BENJAMIN GOERING does not look like Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, talk like him or

inspire the same controversy. But he does apparently think like him.Two years ago,

Mr. Goering was a sophomore at the University of Kansas, studying computer science

and philosophy and feeling frustrated in crowded lecture halls where the professors

did not even know his name.“I wanted to make Web experiences,” said Mr. Goering,

now 22, and create “tools that make the lives of others better.”
本杰明·戈林(Benjamin Goering)的长相和说话方式都不像Facebook的创始人马克·扎克伯格

(Mark Zuckerberg)，也不像他那样备受 争议。但是他们的想法显然是相似的。两年前，戈林先

生在堪萨斯大学(University of Kansas)读大二，学习计算机科学和哲学。在 拥挤的大教室里

，他感到郁闷，在那里，教授们甚至不知道他叫什么。“我想要创造网络体验，”现年22岁的戈

尔说，“创造出那种 让其他人生活得更好的工具。”

So in the spring of 2010, Mr. Goering took the same leap as Mr. Zuckerberg: he

dropped out of college and moved to San Francisco to make his mark. He got a job as

a software engineer at a social-software company, Livefyre, run by a college

dropout, where the chief technology officer at the time and a lead engineer were

also dropouts. None were sheepish about their lack of a diploma. Rather, they were

proud of their real-life lessons on the job.“Education isn ’t a four-year program,

” Mr. Goering said. “It’s a mind-set.”
所以，在2010年的春天，戈尔先生跨出了和扎克伯格相同的一步：为了做出成绩，他从大学退学

，搬去了旧金山。他在一家社交软件 公司Livefyre得到了一份软件工程师的工作。这家公司是

由一个大学辍学者创立的，当时的首席技术官和首席工程师也是从大学辍学 。他们并没有因为

缺少一张文凭而羞于启齿，反而因为自己从工作中获得的现实生活经验感到自豪。“教育不是一

个四年的项目，” 戈尔先生说，“而是一种思维模式。”

The idea that a college diploma is an all-but-mandatory ticket to a successful

career is showing fissures. Feeling squeezed by a sagging job market and mounting

student debt, a groundswell of university-age heretics are pledging allegiance to

new groups like UnCollege, dedicated to “hacking” higher education. Inspired by

billionaire role models, and empowered by online college courses, they consider

themselves a D.I.Y. vanguard, committed to changing the perception of dropping out

from a personal failure to a sensible option, at least for a certain breed of risk-

embracing maverick.Risky? Perhaps. But it worked for the founders of Twitter, Tumblr

and a little company known as Apple.When Mr. Goering was wrestling with his

decision, he woke up every morning to a ringtone mash-up that blended electronic

tones with snippets of Steve Jobs’s 2005 commencement address at Stanford

University, in which he advised, “love what you do,” “don’t settle.” Mr.

Goering took that as a sign.
以往人们总觉得大学文凭是成功事业的敲门砖，而今这种观点正显露出缺陷。低迷的就业市场和

高企的学生贷款带来的压力，让一大 批处在上大学年龄的叛逆青年宣布投奔“不上大

学”(UnCollege)这种旨在“攻击”(hack)高等教育的新团体。受到亿万富翁榜样的激 励，再加

上便利的网络大学课程，他们认为自己是独立自主的先锋。至少对于这一群敢于冒险的特立独行

的人来说，退学不再是个人 的失败，而是一个明智的选择。冒险？也许吧。但是这个模式放在

Twitter、Tumblr，以及一家小公司——苹果的创始人身上都成功了 。当戈林在权衡自己的抉择

时，他设置了这样一段混搭闹铃，电子乐混合着史蒂夫·乔布斯(Steve Jobs)2005年在斯坦福大

学 (Stanford University)的演讲片段，他在当中说道，“热爱你的工作”、“不要停下来”。

戈尔把这看成是一个信号。

“It’s inspiring that his dropping out basically had no effect, positive or

negative, on the work and company and values he could create,” he said of the late

Apple co-founder.In that oft-quoted address, Mr. Jobs called his decision to drop

out of Reed College “one of the best decisions I ever made.” Mr. Jobs’s “think

different” approach to education (backpacking through India, dining with Hare

Krishnas) is portrayed in countless hagiographies as evidence of his iconoclastic

genius.Indeed, ambitious young people who consider dropping out of college a smart

option have a different set of role models from those in the 1960s, who were

basically stuck with the acid-guru Timothy Leary and his “turn on, tune in, drop

out” ramblings. Nowadays, popular culture is portraying dropouts as self-made

zillionaires whose decision to spurn the “safe” route (academic conformity) is

akin to lighting out for the territories to strike gold.
他还说起了已故的苹果公司创始人：“鼓舞人心的是，他退学对于他的工作、他创建的公司以及

他所创造的价值来说没有影响，无论 是积极的还是消极的。”在那次经常被引用的演讲中，乔

布斯把他从里德学院(Reed College)退学的决定称为“我做过的最棒的决定 之一”。乔布斯先

生的“非同凡想”(think different)的教育理念（背包穿越印度和克利希那派教徒一起吃饭）

被记载在无数传记中 ，证明着他是个打破旧习的天才。实际上，那些认为退学是明智之举的野

心勃勃的年轻人和生于60年代的人拥有不同的榜样。后者主 要受到迷幻药大师蒂莫西·利里

(Timothy Leary)以及他那句“打开心扉、自问心源、脱离尘世”(turn on, tune in, drop

out)的影 响。如今，流行文化正把辍学者描绘成白手起家的亿万富翁，他们决定摒弃“安全”

路线（遵从学业要求），类似于为了掘金而抢占 领地。

Bill Gates dropped out of college. So did Michael Dell. So did Mr. Zuckerberg, who

made the Forbes billionaires list at 23.Mr. Zuckerberg’s story is familiar to

anyone who has seen the 2010 film “The Social Network,” in which Harvard seems

little more than a glorified networking party for him. While the other Phi Beta

Kappas are trudging through their Aristophanes, his character is hitting the

parties, making contacts and making history. The dropout- mogul-as-rock-star meme

will get a further boost with coming Steve Jobs biopics, including “Jobs,”

starring Ashton Kutcher, and another one in the works written by Aaron Sorkin, who

wrote the screenplay for “The Social Network.”
比尔·盖茨(Bill Gates)从大学退学，迈克尔·戴尔(Michael Dell)和23岁就登上福布斯亿万富

豪榜的扎克伯格同样如此。那些看过 2010年电影《社交网络》(The Social Network)的人都熟

知扎克伯格的故事。对于扎克伯格来说，哈佛大学(Harvard)无非是一场光鲜 的社交聚会。当其

他被选入优等生荣誉学会的同学(Phi Beta Kappas)苦读他们的阿里斯托芬(Aristophanes)时，

他的兴趣却是享受聚 会、广交朋友，以及创造历史。随着一系列乔布斯传记电影即将上映——

其中包括由阿什顿·库彻尔(Ashton Kutcher)主演、《社交 网络》的编剧阿伦·索尔金(Aaron

Sorkin)操刀的《乔布斯》，这一“辍学生大亨成为巨星”的文化基因将进一步发扬光大。