DYSPEPSIA GENERATION

Read it.

For those not au courant, Peter Thiel has established a bunch of fellowships to encourage bright students to start their own companies rather than prolong their adolescence in college.

Needless to say, the educational establishment is rallying ’round to nip this idea in the bud.

Sample sound bites:

Despite having appointments at five elite universities….

… not that I’m one to brag….

Peter Thiel may have made the right calls with Paypal; he certainly made a smart decision by investing in Mark Zuckerberg.  But he is no expert on education.

Uh, dude, education isn’t an end in itself, unless you’ve got a hefty trust fund or win the Tenure Track Lottery; it’s there to get a job.

The best path to success is not to drop out of college; it is to complete it.

Says the disinterested observer. This is like a government employee telling you that what you really need isn’t a job but more benefits.

Most of the deans in the audience were aghast.

My, what a surprise. Aren’t you surprised? I’m sure surprised.

Well, you can predict what the deans said as well as I can. There are two concepts here: education as an entity and the education establishment, an industry created to provide that entity. Needless to say, those involved in the industry providing a product are going to do their damnedest to make sure that nobody undercuts demand for their product. Like a phone company that confuses phone call with communication, these guys confuse classroom time (that we get paid for) with education. And, like the phone company, they’re in for a rough ride in the years ahead. My heat breaks for them….

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 12th, 2011 at 13:49 and is filed under Axis of Drivel -- Adventures in Narrative Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.