[CLUG] [OT] Larry Ellison speech (was College stuff)

[Twomey_Mark at emc.com]

>This is actually kina unusual in this day and age. 

Not really, it's the Degree-less crowd that stakes the early claim in any
new IT goldrush, look at Apple, Oracle, Microsoft, Lotus and on and on. None
of the big noises there had a degree between them. Jobs & Woz both were
kicked out of college, Ellison failed four times to get his degree, Gates
and Allen dropped out or where pushed and Mitch Kapor was a Radio DJ before
he annoyed an excellent developer in writing 123 for him.
The only company that started off with a Degree and upward hiring policy was
Adobe, and that was because John & Chuck came from XeroxPARC as well as
having a few masters and PhD's between them. When they got set up, they
scoured the hobbyist computer clubs looking for talent, not degrees.

The net is the new gold rush, while the Degree people are lounging around in
college, the first wavers are busy building the company's that create the
Degree and Masters jobs. It's always been this way, it always will. I think
it's because a person with a degree feels that if it all goes wrong at least
they have a degree to fall back on, for the degree-less guy if they mess up
they are screwed so the motivation is there to work harder. Just my opinion
of course, no offence to the hardworking degree people out there.

Mark.