Ken Auletta

Stanford has had a long time relationship with Silicon Valley and many reputable companies. Ken Auletta questions if their relationship is a little too close in his article “Get Rich U.” Throughout the article Auletta mentions many graduates who have gone on to become very successful entrepreneurs, such as the creators of Google and Hewlett-Packard (3). Many graduates even come back to Stanford, teach classes and invest money into student’s ideas. Professors and students have a close relationship and they will often give the budding entrepreneurs advice (2). While some are more interested in the money others actually care about their students and their success (16). John Hennessy, the president of Stanford, is a board member for companies,

Stanford is a highly regarded college and because of that students can become too focused on the end results and their future careers. Students can wind up with the “well-known phenomenon called the “Stanford duck syndrome” (1).” While they seem to be calm underneath it all they are struggling to stay afloat (1). This drive for success extends to Hennessy and some professors, who want to expand Stanford and make it a global institution (14). The problem with this is that people are wondering, including Auletta, if the success of Stanford can be reached in other parts of the country, as well as online, without the help of the Silicon Valley and the personal ties that come with it

As it is mostly one fact after the other, it is a rather rigid piece of writing. It goes into extreme detail and the language is sophisticated, clearly meant for a more advanced audience. With Auletta’s style of writing, his vocabulary choice, it makes it difficult to see the connections throughout the piece, which can also be a result of the length. By the end one can expect to be a little unsure of what they just read. The biggest problem is that at the end of the article it is hard to understand what exactly the goal of it all was. Auletta never actually states his opinion he simply ends with “There’s a tsunami coming.” and the reader must infer the