I think you're both right. Thiel is right that most folks don't need to go to college and it's horribly over-priced, etc. You're right that we have a lot of investors with a large personal self-ish financial interest in having as many developers and engineers, especially younger/cheaper ones, available to execute on their startup ideas and/or to "invest" (buy lottery tickets on) in them. So you're both right. No contradiction.