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In the last few years, I have been reasoning about the value of going to University. One of the earliest articles I have ever written was about University and the value of the Peter Thiel Fellowship. That article was live a year before I went to University, I had different expectations and perspective of what my life was going to be. The tweet you find below it’s what has really made me thinking about life, University, capitalism and money. Taking aside the level of sadness of T. Boone Pickens.
Congratulations @drdre. Welcome to the 1%. #YouBuiltThat @tim_cook #apple #beats
— T. Boone Pickens (@boonepickens) May 9, 2026
A degree, wether you get it in in Italy, Uk, USA, is a fast track to be part of the 99%. The debt you accumulate in taking it is not even comparable to the knowledge that University is helping you to gain. After three or four years of learning, with a support, we look for a job because for the next sixty years we’ll have to be worried about a mortgage and our student debt.
The challenge is in having the courage to realise you can learn what they can teach at Uni on your own and try to be part of the 1%; but people don’t have that courage, neither do I. Without a support, without a piece of paper that says that for four years you have been studying what the University has told you to, you can’t go anywhere. That’s why there should be more Peter Thiel fellowships around the world, to give stability even to those who want to face a different challenge, which doesn’t include debt and a system that is brainwashing you.
Stability is what really makes the choice and a degree is what should be supposed to give you. There aren’t any other ways to reach it, unless you start working straight away. On the other hand, if we were able to spend those four years on self-learning with the aim to build the next generation of entrepreneurs, everything will be completely changed forever. The basic knowledge, especially in the italian system, that will drive you in life, even in further learning, is acquired in high school.
University doesn’t teach you how to reason, critical think, understand, create and also innovate. It’s just an extension of the educational system with a deep focus on a particular subject. For this reason, there should be two possible paths, an entrepreneurial one, supported by the government in a form of loan, and a University one, as it is today. The Peter Thiel Fellowship has already taken a step forward in that direction, by giving to a small number of really exceptional students, another possibility; but what if we were able to give it to everyone?
Friend: “You see that girl, she’s gonna earn £8k this summer because she has got an internship in a bank.”
Me: “Do you remember that guy we were talking to?”
Friend: “Yes.”
Me:”Well, he’s worth twenty times what we could possibly earn in the next 15 years, just with a few months of coding”.
Silence…
That guy doesn’t even remember what degree he got at Uni. What is interesting though, apart from what you can find in a boring textbook, is the University experience, which you should try, at least once. Another possible argument that goes completey against the Peter Thiel Felowship is that University is actually useful.
The stability and creativity that a University gives you is what can really build the next generation of Entrepreneurs wether they are gonna build a small or a billion dollar company. University is the perfect place to learn how to relate with other people, understand different cultures and even find the next big thing. Entrepreneurs are born to solve problems and how can we form the next generation without having them to try what life really means?
That’s why, after several months, I have found the answer to my dilemma. Yes, you are buying a ticket to be part of the 99%, but that ticket gives you time to build, create and even innovate. Use your time at University to start a business, understand the dynamics behind it and keep iterating. In the end, if that idea takes off, you will dropout no matter how well founded you are. Dropping out seems to be a reasonable plan between not going to University or attending it.
People might argue that you can’t waste your time on textbooks if you are trying to build something; that’s not true. The first iterations that you are going to make on your product will be on a minimal viable product, no one expects you to build Google in four weeks.
Always remember that the aim shouldn’t be money, but the independence that you can have only by building or creating things.
ps: who said we wanted to be part of the 1%?
