In Silicon Valley, a group of 18-year-olds are bypassing college

A new talent cultivation path is emerging.

Business Insider recently published a new report on Generation Z entrepreneurs.

The article found that driven by the wave of artificial intelligence, more and more young entrepreneurs are beginning to re - evaluate the value of a university education. Different from the classic Silicon Valley narrative of "dropping out of college to start a business" in the past, some young people are starting to bypass college, work in startups, or start their own businesses right after high school.

Among the young entrepreneurs participating in the dialogue, some have given up their accepted college offers, while others have chosen to defer enrollment and devote more time to their startup projects. In the past, such a choice was usually considered a risk.

But in today's Silicon Valley, it is becoming increasingly common.

Behind this trend, there are not only the practical factors of AI technology lowering the threshold for starting a business, but also the long - standing dissatisfaction in Silicon Valley with the traditional education system. More importantly, some Silicon Valley companies and investment institutions are also starting to openly explore talent cultivation paths outside of college.

In fact, in the past two decades, there has been a kind of myth - like success narrative in Silicon Valley: Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard to found Microsoft, Steve Jobs left Reed College to found Apple, and Mark Zuckerberg wrote the original code for Facebook in his Harvard dormitory.

The success stories told over and over again have gradually shaped a cultural imagination: innovation that changes the world doesn't necessarily have to be born in the classroom.

However, even in these legendary stories, college still plays an important role.

Recalculating the Opportunity Cost of College

For many young people born after 2000, they grew up in an era when the Internet was almost ubiquitous. YouTube, Reddit, Github, and various online course platforms have formed another knowledge system - what used to be accessible only in college classrooms can now often be obtained for free on the Internet.

With the popularization of large - model tools such as ChatGPT and Claude, the threshold for knowledge acquisition has been further lowered. Whether it's learning programming, researching the market, or building product prototypes, young people can use AI to complete tasks that used to require a professional team.

Several young entrepreneurs interviewed by Business Insider mentioned that the speed of technological change is influencing their judgment of college.

Some people seriously considered studying majors such as computer science in college but ultimately chose to join startups or start their own businesses directly.

In their view, the speed of technological change far exceeds the speed of college curriculum updates. While the classroom is still teaching the technical frameworks from a few years ago, startups are facing new models, new tools, and new market demands every day.

Compared with a four - year systematic education, they are more willing to invest their time in real projects.

They believe that what really needs to be re - evaluated is not the college itself, but the return corresponding to the four - year investment, especially in the context where AI tools can help individuals learn and work quickly. Some people point out that the most valuable learning no longer takes place in the classroom, but in the real market.

In the Business Insider report, an entrepreneur explained his choice by saying that he was not "giving up education" but choosing another way of education. Communicating with users, solving product problems, and facing market feedback every day is a form of learning in itself. Compared with following a course schedule, he prefers to let real - world problems determine what knowledge he needs to master today.

For the education industry, what this reflects is not just the personal choices of young people, but a bigger question: When the ways of knowledge acquisition, starting a business, and career growth paths are all changing, is college still the only entry point for innovators?

A New Talent Cultivation Path is Emerging

If the young entrepreneurs' re - thinking about the value of college can be understood as a personal choice, then a more notable change is that some companies and investment institutions at the core of the technology industry are actively supporting this choice.

In the Business Insider report, a company that is repeatedly mentioned is Palantir.

This data - analysis company co - founded by Peter Thiel has publicly discussed college education and talent selection issues several times in recent years. This year, Palantir launched a talent program called "Meritocracy Fellowship".

This program is open to young people after high school. Applicants do not need to have a college degree, nor are they required to enter college. After passing the screening, they will directly join Palantir to participate in real projects and receive a regular salary.

Palantir's reason is simple.

They believe that ability, creativity, and problem - solving skills are not always highly correlated with academic qualifications. Especially in an era of rapid technological change, companies hope to find people who can learn and adapt quickly, rather than simply screening based on educational background.

In fact, behind Palantir stands one of the most well - known "anti - college" figures in Silicon Valley - Peter Thiel.

In 2011, Thiel established the well - known Thiel Fellowship. According to the project rules, young people who receive the grant can each get $100,000 in funding, and one of the conditions is to leave college and focus on starting a business for two years.

This program has sparked great controversy.

American society has long regarded higher education as an important channel for personal upward mobility, and a well - known investor openly encouraging young people to leave college seems to be challenging the entire education system. But Thiel has always adhered to his view. He has publicly stated many times that American society's superstition about college diplomas has gone beyond the scope of reason, and true innovation often comes from those who dare to deviate from the established path.

More than a decade has passed, and the Thiel Fellowship has funded hundreds of young entrepreneurs. Some of them have later founded companies valued at hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars. Although the number of successful cases is still small, this project at least proves one thing: in Silicon Valley, college is no longer considered the only legitimate path for talent growth.

This trend also has a notable feature: most of the participants are young men.

Business Insider mentioned in the report that whether it's choosing to defer college enrollment, giving up a degree to start a business, or participating in alternative training programs provided by technology companies, men often account for a higher proportion. From the Thiel Fellowship to Palantir's Meritocracy Fellowship, the most attention - grabbing participants in the public eye are mostly male entrepreneurs.

The combination of the AI startup boom and the existing gender structure in the technology industry makes this phenomenon even more obvious.

Meanwhile, the American education community has been paying attention to another set of data in recent years: the proportion of women entering college has been higher than that of men for many years. In some colleges, the number of female undergraduates significantly exceeds that of male undergraduates. For some young men, college is no longer considered the only upward - mobility channel, and starting a business, developing technology, and joining high - growth technology companies have become alternative life choices worth trying.

However, Business Insider also pointed out that there is not enough evidence to show that this phenomenon will evolve into a large - scale social trend.

For the vast majority of young people, college is still an important path to enter society. But at least in the most active startup circles in Silicon Valley, the choice of "skipping college and directly entering the industry" is gaining more and more recognition from young men.

When Starting a Business No Longer Requires a Large Team

An important prerequisite for young people to dare to re - evaluate the value of college is that starting a business is becoming easier. In the broader Silicon Valley startup ecosystem, more and more investors are starting to pay attention to the group of young entrepreneurs.

Some startup teams are formed in college or even in high school, and the development of AI has further lowered the threshold for young people to enter the startup field.

In the past, investors often preferred founders with prestigious school backgrounds and big - company resumes; today, the importance of product capabilities, user growth rate, and technical execution is increasing.

Some investors point out that the AI era may even be the most advantageous era for young entrepreneurs.

They believe that when the technological paradigm changes, the value of experience is partially weakened, and the importance of learning ability is magnified. Compared with industry veterans who are used to the old model, young people who have no historical baggage and are willing to quickly try new tools are more likely to seize opportunities.

This logic is similar to the rapid development stage of the Internet.

Twenty years ago, many young entrepreneurs were able to challenge traditional software giants because they were the first to understand the Internet. Today, the window of opportunity created by AI is providing similar opportunities for a new generation of entrepreneurs.

If the doubts about college in Silicon Valley in the past mainly came from value - based discussions, then AI has further strengthened these doubts and provided a new practical basis for them.

In the Internet era, starting a technology company still required a relatively high threshold. Developing a product required an engineering team, designing an interface required professional designers, and promoting a product required a marketing team. Even the leanest startups often needed a team of dozens of people.

But in the era of generative AI, these thresholds are dropping rapidly.

One person can use Claude to generate code, use ChatGPT to conduct market research, use Midjourney to create visual materials, and use automation tools to handle customer service and operations. Tasks that used to require the collaboration of multiple positions are now being compressed into a single computer and several AI tools.

A new concept has become popular in the American startup circle in the past two years - "Solo Founder", that is, a single - person entrepreneur.

Different from traditional individual entrepreneurship, these entrepreneurs can often use AI to complete the work that used to belong to an entire team. Some venture capital institutions are even starting to discuss the possibility of a "solo unicorn", that is, whether there will be a company valued at one billion dollars operated by a single person in the future.

Although this idea still has an obvious idealistic color, it reflects a reality: AI is reshaping the organizational mode of entrepreneurial activities.

AI is Changing the Way of Knowledge Acquisition

The discussion about the value of college is not a phenomenon unique to the AI era. Even before the explosion of generative AI, American society had been debating the cost of higher education for many years.

In the past few decades, the tuition fees of American universities have been rising continuously. According to data from American education statistics institutions, the annual comprehensive cost of many private universities has exceeded $80,000. For ordinary families, a four - year college education means an expenditure of hundreds of thousands of dollars, and many students have to rely on loans to complete their studies.

Meanwhile, the economic return brought by a college diploma is no longer as certain as in the past: in the industrial and information eras, a high - level education was often directly related to higher income. But as the labor market changes more drastically, more and more young people are finding that even with a college diploma, they may not be able to get their ideal jobs. Some graduates of certain majors even face long - term employment difficulties.

At the same time, the Internet and AI are also changing the way of knowledge acquisition.

For most of human history, schools were important mainly because knowledge was scarce. Books were scarce, teachers were scarce, and the channels for obtaining knowledge were also scarce.

One of the important functions that universities have long undertaken - knowledge dissemination - is being challenged by technological progress. This is why more and more education scholars are beginning to think that higher education is undergoing a re - evaluation of its value.

In the past, the most important question for universities was "what to teach".

In the future, the more important question for universities may become "what to offer".

Because when knowledge acquisition becomes easier, the reasons for people to pay for college must change.

Some top universities have also started to make adjustments in this direction. They no longer define themselves as knowledge providers but emphasize the cultivation of research ability, interdisciplinary innovation, connection of entrepreneurial resources, and construction of high - quality communities. In other words, universities are trying to prove that what they offer is not just knowledge, but a growth environment that cannot be replaced by AI.

This is also where the most intense debate occurs between anti - college advocates and education supporters: Silicon Valley entrepreneurs believe that the real world is the true classroom; while university supporters believe that the value of a university is not just about the classroom.

Perhaps the question is not whether a university still has value.

The real question is, in an era when AI can answer questions, generate code, and provide tutoring, what kind of value should a university offer to continue to be a place where young people are willing to invest four years?

But the value of this discussion lies precisely in the fact that it exposes in advance the pressure that the education system is facing.

In the past, the value of a university hardly needed to be proven; today, it needs to constantly explain why it is important.

In the past, a diploma itself could bring opportunities; today, people are starting to question the real abilities behind the diploma.

This may be the real reason why the Business Insider report has sparked discussions: when more and more young people start to re - evaluate the value of college, what is being re - examined is not just higher education itself, but the entire society's imagination of the paths to learning, growth, and success.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Duozhiwang" (ID: duozhiwang). The author is someone who pays attention to education. It is published by 36Kr with authorization.