Readers’ Roundtable: "Paper Belt on Fire"
Ours is an age of credentialism in which university degrees are seen as the only pathway to career success. Paradoxically, this emphasis on educational attainment has coincided with a period of economic stagnation, not to mention mounting student debt. At our Readers’ Roundtable, the Adam Smith Society joined with Michael Gibson to learn more about his efforts—first through the Thiel Fellowship and then through his venture capital fund 1517—to undermine universities’ monopoly on bestowing credentials so as to spur innovation. The Adam Smith Society held a virtual discussion on Paper Belt on Fire: How Renegade Investors Sparked a Revolt Against the University.
The Adam Smith Society Readers’ Roundtable is a virtual quarterly reading club that provides members an opportunity to dive deeper into some of today’s most insightful and influential works on free market ideas and public policy. Complimentary access to reading materials is guaranteed for supporting members of the Adam Smith Society. To support the Adam Smith Society’s work and mission, you can learn more about how to do so HERE.
Speaker
Michael Gibson is the cofounder of the venture capital fund 1517, which is devoted to backing dropouts and people who never stepped foot on a college campus. Before his academic apostacy, he was working towards a doctorate in philosophy at the University of Oxford. He has written on innovation and technology for MIT’s Technology Review, National Review, the Atlantic, and City Journal.