Dropping Out and Other Low-Risk Life Decisions
Risk has never been cheaper, yet commitment has never been harder. On the Thiel Fellowship, the dizziness of freedom, and Silicon Valley accidentally making risk free.
Imagine this: you are 21 years old, freshly bar-legal, approaching your senior year of college (for most of you, congratulations, this is your make-believe do-over). Choose your fighter: Get paid $250,000 by a prestigious fellowship to drop out and build (you’re not exactly sure what yet) Do Y Combinator with a few classmates—no need to drop out, thanks to their new “Early Decision” track, borrowing the language of college and aligning itself with it Sign a return offer with Anthropic, OpenAI, or the frontier lab of your choice for $300k+ for your first year post-grad Go to class, learn,…
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