Why I dropped out of college to work on a startup | Hacker News Reader

Why I dropped out of college to work on a startup

leostartsup.com

27 pointsbenjlang23 comments

Meh. I dropped out for awhile, learned a lot, went back to college, learned some more. Dropping out should be a non-issue, something that just happens because you ran out of time. Making arguments for it just always struck me as apologetics.

HN is filled with this kind of crap these days

It's not crap. It's someone's life. It just makes you (us) feel bad because they appear happier than we are.

I would agree with you if there wasnt a dozen posts on HN each week along the lines of "[How/Why] I [verb]'d [occupation] to [verb] [activity]"

Agree

It's kitschy schlock that makes Horatio Alger look like Voldemort.

Agree to disagree.

The "why I dropped to found a startup" genre would be more interesting if we got to see how well it turned out. Most of these stories I've seen are written when the startup still has 0 users.

This one claims to have some "traction." I don't see how many users that is, or whether they've built something sustainable yet.

But, if anyone dropped out a couple years ago, and has some results to talk about... I'm curious whether these ever turn into something.

Exactly - every week some douche is writing shit all over the place. Unless they talk about the product this is just pointless information people have to know.

If I had discovered HN and the lean startup methodology earlier in college I might have done the same. But he's very fortunate to have created such a popular service to be able to change his life direction like this so early.

In university, the faculty is very open with the fact that they are shoehorning us into software jobs at big oil and gas companies, which is why they don't provide resources and awards for students with innovative ideas. So it often does feel like my university experience isn't helping me achieve the goals that I want in life.

In university, the faculty is very open with the fact that they are shoehorning us into software jobs at big oil and gas companies

I don't know where you went to school, but I don't think this is common at most schools (it's the first time I've heard it suggested).

The oil province of Canada :|

I have mixed feelings about this. I got terrible grades in college, and dropped out three times. The idea of ever going back makes me feel queasy. I hated it, and I wouldn't wish it upon anybody that feels like me.

Then again, nobody took me seriously before I graduated. I always had lots to offer, but no opportunities to offer it. Graduating gave me opportunities to meet people who could look past my grades and still see me as an intelligent, capable person. Those people ended up helping me to get my first "real" job...a job I got fired from for being "too technical", but nonetheless, a job which put an immense amount of experience on my resume in a short amount of time. In other words, college sucked ass, but it opened so many doors that I can't be too bitter about it.

I guess my true feelings on the matter are as follows: drop out, but make sure you are dropping out because you have an amazing opportunity...not because you don't like it.

Oh, and if you do drop out, never say to yourself "I don't care what anybody thinks of my decision". You do, and you are lying to yourself. You can't succeed anywhere without a decent subset of people trusting you. If you can earn their trust without a degree, awesome. If you can't, you either need to find a different subset of people, or you need to earn it the way that they expect.

He made a good point here in eliminating unnecessary risks (for him, dropping out of college) by retaining as much optionality for as long as he can, and at the same time working hard at his startup. As an entrepreneur there are lots of risks in running a startup, a lot of which are not within the founders' control (traction, market direction, etc). Managing risk is an important part of managing one's psychology as a founder.

Leo's story is one of humility and gratitude - I have always found them(the Buffer team) as an inspiration not just because of their startup's traction (which can be unpredictable) but more because of their character, endless seeking of improvement professionally and personally, and passion in giving back to the startup community.

(most ignoring the post and going off on a rant)

When I read the title, I see "Why I left a culture of strict rules and judgement to be happy and do whatever the heck I want."

It's kinda simple really. Why go to college when you can work for yourself, get hundreds of thousands (millions?) of dollars to play with, and not have to study, try, and stress out about getting The Right Answers all the time? Going your own way removes an entire level of judgement from your life. You get to cut ties with the voice constantly whispering "I may not be good enough." But -- then you may never know how good you can be. It'll take you longer to figure out you don't know what you don't know.

It almost feels like "Why I stopped training 8 hours a day to qualify for the Olympics and instead decided to become a fisherman in Hawaii." (Sorry, my analogy machine is on the fritz.)

Be happy, do good work, but not everything in the world can be a my-first-crud-app (though, we haven't found a limit to my-first-crud-app success yet -- there are still tens of thousands more that can be made and generate significant income for the owners). The most impressive things to come will take comprehension obtained through learning, pain, failure, growth, then finally, one day, understanding. If too many clever people abandon the pain of learning for the joy of quickish superficial success we won't be advancing the world very quickly.

Life is pain, highness.

> It almost feels like "Why I stopped training 8 hours a day to qualify for the Olympics and instead decided to become a fisherman in Hawaii." (Sorry, my analogy machine is on the fritz.)

You clearly haven't met Leo in person...

So the only people allowed to comment on his blog post are those that have met the author?

Can you provide an exhaustive list of who these people are so we can [Dead] all other commentary?

The more we continue to invalidate what other people have to say on HN without providing so much as a mere suggestion of a reason for why their thoughts should be disregarded the more we become the ghetto everyone accuses us of being.

Your contribution to the anti-utility of HN is noted and much appreciated!

I think you are taking his comment too literally.

From the part he quoted, it is clear he is saying that Leo is still working hard rather than simply relaxing, as the analogy would suggest.

You did say your analogy was on the fritz, but still... the "training for the olympics" analogy has a huge flaw: When he gets his degree, it probably wouldn't change anything, the coolest thing he could possibly do would probably STILL be that same startup, or something equivalent.

So why go through college? He can probably learn just as much, if not more, doing what he is doing now. The only thing I see him missing out on is "the college experience", which is a lot of different things for different people.

Part of me thinks going through the whole process of one level of education can make you better. If you are doing the same thing after four years of school that you would do when you started, either you weren't paying attention, are unteachable, or were brilliant to start out. Part of me sees 16 year olds changing the world with only skin-deep knowledge (APIs, but not knowing the underlying processes), but ambition enough to float over mountains.

I can't seem to reconcile our broken world of code with things that require real education. You don't see an architecture student dropping out after two years to start his own architecture firm. We don't see premed students dropping out to start hospitals. We don't see kids in the air force academy dropping out and declaring themselves three star generals. But they'll certainly drop out to start a design firm or an online medical records system.

If collegiate computer science education weren't so utterly worthless, there might be fewer dropouts - why would a motivated and intelligent person spend four years of the most productive part of their life and approximately a hundred thousand dollars to learn things that are both largely useless and easily self-taught? If one's goal is to build a useful product and run a company (or do anything at all outside of academia), college is a very poor choice - the debt accumulated alone would sink any entrepreneurial dreams.

My only experience is with computer science, but I would suspect we would see a lot of rapid innovation in military fields were it possible for highly motivated and intelligent 20-somethings to drop out of the air force academy and become local warlords. The fact that the tech sector has so few consequences for failing and so few insurmountable bureaucratic standards is only for the best.

>the coolest thing he could possibly do would probably STILL be that same startup, or something equivalent.

The coolest thing he could possibly do would be getting his Ph.D. and becoming the next Newton, Gauss, Turing, or equivalent.

College isn't for everyone. Not everyone enjoys strict rules, policies, and always having to do what others say. Lots of people want to be their own boss. It's the dream of half of those who post here. Why do you feel offended that other people don't value this level of responsibility?

I've suffered through a life of pain and hardship to learn that life doesn't have to be about pain and hardship. Joy and excitement can be just as powerful if you don't extinguish them with pain and hardship.

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