[HN Gopher] Peter Thiel's fellowship program has birthed power p...
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       Peter Thiel's fellowship program has birthed power players worth
       more than $220B
        
       Author : arkj
       Score  : 33 points
       Date   : 2022-09-15 18:01 UTC (5 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.businessinsider.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.businessinsider.com)
        
       | keepquestioning wrote:
       | I am surprised that Peter Thiel has walked the talk.
        
         | jshzglr wrote:
         | why?
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | uberman wrote:
       | I think it is important to think of Thiel's program more of a
       | black swan or ycombinator style incubator rather than an
       | alternative to college in the general sense.
       | 
       | Firstly, the program is 50x more selective than Harvard so one
       | might reasonably expect the program to produce a healthy number
       | of successful entrepreneurs.
       | 
       | Secondly, while the program has had some monster successes, a
       | large percentage of fellows end up just going into tech jobs or
       | worse, going to college after their two years are up.
       | 
       | A small-ish number of monster successes with a large-ish number
       | of mediocre failures is fantastic if you are a VC, but not so
       | great if you are a average person looking for an average career
       | in tech.
       | 
       | Still, hats off to Dylan Field with Adobe purchasing Figma.
       | Perhaps he could pay it backwards by providing the scholarships
       | for next year's fellows.
        
         | arkj wrote:
         | > Secondly, while the program has had some monster successes, a
         | large percentage of fellows end up just going into tech jobs or
         | worse, going to college after their two years are up
         | 
         | Any reference that has data around this claim?
        
           | uberman wrote:
           | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8007239
        
         | jhallenworld wrote:
         | Relevant Silicon Valley episode:
         | 
         | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAxzkl2cmNY
        
         | paxys wrote:
         | YC is the wrong comparison. This is a lot more like an old
         | school patronage - give smart/talented/motivated young people
         | money with no strings attached, just so they can live their
         | lives without worrying about rent and food. Chances are some of
         | them will eventually produce works of exceptional value. The
         | MacArthur Grant is a famous modern example.
         | 
         | There's no point in judging the program in terms of success or
         | failure, like this article is trying to do. Thiel isn't
         | investing in anything. Returns, if any, aren't measurable. It
         | is simply one of the thousands of scholarships and grants out
         | there, with the only noteworthy thing being the "you have to
         | drop out of school for two years" clause.
        
           | tough wrote:
           | How much ETH does Peter Thiel have been able to secure at a
           | very early stage because of the grant?
        
             | paxys wrote:
             | Exactly the same as you or I could have secured had we
             | bought it early enough.
        
               | uberman wrote:
               | While technically true, you might be interested in how
               | Thiel has used his self directed Roth IRA.
               | 
               | As a VC, working with startup stage entrepreneurs, he is
               | in exactly the right spot to make well informed early
               | stage investments.
        
               | [deleted]
        
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