Paper Belt on Fire

How Renegade Investors Sparked a Revolt Against the University

By: Michael Gibson

Narrated by: Alex Boyles

Length: 11 hrs and 18 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

©2022 Michael Gibson (P)2022 Blackstone Publishing

Learning more from this book than from Harvard classes

This is the first book I’m reviewing before I finish, because I want people who are considering getting the book today to get the book (audible is free first month and if you try to cancel). In case you want more details:
This book is a history of the Thiel Fellowship, Thiel Capital and 1517 fund, and Silicon Valley contrarianism.
It’s an inside look into a group of one of the most profitable investors.
This book is also a commentary on the modern university, startup culture, and the American Dream as well as the narratives around them. It sheds light on what talent, innovation, and progress really is.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, this book is a call to action to work on problems worth solving. It’s a call to shake off what we’ve learned. It’s a call for founders, students, and investors, for all of us, to work on important problems now.

Brilliant and inspiring!

In a world where courage and leadership are in short supply, the author Michael Gibson bravely textualizes how we can move beyond human development stagnation.

An inspiring entrepreneurial story wrapped in a futuristic mantra of societal change

A wild ride for any lover of TRUE disruption. Michael’s first hand account of the mid-2000s tech boom combined with his actual zag counter to others zigging makes for an incredible tale of sparking a movement. As a millennial saddled by debt and a useless college degree it’s extremely heartening to hear how we are reevaluating the US relationship with higher education. We are lucky to have Michael be a “former philosopher” as he could have toiled away in academia for decades opposed to actually building upon his thesis which has changed many lives and the trajectory of an industry.

Recommended for any future entrepreneur, banker, college student, and founder.

Bravo.

A business book that is so much more than most

The Anti-Christ, marxists at Oxford, getting expelled from hackathons, the impact of clock towers, the nature of art - this is not your average book on business, entrepreneurship, and startups.

Paper Belt on Fire provides an inside seat to over a decade of truly contrarian efforts that have produced incredible results. The stories are inspiring and if we are fortunate, will inspire many to boldly go where we as a society need more people to venture.

Well worth the time for anyone who is curious about hedge funds, venture capital, Silicon Valley, being bold, and the biggest challenges facing us today - or who just enjoys interesting people and stories well told.

Thrilling and hilarious

This is a really well written takedown of the US intelligentsia, written in the style of gonzo journalism, filled in with clear and entertaining lessons on science, philosophy, technology, and culture. I don’t binge books, but I binged this one.

Thorough take down of our costly ,unproductive education methods

Excellent narration, good pace and good intellect. You learn a lot with different take on conventional wisdom. Broadens ones view.

Awesome

Very eye opening, would highly recommend this book particularly if you are thinking about college.

Better than any self help book.

Brilliant. Strangely this is a more inspiring self-help book than more than half I’ve read. It’s a call to arms. The future is ours if we realize the inevitable truth “the only thing I know, is I know nothing” trusting the process of open mindednesses- breaking away the chains of the debilitating elite establishment. And the author happen to be my brother- so, though I have a slight bias. This book is truly great and needs to be devoured by all with an inkling of giving way of the cocoon and becoming the butterfly.

Michael Gibson is our generation’s William Blake

We have been tricked. The world isn’t progressing as we have been led to believe. Outside the narrow realm of information processing, we are stuck in the 20th century. Gibson makes the compelling for a trajectory of human progress that inspires. A must read.

Take that diploma and shove it

If you’ve ever thought that college is a scam, the education system is boring and antiquated, or climbing the corporate ladder is nonsense, this book is a terrifically enjoyable read/listen.