well, not sure if the people in question were technical geniuses, smart kids good with proven sales aptitude or what (they also were not all Americans, although the official goal was to address problems in American education). Neither do I disagree with the notion that college is obscenely expensive and often provides an education of dubious quality. If anything, I have seen some of the “quality” involved back when I had a side job as a programming tutor.
But, lo and behold, our prayers have been answered and fears allayed. The guy whose occupation is “running a successful venture capital fund” has decided to solve the fundamental problems of college education for the high IQ segment by means of creating 20 startups for 20 hand-picked high school grads. (Applause).
I do have to wonder what this all has to do with finding ways to give intelligent American youngsters a decent engineering or skilled worker / vocational education at an affordable price and with a level of quality sufficient to be hired on graduation. In order to, you know, train some employees who would then work in all the l33t startups this guy loves investing in. But that’s just me, the guy who believes in studying complex problems in search of clever answers. Mr. Thiel, on the other hand, has got it all figured out - the 20 startups are about to shake and rattle the American educational system. It will be shock and awe, I tell ya.
I now invite everybody else here to comment on how wonderful is Peter Thiel’s reformist zeal 