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Comment by TotlolRon | Hacker News Reader

Want to be an entrepreneur? Be an entrepreneur! Want to be a college dropout? Drop out of college!

Me think, education and entrepreneurship are not, and should not be presented as, mutually exclusive.

We love to root for the underdog. Many examples are given in the comments to this post about college grads who founded successful companies (Intel, Bose, etc).

There are arguments both for the enlightening and factory-product aspects of college. Academia is definitely a path to the great body of thought that has come before us; this is particularly important in the field of engineering. At the same time, it also does teach being obligated to an outside sense of importance, possibly diminishing out own internal value systems.

Not a new debate, but one I usually like to leave as, "There's a place for both sides."

Agreed. Talk about sweeping generalizations.

I think you're right, but in my opinion they don't overlap very well either. A startup is very unlikely to succeed without complete devotion and it's very hard to take the most rigorous classes while working >20 hours a week.

Who says you can't start a startup after completing college?

Sally Mae?

Or, pick another college. I attended a school in the City University of New York system. When I started it cost around $700 a year (yes, you read correctly). By the end, even with a massive increase in tuition (by percentage), it cost around $1400. I worked part-time all the way through, lived at home and went off to graduate school debt free. I also got an excellent education. State by state and city by city, I'm sure the quality of public colleges varies, but many local systems are quite good.

This semester I was in school full-time and working on my startup part-time with co-founders. That was a huge mistake. As much as it was fun, the only time where I got major progress done was during vacations, when I should've been focusing on the assignments thrust upon me by my studies. Since I was focusing more on my startup, rather than my classes, my grades ended up not being as good as they could have been.

Luckily, for the next 8 months I get to focus 100% on my startup; I won't have to choose between a mediocre grade and a mediocre product. I'll have the energy and resources to create a great product.

Rats! I stupidly finished college many years ago. Now I can never start a company!

That's not what I'm saying at all. I'm saying I think it's unwise to do both at the same time.

It's basically true. You only have so many hours in the day.

Some colleges may not appreciate out-of-box thinking

If you find yourself in one of them there's no reason you have to let them know you're thinking subversive thoughts.

They are mutual exclusive. But, I particular don't like the flippant nature these advice are being thrown about. I encourage people to think how things will affect them in the worst case scenario. Sometimes, even if you don't want to do something, it might be an easier and quicker path to achieve success.

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