I recently decided not to attend UC Berkeley in favor of starting my career in product design. A lot has already been covered here, but a couple points:
> Got a chance to reboot my education, which was something I really needed to do.
Your entire personal anecdote is based off of you dropping out of high school. One could argue that if you had completed high school, there would be less value in college for you.
> I don't think Gates and Zuckerberg are good role models for young people.
You don't think Bill Gates is a good role model for young people? What's a better role model then one of the world's richest people trying to solve giant social issues? Gates should be a role model to all rich people! Zuck's not there yet, but his recent charitable giving suggests that later in his life he'll follow the same path.
> Most kids who try to be the next billionaire entrepreneur will fail.
When did being an entrepreneur become all about making money? Of all the college dropouts-turned SV kids I know (including myself) money is never the primary driver.
> And if we push the kids toward that, we will lead them to believe, mistakenly, that it's enough to create a massive fortune. It is not enough. And if they fail to create the fortune, according to this standard, they will have failed in life.
What 'standard' are you referring to? I think a lot college students these days understand that money doesn't equal happiness.
I think the author is a bit misguided as to the reasons behind some kids choose not to attend college. Personally, I'm devoted to product design, learn better on my own/with a small team, and affiliate strongly with SV culture. I'm not worried that I'm not going to be 'educated' – I see that as a ten-year, twenty-year, or even lifetime goal.
The acceptance rate has varied considerably by batch. It's generally pretty low, but I think the numbers are incredibly misleading. The reason is that most of the people we say no to don't really want Hacker School for what it is (e.g., they're looking for some sort of Rails bootcamp, or they want to prototype apps and products, not focus on becoming a better programmer) and/or because they don't seem to actually like programming very much.
I think we accept the majority of people who a) really enjoy programming, and b) have a clear idea of what Hacker School is and is not. If you meet those two criteria, your odds of getting in are quite good :)
I think good designers these days are used to HTML/CSS/JS - designing in Photoshop alone these days just doesn't cut it. This is why Pixate is so interesting.
> Got a chance to reboot my education, which was something I really needed to do.
Your entire personal anecdote is based off of you dropping out of high school. One could argue that if you had completed high school, there would be less value in college for you.
> I don't think Gates and Zuckerberg are good role models for young people.
You don't think Bill Gates is a good role model for young people? What's a better role model then one of the world's richest people trying to solve giant social issues? Gates should be a role model to all rich people! Zuck's not there yet, but his recent charitable giving suggests that later in his life he'll follow the same path.
> Most kids who try to be the next billionaire entrepreneur will fail.
When did being an entrepreneur become all about making money? Of all the college dropouts-turned SV kids I know (including myself) money is never the primary driver.
> And if we push the kids toward that, we will lead them to believe, mistakenly, that it's enough to create a massive fortune. It is not enough. And if they fail to create the fortune, according to this standard, they will have failed in life.
What 'standard' are you referring to? I think a lot college students these days understand that money doesn't equal happiness.
I think the author is a bit misguided as to the reasons behind some kids choose not to attend college. Personally, I'm devoted to product design, learn better on my own/with a small team, and affiliate strongly with SV culture. I'm not worried that I'm not going to be 'educated' – I see that as a ten-year, twenty-year, or even lifetime goal.