Why? I'm toying with idea of applying, but why is it cargo culting?
I would love it if someone allowed me the time and the intellectual freedom to make things instead of filling in tiny, dark circles on a piece of paper as proof that I'm worthy enough of a future as judged by some vague overlord.
I want to learn and understand things thoroughly, but I will not learn anything to pass some exam. So, for someone like me, but smarter and more driven, this might actually be a net win. I fail to understand how this might be a cargo cult.
It's your job to apply if you feel you could put the grant to good use. It's their job to pick the candidates that qualify based on their internal criteria. Don't try to do their job for them - they're much better at it than you. At best, you're depriving them, yourself, and the world from a potential breakthrough. At worst, you'll get a polite rejection letter.
You don't know what a college program is like yet, it won't be all about scantron multiple choice questions. It should be hard, and you should get exposed to alot of material you hadn't been exposed to. Some of it will be stupid, but that will be a small percentage.
Yes - you could theoretically learn all the stuff you need to learn off of something like opencourseware - but will you?
And there's some cool stuff that will be much harder to learn on your own because you don't have the equipment. The 2 I have in mind are FPGA design, and feedback control systems (balancing pendulums, levitating metal balls with magnetic fields, autonomous race cars)
Curiously enough I have made something analogous to your metal ball levitation. I put most of my school year into it, learnt a lot through OCW and it worked.
A good college program is like that, but where I live college programs are about reading books, sitting in lectures and getting good grades. I just have this funny feeling that it isn't for me. That said if I had to choose between MIT and Peter Thiel then I would choose MIT hands down no matter what.
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Why? I'm toying with idea of applying, but why is it cargo culting?
I would love it if someone allowed me the time and the intellectual freedom to make things instead of filling in tiny, dark circles on a piece of paper as proof that I'm worthy enough of a future as judged by some vague overlord.
I want to learn and understand things thoroughly, but I will not learn anything to pass some exam. So, for someone like me, but smarter and more driven, this might actually be a net win. I fail to understand how this might be a cargo cult.
You should apply. Out of curiosity, what's your age? Have you dropped out?
18. I'm yet to enter college as I took this year off to figure stuff out and work on something...
On the other hand, I doubt that I will apply. I just don't think that I'm good enough for such programs, and why add more noise?
It's your job to apply if you feel you could put the grant to good use. It's their job to pick the candidates that qualify based on their internal criteria. Don't try to do their job for them - they're much better at it than you. At best, you're depriving them, yourself, and the world from a potential breakthrough. At worst, you'll get a polite rejection letter.
I guess, you're right. I will do it.
Thank you.
Thanks!
You don't know what a college program is like yet, it won't be all about scantron multiple choice questions. It should be hard, and you should get exposed to alot of material you hadn't been exposed to. Some of it will be stupid, but that will be a small percentage.
Yes - you could theoretically learn all the stuff you need to learn off of something like opencourseware - but will you?
And there's some cool stuff that will be much harder to learn on your own because you don't have the equipment. The 2 I have in mind are FPGA design, and feedback control systems (balancing pendulums, levitating metal balls with magnetic fields, autonomous race cars)
Curiously enough I have made something analogous to your metal ball levitation. I put most of my school year into it, learnt a lot through OCW and it worked.
A good college program is like that, but where I live college programs are about reading books, sitting in lectures and getting good grades. I just have this funny feeling that it isn't for me. That said if I had to choose between MIT and Peter Thiel then I would choose MIT hands down no matter what.