Paper Belt on Fire: The Fight for Progress in an Age of Ashes

Description

Written by a successful venture capitalist (and university dropout), this book is part memoir, part guide for the next generation of innovators who seek an alternative to the traditional path in higher education. "Part adventure tale, part manifesto, Paper Belt on Fire is a battle cry for anyone who ever dreamed of wresting power back from corrupt institutions-or of nailing the truth to the cathedral door." -Peter Thiel, author of Zero to One Paper Belt on Fire is the unlikely account of how two outsiders with no experience in finance-a charter school principal and defrocked philosopher-start a venture capital fund to short the higher education bubble. Against the contempt of the education establishment, they discover, mentor, and back the leading lights in the next generation of dropout innovators and in the end make their investors millions. Can such a madcap strategy help renew American creativity? Who would do such a thing? This story is the behind-the-scenes romp of one team that threw educational authorities into a panic. It fuses real-life personal drama with history, science, and philosophy to show how higher education and other institutions must evolve to meet the dire challenges of tomorrow.

Michael Gibson is the co-founder 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 apostasy, 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.

"Part adventure tale, part manifesto, Paper Belt on Fire is a battle cry for anyone who ever dreamed of wresting power back from corrupt institutions-or of nailing the truth to the cathedral door." -Peter Thiel, author of Zero to One "Michael Gibson has spearheaded a recent revolution in education, and how to turn it into true learning and achievement. Paper Belt on Fire gives an inside look at how this was accomplished, the people behind the story, and how and why America can do better." -Tyler Cowen, author of The Great Stagnation and professor of economics, George Mason University "Paper Belt on Fire is both an indictment of failing institutions and a behind-the-scenes adventure about the mischief-makers fighting to renew America's dynamism." -Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Netscape and Andreessen Horowitz