Palantir Thinks College Might Be a Waste. So It's Hiring High-School Grads

Perceived Motives and Power Dynamics

• Many see the program as anti‑intellectual positioning that mainly serves to secure cheap, easily controlled labor with fewer outside options and credentials.
• Lack of a degree is viewed as both a wage lever and a future mobility barrier, keeping people “locked in” and dependent.
• Some frame this as “options on human beings” or commodity-style talent arbitrage: get people early, shape them, and capture the upside.
• Others note it’s not inherently bad to hire smart high-schoolers, but the power imbalance and employer incentives make exploitation likely.

Role of College in Maturity, Ethics, and Empathy

• Several argue 18–22 is when people gain independence, learn planning, and start serious reflection on morals, politics, and society; college is one structured way to do that.
• Concern: skipping that phase for a surveillance company risks creating highly capable but ethically unreflective workers who “just do the job,” with analogies to historical bureaucrats of oppressive systems.
• Others counter that work can also provide learning, humility, and grounding; some regret staying in university instead of entering the workforce earlier.

Alternatives: Work, Internships, and Vocational Models

• Multiple anecdotes show high-school internships can be valuable when paid and mentored, but are often low-paid, low-guidance cheap labor.
• Commenters highlight European-style combined vocational–academic tracks and apprenticeships as successful models for software and other trades.
• Some suggest a proper four-year software trade program focused on real tools and projects, distinct from a theoretical CS degree.

Debate on Humanities vs Purely Technical Training

• Strong defense of humanities: history, civics, and ethics are seen as essential for citizens wielding powerful technology, especially in sensitive domains.
• Opposing view reduces non-STEM coursework to “memorizing random subjects” and questions its necessity for engineers; this is widely challenged.

Youth Development, Voting, and Susceptibility

• Side discussion cites brain development research to justify age limits (including voting); others point out “universal suffrage” is already limited and contested.
• Several worry that teenagers’ impressionability and incomplete life experience make them easier to indoctrinate into corporate or authoritarian agendas, especially in a company like Palantir.