https://www.facebook.com/james.altucher/posts/10152971321845636
I found this post by author James Altucher interesting. In the post Altucher retroactively declares that his education at Cornell and Carnegie Melon was a waste of 5 years of his life. I was wondering what the College Confidential community, a group of people that likely place an emphasis on college education, think of this post. Is James Altucher speaking the truth- would it be a better for highly motivated individuals to forego college?
The link to the Facebook post was blocked out. The post I am referring to is the most recent post on James Altucher’s Facebook page. It can also be found on Quora by googling “James Altucher “the pros and cons of going to college””
James brings up a few interesting points, but I think the most important takeaway from his story is not that college is a complete waste of time for some people, but that self-education is remarkably empowering. The economist Jim Rohn once said that “Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune”. I followed Scott Young’s videos on YouTube for awhile while he was embarking on his MIT computer-science-education-in-a-year, and it was inspiring. However, I think there is something to be said for the people you meet/networking in college. James’ article would probably be more convincing if he himself had forgone college.