Ever since Bill Gates started Microsoft, Steve Jobs started Apple and Mark Zuckerberg turned social networking into a billion dollar business,  hordes of young people have begun to question the value of college education.

Is dropping out of college really the way to fortune and fame? Or will it fast-track you to move back home and live with your parents?

 Check out: Why Do App Developers Still Live with Their Moms?

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Glossary

• on-ramp – a lane for traffic entering a turnpike or freeway
• dropout – a person who has abandoned a course of study or who has rejected conventional society to pursue an alternative lifestyle
• procrastination – the action of delaying or postponing something
• merit – the quality of being particularly good or worthy, especially so as to deserve praise or reward
• blow something off – ignore or make light of something
• agile – able to think and understand quickly:
• time value of money
• opportunity cost

Think about it

Answer the questions below.

• Why is young talent “focusing on entrepreneurship as a path forward?”
• Who was the New York Times article the author mentions about? How did the story end for the two developers?
• What does success seem to depend on in the world of app developers?
• In what way does the reward system for app developers resemble drug dealing?
• What does the Thiel Foundation president say about the safe career track? Do you agree? Why? Why not?
• What is the message for aspiring entrepreneurs?

Practice makes perfect

 Fill in the blank spaces with the correct forms of the words in CAPITAL LETTERS.

This is not ________ COMMON. The Apple Store lists more than one million apps and claims that there are 275,000 registered app developers in the U.S. A fair number of apps are ________ DISTINGUISH from one another, and the vast ________ MAJOR will not yield riches, or even a ________ REASON income. It is hard to ________ DOMINATION a product category where a pair of self-taught high school kids can create a bestseller; success in this situation is more a matter of luck than of merit.

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