好英语网退学，创业吧！
TAYLOR WILSON has big dreams: to build nuclear fusion reactors that will solve the world’s energy crisis. “I’ve got some technology that will really change the world, so college right now is not the best option for me,” said Mr. Wilson, who is just 18 but built his first working reactor at 14. He plans to start a company, aided by a $100,000 grant as the recipient of a “20 Under 20” Thiel Fellowship. Before tackling a new form of energy, he will address slightly more modest tasks: detecting nuclear weapons and diagnosing cancer with his technology.
泰勒·威尔逊(Taylor Wilson)有着远大的梦想：建造核聚变反应堆来解决世界能源危机。年仅18岁的威尔逊说，“我掌握了一些能真正改变世界的技术，所以上大学对我来说不是最好的选择。” 他在14岁时就建造了第一个能运转的反应堆。威尔逊计划成立一家公司，而且他获得了“20位20岁以下青年蒂尔奖学金项目”(20 Under 20 Thiel Fellowship)提供的10万美元资助。在探索新能源之前，他会先完成几项稍小一点的任务：利用他掌握的技术检测核武器、诊断癌症。
The two-year fellowship, for applicants under age 20, was started last year by Peter Thiel, the Silicon Valley investor who believes more young people should be chasing breakthrough technologies instead of wasting their time and money in college. Mr. Wilson is in the second group of grant recipients, 39 men and 4 women working on projects like developing unmanned aerial vehicles and building electric car motors with rare earth magnets.
去年，硅谷投资商彼得·蒂尔(Peter Thiel)为20岁以下青年设立了这个为期两年的奖学金项目。他认为应该有更多的青年研究突破性技术，而不是在大学里浪费时间和金钱。威尔逊是第二批奖学金获得者，一共有39名男生和四名女生，科研项目包括无人飞行器、用稀土磁铁制造电动汽车发动机等。
蒂尔招募的正是那些未来的马克·扎克伯格(Mark Zuckerberg)，他这么做实际上正在挖掘硅谷的传统。在这里，咖啡店里坐满了勉强不到20岁的首席执行官，中途退学是一种荣誉的象征——包括史蒂夫·乔布斯(Steve Jobs)、比尔·盖茨(Bill Gates)以及扎克伯格在内的科技领域的最杰出人士都是光荣退学的典范。
But the Thiel Fellowship has also fueled a fierce debate about the value of a college education in a changing economy, one where the skills to write software or build a robot, coupled with an outsize dose of ambition and a youthful belief in one’s ability to change the world, have the potential to produce fame and fortune in a way that few other professions do.
但蒂尔奖学金也已引发了有关大学教育价值的激烈争论。今天的经济格局不断变化，年轻人靠着编写软件或者制造机器人，再加上格外远大的抱负和相信凭借一己之力可以改变世界的自信，就有可能功成名就名利双收，做到其他行业做不到的事情。
“You increasingly have people who are graduating from college, not being able to get good jobs, moving back home with their parents,” Mr. Thiel said. “I think there’s a surprising openness to the idea that something’s gone badly wrong and needs to be fixed.”
“越来越多的大学毕业生因为找不到好工作，只能回家和父母一起住，”蒂尔说。“某些方面出现了问题，需要纠正。我想现在这么想的人格外地多。”
James O’Neill, who runs the Thiel Foundation, blames the cost of college for what he sees as a lack of innovation in areas like energy, transportation, nanotechnology, space travel and robotics. “Not only does college track you into a career with a big company,” he said, “but for many people, it piles on a huge amount of debt that limits people starting a company or quitting your job to tinker in your garage.”
负责蒂尔基金会的詹姆斯·奥尼尔(James O’Neill)认为，如今在能源、交通、纳米技术、太空旅行、机器人技术领域缺乏创新，都要归咎于大学的学费太贵。“大学教育不仅使你循规蹈矩，进入大公司工作，”他说，“对许多人来说，大学还给他们留下了沉重的债务。这些人必须靠稳固的工资收入来偿还学费贷款，所以他们被捆住了手脚，不敢创业或辞职回家在车库里实践自己的想法。”
The fellowship offers little structure. Fellows meet quarterly to discuss their projects and listen to guest speakers, but they work on their own. The grant comes with no strings; Mr. Thiel doesn’t even get first refusal rights to invest if fellows are raising money to start a company.
这个奖学金项目没有什么固定模式。成员们每季度碰一次头，讨论他们的项目，聆听特邀发言人讲话，但是他们都各干各的。奖学金的发放没有什么附带条件；甚至当成员们集资开办公司时，蒂尔也没有优先投资权。
James Proud is a Thiel fellow who sold his start-up, a music recommendation Web site called GigLocator, in June. “I would’ve been the first person in my family to go to university, so it was a pretty big deal not to go,” he said. “But I decided that I’ve learned so much over the past year, building a company, starting stuff and meeting all these people, that I’d be losing out more if I paused.”
詹姆斯·普劳德(James Proud )参加了蒂尔奖学金项目。他在6月份出售了自己创办的名为GigLocator的音乐推荐网站。“我本来可以是我们家族中第一个上大学的人，所以放弃读大学是一个重大决定，”他说。“但是我在过去的这一年学到了很多，开了公司, 开始了自己的事业，认识了这些人，如果中途停下的话，我将失去更多。”
Eden Full left Princeton to build a device that rotates solar panels so they absorb maximum sunlight, intended for the developing world. She has pilot projects in Africa, India and Peru. Ms. Full plans to reapply to Princeton when her fellowship ends. “I didn’t find college valuable before,” she said. “But I’ve learned so much about myself and I have this newfound appreciation for what college can do for me.”
埃登·菲尔(Eden Full )从普林斯顿大学辍学，她自己研制了一种能够最大程度吸收阳光的旋转太阳电池板，这种电池板主要针对发展中国家。她在非洲、印度和秘鲁建立了试点项目。菲尔打算奖学金项目结束后重新申请回到普林斯顿大学学习。“之前，我并没有觉得大学教育有什么价值，”她说。“但是现在我更了解自己了，我又发现了大学对于我来说的作用。”
But not all Thiel fellows are successful. John Burnham had bold plans to start a company to extract minerals from outer space. He quickly learned that $100,000 was not nearly enough to do that, so he came up with a new idea: creating models to make capital-intensive projects like space exploration economically viable. That idea also floundered, so now Mr. Burnham is figuring out what to do next. “It’s been really eye-opening for me to realize that just because you have a big idea doesn’t mean that’s all it’s going to take to make something happen,” he said.
但并不是所有参加蒂尔项目的人都会成功。约翰·伯纳姆(John Burnham)的计划非常大胆，他想创立公司，从太空中提取矿物质。他很快就意识到要完成这个项目，10万美元是远远不够的。所以他就有了新的想法：建立一种运营模式，使太空探索之类的资本密集型项目变成经济上可行的事。这个设想实施起来也是困难重重，所以伯纳姆正在思考接下来该干什么。“我意识到，只有伟大的构想并不意味它们就能实现，我的眼界更开阔了，”他说。
For those who drop out — and fail to get a start-up off the ground — giving up college can hurt. Unemployment for those with just a high school diploma is 21 percent. And college has countless benefits even for out-of-box thinkers, from networking opportunities to learning practical skills that apply to starting companies.
对那些缀学后却没能成功创业的人来说，放弃大学学业确实是一种损失。高中毕业生的失业率为21%，而即使对那些思维不落窠臼的人来说，大学的好处也还是不少。他们可以建立人脉，学习创办公司需要的实用技能。
William Damon, an education professor who directs the Stanford Center on Adolescence, is studying how young people become entrepreneurs. “A lot of the entrepreneurs are actually doing it based on the education they are getting in colleges or business schools, and the ones who aren’t, the famous exceptions, all have very deep and rich networks, often through their family.”
斯坦福大学青少年研究中心(Stanford Center on Adolescence)主任威廉·戴蒙(William Damon)是一名教育学教授，他研究的课题是青少年如何成长为企业家。“许多企业家创业都依靠在大学或者商学院接受的教育，而那些没有受过大学教育的人，那些著名的个例，都有着深厚的人脉，通常是通过家庭关系形成的。”
Mr. Wilson understands that. “College is the safe route,” he said. “The fellowship is definitely not the safe route. There’s a risk, but the only rewards come with risks.”
威尔逊明白这一点。“上大学是一条保险的途径，”他说。“奖学金项目有风险，并不保险，但有风险才会有回报。”
