William Deresiewicz experienced the Ivy League as both a student and a professor, earning undergraduate and graduate degrees from Columbia University before a 10-year teaching career at Yale. The timing of his graduation and faculty appointment in 1998 is significant, as it coincides with the Internet becoming mainstream. Likewise, during his decade as a professor, smartphones and social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube gained widespread use. The dramatic increase in the amount, speed, and types of information transfer that resulted from these developments influenced the changes that Deresiewicz observed in the Ivy League student body. He saw less introspection and “sustained reading” as well as fewer intimate friendships—three themes that appear in “Solitude and Leadership.”

Similarly, Deresiewicz noted a sharp increase in admissions requirements, which he identifies as a contributing factor in the production of “hoop jumpers” rather than leaders. Around the time he left academia, Deresiewicz began writing critically about Ivy League education, arguing that programs at universities like Yale were designed to generate “excellent sheep” rather than independent thinkers. His first article on the subject, “The Disadvantages of an Elite Education,” was published in 2008 in The American Scholar and went viral online immediately. The following year, he delivered the “Solitude and Leadership” speech, which drew from ideas detailed in the earlier essay.