Dropped out of school at 18 and joined Google at 22, chatting and laughing with Jeff Dean. Is a bachelor's degree really necessary?

There are no fixed answers in life, but Chris Olah’s path may not be suitable for everyone.

If you have the opportunity to join a top AI company at a young age and often chat and laugh with industry leaders, would you still go back to university and work hard to pass all the exams to get a bachelor's degree?

People have heard of many legendary stories of people who dropped out of school to start a business and became famous overnight, such as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Mark Zuckerberg... Some young people who did not complete college eventually achieved great success in business, which also led to the prevalence of views such as "college is useless".

To go to college or not to go to college, how to choose?

Chris Olah, a "child prodigy" who dropped out of school at the age of 18 and joined Google at the age of 22, wrote his own thoughts in a blog. He believes that instead of asking "Is it good to go to college?", it is better to ask yourself: "Is there something more attractive waiting for me to do?"

Chris Olah's life experience is different from that of ordinary people. When he just started deep learning research, he was guided by the famous scholar and quantum physicist Michael Nielsen. In 2013, Turing Award winner Yoshua Bengio invited him to MILA and tried to let him complete his studies as a graduate student without an undergraduate degree, but Chris Olah finally refused. When he was at Google, he was an intern of Jeff Dean. Later, with the help of Greg Corrado, he became a full-time employee of Google. Currently, he is a research scientist at OpenAI, and he is only 28 years old.

Of course, all this happened with a prerequisite: he won the Thiel Fellowship, which gave him two years to try out the work he likes. (The Thiel Fellowship selects 20 to 25 teenagers under the age of 20 from around the world every year, invites them to Silicon Valley, and provides connections and resources to help these teenagers start their own businesses. Each member can get a scholarship of $100,000, provided that you must drop out of school for two years.)

In a recent blog post, Chris Olah introduced his views on whether to go to college and some of the decision-making thinking behind it. The following is a summary of the blog content.

As a researcher without a bachelor's degree or a doctorate, I have indeed achieved some small success. Therefore, people often ask me: "Can I succeed without going to college?" "Can you help persuade my parents?" I probably received a hundred emails with such subject lines, but I still don't know how to reply.

I don't like to encourage people I don't know to take a non-traditional path because I think it's riskier and depends a lot on individual circumstances. However, I believe that many of the people who wrote to me have the opportunity and the means to go to university. At the same time, for some others, taking a different path may be a good choice and (in some cases) a better choice than going to university.

Unfortunately, society doesn’t offer much support or recognition for this unconventional path, so if you choose to go down this path, you need to consider not only whether it’s a good choice, but also the emotional and social challenges you may face later on.

What I can offer, and what this article will convey, are some thoughts on the decision-making process, some resources that may help you cope with social and emotional challenges, and some helpful resources.

How to make decisions?

1 tip: Compare going to college with your specific options.

For example, instead of asking, “Is college a good idea?” ask, “Are there more attractive things I could be doing?”

Don’t ask “Should I pursue a PhD?” Ask “Which environment is more conducive to my research career?”

It's not bad to take a year off to do something else. If you want to go back to school, it's just a gap year. What matters most is whether you spend this time fulfilled. If your plan is to study independently or do a project, it's worth considering (although it's very easy to fail). I did this for three years and grew a lot.

Some important questions to ask yourself are:

Is there anything I’d love to spend a year exploring or pursuing?

Can I support myself while still giving myself the time and energy to grow?

Can I really do research on my own for months? Do I have experience working on a personal project without outside guidance?

Do I have or can I learn the skills necessary to complete this project independently?

Do I have any hope of getting support from the community or partners?

It’s easier said than done. Without external guidance, it’s like jumping into the abyss. Most of the young people (teens and twenties) who have completed their own careers that I have seen have studied or completed projects independently before they succeeded. For example, many Thiel Scholars have either mastered undergraduate knowledge in a certain field through self-study or have proficient programming skills.

Compared to doing research independently, internships and entrepreneurship may be easier in some ways, especially internships. In the internship process, you have a clear structure and growth path. In this regard, the questions I care about are: How valuable do you think these experiences are? Do you feel you can learn something? Do you feel that this is a good community? Do you think these are important? If you have a sense of urgency, is this urgency justified?

Consequences of not having a degree

It’s important to note that not having a degree can have a number of long-term consequences.

Degrees say a lot. They can easily prove that you have some basic skills, at least in theory. In some fields, you can show your ability in other ways, such as publications, open source projects, portfolios, speeches, awards, work experience, recommendations, etc., and you don't necessarily need a degree to prove it. But in some fields, this method is not so popular.

How to determine what type of field you are in? You can look for successful people in your field who do not have a degree. Even if your field does not emphasize degree certificates, you may switch to other fields later, and perhaps other fields emphasize degree certificates more.

From a demographic perspective, traditional degrees probably matter to most people. And there is a “threshold effect” where once you’ve established your abilities, people start to focus more on your lack of a college degree. This effect seems to be common when working in non-traditional jobs.

In addition, not having a degree is also a major obstacle to applying for an immigration visa unless you have some special skills.

Challenges from family

Unfortunately, even if you are ready to take an unconventional approach to your life, your family may not agree. This can range from mild skepticism to disapproval to coercion. In addition, you may face all kinds of hurtful accusations or gossip.

The reason for objection may be concern about how this unusual behavior will affect you, concern that it may be irresponsible to allow your child to do this, or other reasons.

The most common solution is external recognition: someone won a Thiel Fellowship, someone's startup got funding, these things will make people around you more supportive. In many cases, communicating with family members may be helpful, and emotional support is very important.

Social Challenges

For many people, college is a time of social growth. It is a time to learn social skills, make long-term friends, and develop romantic relationships.

It seems that many precocious young people have fewer friends their own age after leaving college. Does this mean that not going to college will hinder social development? It is difficult to say whether there is a causal relationship between the two.

First of all I think it's OK to have friends who are older than you. These people are often more emotionally mature, thoughtful, and principled than your peers, and sometimes even feel like siblings.

I think if socializing doesn't come naturally to you, college can be a testing ground for you. For example, I've always disliked bars and parties, but I value close friends very much, which requires me to go out and meet people. What should I do? Even if I feel pressured, I still push myself to go to parties. Later I found that it is important to find a social atmosphere that you like, and if you can't find it, you can create it yourself.

Another concern is the impact of not going to college on relationships. Many people have their first serious relationship in college, and I see a lot of men and women worrying about missing out. In my case, most of my peers found their partners during undergraduate studies, but when I was young, I was worried about ending up alone. In fact, not many relationships in college last, and most people find their long-term partners outside of school.

After giving all the advice on whether to go to college, Chris also provides some study and employment resources in his blog. But for most people, is going to college really something they need to worry about?

This article also caused heated discussions in the technology community. One netizen pointed out that the most important thing about college is that it gives you an opportunity to "explore your inner self", and the opportunity cost is very low.

“College gives you a chance to explore who you are and what you care about in a non-pressure environment. Ideally, the last year of high school should be used to explore career options (to better choose a major), but I recommend that most teenagers go to college, even if they know what they want to do.”

Another participant's suggestion was also very realistic:

“The people who say don’t go to college are the same people who go to Cornell and Stanford. For 95% of people, going to college is necessary. If your family doesn’t have a mine and your parents don’t have strong social connections, then college is the only way to improve your life. Even if you don’t learn anything, it’s worth it for that piece of paper.”