Can Harvard grads, groomed for success, navigate the failure-friendly tech economy?

That's the question begged in a recent article in the observer.com, headlined:

Harvard Gets Schooled: As Techies Flock to Stanford, MIT, Even Penn, Crimson Goes Green With Envy.

With a new wave of entrepreneurial spirit sweeping the country, and the world, it's a good question. The careers and high tech startups of two of Harvard's most famous drop outs, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg would argue no.

The day before Facebook’s IPO, the article notes, Stanford law fellow Brian Love published an op-ed in the Boston Globe, pointing out that Harvard had a decent legal claim to a cut of the $16 billion jackpot. After all, Mr. Zuckerberg and his cofounders built the site “while enrolled in Harvard, working in a Harvard dormitory, and using Harvard’s computer network,” he wrote.

It’s impossible to say how much Harvard could have added to its already massive endowment, the article added, "had the university pressed the issue. But one point of comparison might be helpful: When Stanford eventually sold its shares in Google, the transaction netted the school a cool $336 million. That would go a long way toward re-energizing development on that applied sciences campus in Allston.

"Still, given the millions being minted by enterprising graduates of Stanford, the University of Pennsylvania, and other institutions of higher learning, and the spotty track record of the nation’s most prestigious university in the emerging realm of tech-fuelled entrepreneurship, potential students might be forgiven for wondering if a Harvard education is still the best path to success in the digital age."

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