Why Student Programmers Rant about Business Students with “Ideas”

Unfortunately all these discussions are too filled with obnoxious generalizations to be useful. In my experience good business people are rare and when you find them you should keep them. I am a science PhD with my own company and my first business development person (MBA dropout - employee number 5) is worth his weight in gold. He brought a customer focus and an outward orientation that few hackers are capable of. On the flip side, I have found some of my hackers to be prima-donnas who think they are special just because they know functional programming.

The real discussion should be about how to find the right business person for your startup. Here is what I look for: 1> outgoing but pleasant to be around, 2> good listener, 3> cares about technical details, is curious, 4> has a broad range of interests, 5> has geek/hacker friends, 6> can conceptualize a business as a systems problem.

So if you're an engineer with an MBA, it's a wash? Little known fact is that originally the MBA program was specifically designed for engineers. It was supposed to address the needs of engineers who were rising the management ranks. I know when I did mine, I generally looked down on the people who did their undergrads in business (why exactly are you taking the same courses again?).

There are hybrids. Talent at one does not imply a mutually exclusive lack of talent for the other. Perhaps we were an exception in the past, but students who are savvy at both business and technical things are becoming increasingly more common today, thanks to Universities. Technology spurs change; people who adapt survive. People who spend a bunch of time whining about change don't tend to survive. Universities teach people ways of adapting to change, and different ways of thinking.

It does take a bit of forward thinking, and that's where I think business students have a slight advantage. Writing code is great, wonderful, and something I love to do. Many business students would say that in the grand scheme of things, it's a useless talent unless it solves some kind of problem. Many techies would say that in the grand scheme of things, it's an incredibly useful talent, as it involves understanding the underlying structure or system. Although my formal education is in business, guess what? I agree 100 percent with the latter; I don't know where people get their stereotypes about MBAs, but there's really no such thing as a "typical" MBA. Most of us are, on some level or another, systems people.

Indeed, one of the more valuable lessons I gained from mine was to stop seeing "problems" and start seeing "opportunities". There have been so many times I've used a search engine to look for something, not found it, and thought 'now _that_ would be a great idea for a business'.

So yeah, it's very true that in business school, we're taught to seek out competitors' weaknesses, and "exploit" those weaknesses. But as every hacker knows, just because you _can_ do something doesn't mean you _should_. And then are there those (the majority) who just don't care: what I find quite humorous is how some people consider themselves "programmers" if they know how to set the TiVo to record 'American Idol.' A little bit funny, b/c the original rant reminds me a lot of a high-school cliche about cliques. Nonetheless, cheers to Mr. Yates for his frank opinions. :)

But some things are hard or impossible to achieve alone, so teaming up with others might be necessary.