How to start a business, lessons from the tech boom, competing with giants, avoiding "early divorce", the optimal age for entrepreneurship, opportunities in Open AI, and network based universities
Dec 14, 2022Liked by Age of Infovores, Arnold Kling
I love the mentorship idea. It’s possible to go through a university without ever even developing a relationship with a professor. Somehow it seems like universities are paradoxically unable to offer this type of service, especially to undergrads.
The paradox deepens when you consider that the more elite the college and the more money you pay to go there, the less likely a student is to find a mentor. You do all this work to get into MIT and once you’re there you’re being taught by grad students in an auditorium. The faculty select a handful of students to work with on the basis of qualities that amount to proof that they are unlikely to need very much mentorship—if you’ve got it all figured out with perfect paper credentials, seem obedient and a self-starter, then sure I’ll work with you.
It’s appalling to me that we ultimately leave so many promising young people largely on their own to develop their talents despite being willing to throw so much money at the education system.
I love the mentorship idea. It’s possible to go through a university without ever even developing a relationship with a professor. Somehow it seems like universities are paradoxically unable to offer this type of service, especially to undergrads.
The paradox deepens when you consider that the more elite the college and the more money you pay to go there, the less likely a student is to find a mentor. You do all this work to get into MIT and once you’re there you’re being taught by grad students in an auditorium. The faculty select a handful of students to work with on the basis of qualities that amount to proof that they are unlikely to need very much mentorship—if you’ve got it all figured out with perfect paper credentials, seem obedient and a self-starter, then sure I’ll work with you.
It’s appalling to me that we ultimately leave so many promising young people largely on their own to develop their talents despite being willing to throw so much money at the education system.
Could be fertile ground for an innovators dilemma to occur in Mentor U’s favor!