppose Thiel's initiative, I just don't think it has particularly broad implications. If the non-college-attending kids in his program do well, a reasonable conclusion to draw is: if you have someone willing to give you $100k and introduce you to good business connections, in lieu of attending university, then that is quite possibly a good opportunity to take.

If you don't have such an offer, on the other hand...

I don't think this accomplishes that goal, however. I think this experiment demonstrates that connections and money are a good way to get ahead in life, and if someone is willing to hand that to you on a silver platter, it's a smart choice to take it.

I'm not sure that needed demonstration.

I'm sure that with Peter Thiel's money and connections even mediocre students would out perform their peers. Having one or both of these is a significant part of the game.

I personally view this as a publicity stunt. I imagine it cannot be replicated in fields such as mathematics or biochemistry.

It may be fun to watch...

I don't really see how he makes that point, though, by holding up a big carrot and then cherry-picking a few for extra-special treatment. It makes me think "you can be successful if someone throws money at you and gives you special attention", but I'd be tempted to think that those who go for the prize would be less likely to be independently successful than someone who persevered through and finished what they started, in spite of how good dropping out looked.

It'd be a whole lot more meaningful to test an alternative education program - maybe get people learning online or doing apprenticeships, something people could actually do without massive sponsorship - and create a credentialing system that's actually selective and credible, so those people aren't at a disadvantage in the job market. Something like that would actually take aim at the prestige of higher education.

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