This article is a personal reading note and represents my personal opinion only.
The rise of Silicon Valley is largely due to the multi-faceted support of Stanford University. Many large companies in the IT field were founded by Stanford students or professors, including HP, Cisco, Yahoo, Google, Intel, Sun, MIPS, NVIDIA, WebEx, Snapchat, etc. Why can Stanford University create such a miracle?
legendary university
There are many legends about Stanford University circulating on the Internet, some true and some false. The most profound of these is this:
Two hillbilly couples approached Harvard University and offered to donate a building for Harvard. The president of Harvard University said arrogantly
that it cost one million to donate a building, and then dismissed the old couple in three sentences. The old couple
nagging , only a million, only a million. They had 100 million to donate, so they simply donated to a university themselves, which is today's
Stanford University.
There are many holes in this story. First of all, the old Stanford is not an ordinary person. He is not only the railway king of California, but also served as the governor of California and the US senator. He belongs to the elite class (Elite Class) and
is by no means a country bumpkin; and his wife is also an amazing person. . Second, $100 million was a lot of money in the 1800s, and Citibank, the largest bank at the time, had only $7 million in deposits in the 1930s. Third, American universities are very attentive to their donors.
Actually the story about Stanford University is this: the old Stanford and his wife's only child died while traveling in Europe; the old Stanford couple was very sad and decided to use all their wealth to do something for the children of California, in the eastern United States (many schools ) decided to establish a university on the advice of the university president. Named: Stanford. That's where Stanford comes in.
Stanford's first students were about 500, along with 15 professors. Among these students was an American president: Hoover. Stanford University didn't charge fees in the early days, knowing that the school's finances were difficult to maintain during the Great Depression of the 1930s.
The old Stanford passed away after two years of classes at Stanford. Because of the law and the times, the old Stanfords' property was frozen. Because the old Stanford bought a life insurance in front of him, he could get $10,000 a year, and the old Stanford's wife, Jane Stanford, gave the then principal Jordan (this Jordan is not the other Jordan) except for the daily expenses. This is a true philanthropist. In addition, she also personally went to Washington to seek help from the then US President Cleveland, so that the old Stanford couple's railway property was thawed; Jane Stanford sold the property to give Jordan the entire $11 million. The money helped Stanford get through its toughest six years. Principal Jordan praised: "During this period, the fate of the whole school was completely maintained by the love of a kind woman."
The second myth about Stanford University is that Stanford was originally called the Harvard of the West, but later surpassed Harvard, and as a result, Harvard is now called the Stanford of the East. Not to mention whether Stanford has surpassed Harvard in an all-round way, Harvard, the world's first-renowned university, will never call itself the Stanford of the East no matter how bad it is. Likewise, Stanford, with its heart above the sky, is not at all proud to be called the Harvard of the West. In fact, the head of Stanford's public relations proudly said when receiving the delegation from Tsinghua University that Stanford is equal to Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Although Stanford's statement may feel a bit arrogant, it does have its truth.
First, Stanford covers a collection of Harvard and MIT in professional settings. And it was among the top four majors in the United States at the time: medicine, law, engineering and business.
Second, in the concept of running a school, it combines the strengths of Harvard and MIT. Stanford emphasizes both quality education and professional education.
Stanford University's history is not long, so why can it compete with Harvard University and MIT?
After World War II, Stanford experienced a serious financial crisis, because the private school government would not provide a penny, and it could not be spent in the way of MIT (historically, MIT's financial crisis was spent on donations from alumni, but Stanford did not have that many rich alumni). But he has nearly 8,000 acres of land, equivalent to two Macau; but the old Stanford wrote in his will: the school can never sell the land. The solution to this problem was Terman, the "father of Silicon Valley", who proposed to rent out land for 99 years to get enough funds to get Stanford through the crisis. Formation.
Pillars of Silicon Valley
There have been many gathering places for technology companies in the United States and the world. But once a certain or a certain group of large companies begins to decline, the technological development here begins to gradually fall behind. Early tech companies, such as AT&T and IBM, were concentrated around New York, but after these two companies, there are no more companies of this magnitude. Near Boston, especially on both sides of Highway 128, there used to be some big companies like DEC and many companies with great development potential, but with the decline of old companies, new companies have never been able to form scale. It is difficult for this region to have a great influence on the world information industry. Silicon Valley has been able to prosper for half a century. One reason is that it benefits from the development of the Asia-Pacific economy. Another important reason is that Stanford University continues to inject new technologies into Silicon Valley.
Why Harvard and MIT can only produce some small companies but not big multinational companies, but Stanford can? Stanford is not just a professional superposition of Harvard University and MIT, the most important thing is openness: from teaching to research to life, it is integrated into the local area. This makes it difficult for Stanford students to feel like they are in an ivory tower. The formation of this openness is first caused by survival. Because Stanford is relatively far from Washington, it is difficult to obtain funding and it is difficult to apply for it. Therefore, Stanford’s funding sources are mainly from the industry.
Taking money from the government means doing things for the government. The US government's research grants such as NSF and DARPA generally fund basic research projects that the industry is unwilling to support, such as many projects in basic science, life science and materials science. These research topics cannot produce any commercial value in the short term, and some may never have commercial value. It is very necessary for the long-term development of a country to fund these projects by the government.
Stanford is guarding Silicon Valley, and the money from industry is not known to be many times more than that of Eastern University of the same size. There are many advantages to taking money from the industry. The most obvious one is to exercise the ability to solve practical problems, and to see the development direction of the industry and find new opportunities (this is of great benefit for entrepreneurship). In addition, there is a disconnect between academia and industry in every country, and Stanford faculty and students can be the bridge between the two.
At Stanford University, professors are allowed to work part-time in companies, as long as they can complete basic tasks and publish enough papers
Stanford University's combination of factory and school is different from other schools; MIT and other industrial schools allow undergraduates to work in companies for one to two years, and then the company subsidizes the tuition of these students. However, it is different at Stanford. Stanford professors and doctors can directly go to companies to work and study the scientific research projects of these companies, and can help company employees obtain higher degrees and even set up courses for some company employees. Of course, getting a degree from Stanford is not easy, and Stanford is difficult to get in and out of. Therefore, students at Stanford can easily find a direction of study after graduation, and can follow a suitable teacher, but students in other schools may choose a teacher from other aspects due to funding and other issues; while students at Stanford do not have This kind of trouble, because the company will give them adequate salary when they go to work.
In addition to making great contributions to cultivating talents for Silicon Valley, Stanford has also provided a lot of help in promoting the transformation of Silicon Valley:
Before the 1980s, the pillar industry of Silicon Valley was semiconductors. Since the 1980s, Cisco, Sun and SGI (Sun's main competitors in the 1990s), which were born from Stanford, have promoted the transformation of the entire Silicon Valley from semiconductors to hardware systems. In the late 1990s, Yahoo and Google, which were born in Stanford, and countless small Internet companies set off a boom in the Internet and achieved another transformation of Silicon Valley.
After these companies rose up, they donated funds to Stanford. It is thanks to the rise of Silicon Valley that Stanford has become one of the top universities in the world.
Newman-Gahumboldt Education Model
The famous universities in the eastern part of the United States, represented by the Ivy League universities such as Harvard, Yale and Princeton, have followed and implemented the principle of "higher education" in the early (not modern) traditions of Europe, especially the United Kingdom for a long time. The so-called higher education means that universities cultivate high-quality, literate and educated (undergraduate) talents for the society, which is actually the socialization of private aristocratic education. These universities are not institutions of vocational education in their essence, but places for the training of gentlemen. It is somewhat similar to the "six arts" in ancient China.
In the nineteenth century, the German Humboldt system was born. The central task of the Humboldt system is vocational education and skills education; it emphasizes the importance of research to universities. Focus on practice. Newman and others learned from Humboldt's strengths and programmed many American universities from modern private schools to institutions of higher vocational education and research; established the first graduate school in the United States and made Johns Hopkins University the first in the United States. A research university.
The timing of Stanford's emergence coincided with the transition of American universities to research-oriented universities. The old Stanford originally wanted to find White as the president of Stanford, but White could not accept the invitation for some reason and recommended his student Jordan. Under Jordan's leadership, Stanford was directly turned into a research university.
In Newman's view, colleges are places where "the way to go" is taught.
In his famous lecture "Ideas of University," Newman said, "Gentlemen, if
I had to go to a university where teachers run, choose enough credits to graduate, and where there are no professors and no exams. Choose one of the colleges where young people live together and learn from each other for three or four years, and I would choose the latter without hesitation...why? I think this way: when many are smart, inquisitive, empathetic Young people with sharp hearts and sharp eyes come together to learn from each other even when they are not taught. They communicate with each other, learn new ideas and perspectives, see new things, and acquire unique behavioral judgments.
Newman's method requires students to have a high degree of self-consciousness, but Stanford has a high entry threshold, so don't worry about the desire for knowledge and the initiative to learn. They can quickly complete the professional knowledge, and have enough time to learn the "big way": the basic knowledge of foothold and society.
A second key factor in the success of Newman's educational philosophy is cultural diversity. There needs to be conditions that complement each other. Stanford has a very wide range of students, which just fits this criteria.
Startup incubator
Silicon Valley provides Stanford people with funding and real topics, making it easy for students to find suitable entrepreneurial topics, coupled with a relaxed environment for professors and students to start entrepreneurship, a good education allows even very young students to cope. future challenges. Now everything is ready, only the east wind is owed. This Dongfeng is the last support of the school.
How does Stanford help entrepreneurs?
1. There is a dedicated office at Stanford to help connect alumni. In this way, Google's Page and Brin got Beto Shem, the founder of Sun, and received a sum of $100,000. The advertising effect of this fund was the most important, because at that time The Sun company is already well known.
2. There is a very famous venture capital forum in Stanford - Stanford Entrepreneur's Corner. Inside the master gathered. In this way, entrepreneurs at Stanford University can have access to world-class investors and industry leaders, greatly improving their realm. There are many factors that hinder the success of an entrepreneur, of which two points need special attention: high ambition and small wealth. In the final analysis, Xiao Fu is still at a level that is not high enough.
3. Tolerance to the use of service inventions to start a business. As long as the distribution of benefits is negotiated at Stanford University, students and professors are even encouraged to take advantage of their positions to start businesses. And Stanford's stake is usually small. For example, Google used Stanford's technology, but Stanford only accounted for 0.7% of the shares.
4. Maintain the legal status of foreign students in the United States to the extent permitted by law.
Under US law, foreign students will no longer hold student status (F1 visa) after completing their studies. If you can't get a work visa (H1), you can only stay in the United States as an intern for one year at most, and the premise of obtaining a work visa is to be hired by an employer (company or university) with a sufficient salary, so that the foreign student graduates If you start a business directly, you will face the problem of identity. If the identity problem is not solved, investors will not dare to invest in you. Stanford helps foreign students maintain legal status by extending graduation time.
In addition to providing entrepreneurs with entrepreneurial conditions, Stanford also provides entrepreneurial atmosphere and tradition.
The entrepreneurial atmosphere is very important. In a university with an entrepreneurial atmosphere, entrepreneurship is an active behavior. Entrepreneurs take the realization of a technology and its commercial applications as their ideals out of their special interest in a technology. Or missing. Conversely, if you rely solely on others to promote entrepreneurship, it is rarely successful. Only by taking the initiative to start a business can entrepreneurs find good entrepreneurial topics from their own practice and strive for them. Conversely, even if you have a good topic, you will give up halfway.
The content of the article comes from: The Top of the Tide (Wu Jun) Third Edition