<story><title>Thiel on 60 minutes</title><url>http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7409142n&amp;tag=contentBody;storyMediaBox</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jonny_eh</author><text>I have a degree in computer engineering and have founded a struggling startup. My one year doing my failed startup was immensely more valuable to me than my 4 years at university. But that&apos;s just one anecdote.</text></item><item><author>kevinalexbrown</author><text>The last line sums up most of what I disliked about this piece: &quot;where only big ideas flourish and school&apos;s out for everybody&quot;.&lt;p&gt;Safer tries to suggest that Thiel is advocating against college for everybody, or any field. What I take from Thiel&apos;s stance is that college has become less of a place of learning, and more of an inefficient credentialing mechanism.&lt;p&gt;Safer makes the interesting point that most startups will fail, but what he seems to miss (or Thiel doesn&apos;t point out): Thiel Fellows also have a credential of a kind, and even in failure, an extremely lucrative one.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Peteris</author><text>Did you apply yourself equally at both? Without making any assumptions, many people do sail through college hardly putting enough effort. If people half-assed startups the same way, starting work on the prototype two days before an investor pitch, say, that wouldn&apos;t be much of a learning experience either.&lt;p&gt;In your own startup, it feels like every stroke counts, and you are doing something you find exciting and meaningful. It&apos;s likely not that startups offer more teaching experience, it&apos;s just that you&apos;re bound to get more out of something you really dive into.&lt;p&gt;Having said that, most (all?) college curricula do not cater for people intending to do startups, but they still have a lot to offer.</text></comment>
<story><title>Thiel on 60 minutes</title><url>http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7409142n&amp;tag=contentBody;storyMediaBox</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jonny_eh</author><text>I have a degree in computer engineering and have founded a struggling startup. My one year doing my failed startup was immensely more valuable to me than my 4 years at university. But that&apos;s just one anecdote.</text></item><item><author>kevinalexbrown</author><text>The last line sums up most of what I disliked about this piece: &quot;where only big ideas flourish and school&apos;s out for everybody&quot;.&lt;p&gt;Safer tries to suggest that Thiel is advocating against college for everybody, or any field. What I take from Thiel&apos;s stance is that college has become less of a place of learning, and more of an inefficient credentialing mechanism.&lt;p&gt;Safer makes the interesting point that most startups will fail, but what he seems to miss (or Thiel doesn&apos;t point out): Thiel Fellows also have a credential of a kind, and even in failure, an extremely lucrative one.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>mmatants</author><text>But both are still valuable, aren&apos;t they? Perhaps school and startup experiences are in combination worth more than the sum of the parts.</text></comment>