Every time this debate comes up (online or offline) it really troubles me because I can not help but wonder how can so many smart people be so blissfully ignorant of how the world actually works. I guess this is the engineers "entrepreneur-tunnel-vision-syndrome".
Few notes about Gates and Zuck: I don't know why people (media in particular) made such a big deal out of dropping out or rather taking a leave of absence/gap year).
They could've always go back if things didn't work out. Dropping out of college is not akin to jumping out of a plane with no parachute. It is just NOT
Also: The both came from money. It is easy to say I want to whatever-I-wanna-do when you have a trust fund ready for you. Having very successful parents/families -just in case you were wondering helps...
Jobs is a more peculiar case because he didn't have anything. But he got lucky and came upon the other Steve who was/is a genius-mastermind.
Third: why the measure of success in tech so extreme? Why do you have to make billions of dollars to be considered successful? In the world today, if you have just a couple thousand dollars in the bank you are living the dream of some six billion other people.
I personally would consider anyone who has made more than 1mil out of a business (in profit) to be successful. The rest of it is just the lust for having more for sake of having more.
Last: College is supposed to get people ready for life. its not supposed to be a vocational school or diploma mill. It is sad that colleges today have became both.
Denying the personal gain that university provides for pupils and the spirit of college amd liberal arts education itself is no worse than denying global warming or evolution.
You can become a programmer and make a buck without going to college but chances are you will not be an enlightened individual without attending a decent higher-ed institution.
(and of course we have people like Ted Cruz to the contrary
but I'm speaking for the majority of population)
Few notes about Gates and Zuck: I don't know why people (media in particular) made such a big deal out of dropping out or rather taking a leave of absence/gap year).
They could've always go back if things didn't work out. Dropping out of college is not akin to jumping out of a plane with no parachute. It is just NOT
Also: The both came from money. It is easy to say I want to whatever-I-wanna-do when you have a trust fund ready for you. Having very successful parents/families -just in case you were wondering helps...
Jobs is a more peculiar case because he didn't have anything. But he got lucky and came upon the other Steve who was/is a genius-mastermind.
Third: why the measure of success in tech so extreme? Why do you have to make billions of dollars to be considered successful? In the world today, if you have just a couple thousand dollars in the bank you are living the dream of some six billion other people. I personally would consider anyone who has made more than 1mil out of a business (in profit) to be successful. The rest of it is just the lust for having more for sake of having more.
Last: College is supposed to get people ready for life. its not supposed to be a vocational school or diploma mill. It is sad that colleges today have became both. Denying the personal gain that university provides for pupils and the spirit of college amd liberal arts education itself is no worse than denying global warming or evolution.
You can become a programmer and make a buck without going to college but chances are you will not be an enlightened individual without attending a decent higher-ed institution.
(and of course we have people like Ted Cruz to the contrary but I'm speaking for the majority of population)