Peter Thiel is wrong — entrepreneurs should stay in school


I am a stick-in-the-mud. I disagree with PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel – I want people to stay in college if they possibly can, rather than dropping out to work full time on startups, Ed Zimmerman writes in The Wall Street Journal. I want people to take art history, to broaden their knowledge of literature, world religions, history, political science and foreign languages, among other subjects. I worry that in our rush to mint the next set of exciting founders (and, for investors, to fund them), we do them a disservice. That disservice arises from a monomaniacal approach to learning computer science and coding. Of course, these are important components of an education. But they are just components. Over-focusing on these attributes deprives students of the social skills and social network that come with being in school for four years and studying away (hopefully abroad). I regret not having availed myself of several of these opportunities. While in college, I was pretty concerned about (and short on) finances, but the real issues for me were that (a) I lacked the courage and self-confidence to study abroad and (b) I was a kid making decisions that reflected my naiveté and immaturity.

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