I left Silicon Valley 6 years ago
Why?
Because it's a monoculture
The most extreme group think of any place on the planet
Show up to a dinner party and everyone is in tech
So what do they do? They start stack-ranking each other
And it's a totally ordered set: being founder
An easy way to stand out in tech, especially if you work alongside highly technical people: learn the arts.
Improv teaches you to think off the cuff.
Acting builds expression and charisma.
Creative writing trains you to write without slop.
Design courses teach you the first
YC and dropout culture have convinced us the ideal founder is 22, straight out of school, but the data tells a different story.
Some interesting data:
- An MIT study of 2.7 million US founders found that the average founder was 47 when starting a company that later exited
ANNOUNCEMENT: We've opened up 50 spots at the Outliers Summit for students for just $19 (discounted from $209)
Why? Because some of the people who'd get the most out of this room are the ones least able to afford it.
When I was a student, I had no idea there were paths beyond
