|
 Hundreds
of students send me e-mail each year asking for advice about
education. They want to know what to study, or whether it's
okay to drop
out of college since that's what I did. 
A
smaller number of parents send messages, seeking guidance
for their son or daughter. "How can we steer our child
toward success?" they ask.
My
basic advice is simple and heartfelt:
Get the best education you can. Take advantage of high school
and college. Learn how to learn.
It's
true that I dropped out of college to start Microsoft,
but I was at Harvard for three years before dropping out——and
I'd love to have the time to go back. As I've said before,
nobody should drop out of college unless they believe they
face the opportunity of a lifetime. And even then they should
reconsider.
Kathy
Cridland, a sixth-grade teacher in Ohio,
wrote to say, "Several of my students claim that you
never finished high school. Since you are a success, my students
perceive that as a reason not to care much about getting a
good education."
I
finished high school!
The
computer industry has lots of people who didn't finish college,
but I'm not aware of any success stories that began with somebody
dropping out of high school. I actually don't know any high
school dropouts, let alone any successful ones.
In
my company's early years we had a bright part-time programmer
who threatened to drop out of high school to work full-time.
We told him no.
Quite
a few of our people didn't finish college, but we discourage
dropping out. Having a diploma certainly helps somebody who
is looking to us for a job.
College
isn't the only place where information exists. You can learn
in a library. But somebody handing you a book doesn't automatically
foster learning. You want to learn with other people, ask
questions, try out ideas and have a way to test your ability.
It usually takes more than just a book.
Education
should be broad, although it's fine to have deep interests,
too.
In
high school there were periods when I was highly focused on
writing software, but for most of my high school years I had
wide-ranging academic interests. My parents encouraged this,
and I'm grateful that they did.
Although
I attended a lot of different kinds of classes in college,
I signed up for only one computer class the whole time. I
read about all kinds of things.
One
parent wrote me that her 15-year-old son "lost himself
in the hole of the computer." He got an A in website
design, but other grades were sinking, she said.
This
boy is making a mistake. High school and college offer you
the best chance to learn broadly — math, history, various
sciences — and to do projects with other kids that teach you
first-hand about group dynamics. It's fine to take a deep
interest in computers, dance, language or any other discipline,
but not if it jeopardizes
breadth.
If
you fall into an obsessive
pattern in high school, you've got two problems. One is that
you're unlikely to change when you go to college. The other
is that if you don't get reasonably good grades, it's hard
to go to a college that has the highly motivated, capable
students who can really help you learn about the world.
In
college it's appropriate to think about specialization. Getting
real expertise in an area of interest can lead to success——unless
the specialty ends up being a dead end or you're not good
at. Graduate school is one way to get specialized knowledge,
although extended college education isn't always a good investment
from a purely economic standpoint.
↑TOP (617
words)
|
Listen
