The Internet has definitely democratised many opportunities but as a digital nomad who will never complain about the oppprtunities created, and benefited, I must say if there were one thing I would change when doing life over it would be to go to college.
It was a conscious choice not to, I was too convinced I would drop out because of my ongoing desire to build things. But, despite having an acceptable track record, and having read thousands of (non-fiction) books, at times it feels like something is lacking me. Higher education.
Something I have mostly experienced when working in higher roles in more traditional companies, actually. Not necessarily because of demeaning attitude towards somebody without by the old guard, but mostly because they tend to have a very broad knowledge and understanding. Something which often benefited from being guided by experienced, hopefully also inspiring, docents and lecturers.
My own knowledge, and also continued reading, is much more of a patchwork. Which isn’t necessarily bad a thing tho.
I see your point there, but I'll say that it is very unlikely to find someone to guide you in school. I've attended 4 different universities now, and the vast majority of them are simply money making machines. Most professors are overloaded and few will stay the extra time to help you. If you attended higher institution such as Yale, Harvard, I suppose you will find a much higher quality and standard, but the vast majority of us do not and will not have that opportunity.
You do make a great point about mentorship though. In my career, the governing body called ASCE or American Society of Civil Engineers, posted an article about why the attrition rate is so high. The number one surveyed reason is lack of mentorship.
So with that said, mentorship is a leading point in life no matter what happens, even if you don't go to school. My next blog is actually about that very topic!
As I wrote my comment I realised that I would probably aim at higher, Ivy League.
I agree that many universities are burdened by poor financial, and also organizational, structures. I have personally seen this when I was a regular guest lecturer at lower league universities in the UK (about social media) in 2009-2010. Indeed, they didn’t inspire. Usually the only inspired students were the bright cookies who went out and ahead and whose drive for knowledge was never ending.
After having gathered an own track record in the world of startups, I actually became an almost full-time mentor to startups. With better mentors, we probably wouldn’t have blown the $12m VC on our largest venture in 2012. If only somebody had told me about lean methodology. 🤷♂️