Why I created MBAHacks.com, or Why I am learning to program

#1

Post by coconutrandom » Tue, Sep 27, 2011, 4:56 PM UTC

Why I created MBAHacks.com, or Why I am learning to program
mbahacks.com

Re: Why I created MBAHacks.com, or Why I am learning to program

#2

Post by coconutrandom » Tue, Sep 27, 2011, 5:03 PM UTC

Edward is a savvy guy not above getting his hands dirty with code.

Re: Why I created MBAHacks.com, or Why I am learning to program

#3

Post by weezer » Tue, Sep 27, 2011, 5:25 PM UTC

I think the world would be a better place if everyone, especially MBA's had at least some knowledge of programming. With the state of the job market in the US, wouldn't it be wise to require even two years of programming in high school?

Re: Why I created MBAHacks.com, or Why I am learning to program

#4

Post by ajaycancherla » Tue, Sep 27, 2011, 5:50 PM UTC

That's a good idea. My advice: forget the MBA. Just learn to code and start making contacts in the field you want to go into. Why pay grad schools? YC is the new grad school, and they pay you.

Re: Why I created MBAHacks.com, or Why I am learning to program

#5

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Sep 27, 2011, 5:52 PM UTC

ajaycancherla wrote: post #4

That's a good idea. My advice: forget the MBA. Just learn to code and start making contacts in the field you want to go into. Why pay grad schools? YC is the new grad school, and they pay you.

[deleted]

Re: Why I created MBAHacks.com, or Why I am learning to program

#6

Post by oscarleung » Tue, Sep 27, 2011, 5:52 PM UTC

ajaycancherla wrote: post #4

That's a good idea. My advice: forget the MBA. Just learn to code and start making contacts in the field you want to go into. Why pay grad schools? YC is the new grad school, and they pay you.

lol...yes! out of all the degrees out there...I don't understand the MBA. Want to start a business? Start it! If you get the MBA you'll be stuck paying off a $100k debt.

Re: Why I created MBAHacks.com, or Why I am learning to program

#7

Post by gtani » Tue, Sep 27, 2011, 5:55 PM UTC

weezer wrote: post #3

I think the world would be a better place if everyone, especially MBA's had at least some knowledge of programming. With the state of the job market in the US, wouldn't it be wise to require even two years of programming in high school?

I used to work with at least a couple dozen MBA's from 1 school, they gave me this advice for bus school:

1) don't lose your coding skills (I was good at perl/awk, APL, C and Fortran). This I did

2) concentrate on linear algebra, stats/prob, calculus (this i didn't)

3) take law school classes (this i did, they were gnarly)

tl;dr your 2nd year you can do pretty much whatever you want. You can make it a profoundly intellectual experience, or start your business, or whatever

Re: Why I created MBAHacks.com, or Why I am learning to program

#8

Post by viscanti » Tue, Sep 27, 2011, 5:58 PM UTC

oscarleung wrote: post #6

ajaycancherla wrote: post #4

That's a good idea. My advice: forget the MBA. Just learn to code and start making contacts in the field you want to go into. Why pay grad schools? YC is the new grad school, and they pay you.

lol...yes! out of all the degrees out there...I don't understand the MBA. Want to start a business? Start it! If you get the MBA you'll be stuck paying off a $100k debt.

Starting a business is only half the battle (at best). The biggest value of the MBA is the networking that happens. You're meeting people who will go on to work in a diverse set of industries. It's not uncommon for an entrepreneur with an MBA to go a year or two in business only calling on people they met in school, or fellow alumni. That networking isn't impossible to replicate, but an entrepreneur who forgoes the MBA route needs to make a concerted effort to make up for that.

Re: Why I created MBAHacks.com, or Why I am learning to program

#9

Post by ryanlchan » Tue, Sep 27, 2011, 5:59 PM UTC

All great reasons, but there's one I would add as an MBA: Learning to program makes you a better business person.

How?

Made to Stick has a great story about a math teacher who struggled to convince his students of math's importance in life. As he put it, math is like weight lifting. You don't work out to prepare for the day a rogue barbell comes and traps you on the ground, you work out so you can run faster, tackle harder, and jump higher. Math is weight lifting for your analytic mind - it helps you rationally think through problems and establish logical steps to the solution.

Learning to program, and to take it further, learning computer science, is not about making the best app ever created. CS is mental weight lifting on the _process_ of tackling business problems. Dissecting an app into its MVC components will help you understand the business you plan to create, what is core, and what is fluff. In other words, learning to program will make you a better business person, even if you suck.

Re: Why I created MBAHacks.com, or Why I am learning to program

#10

Post by stfu » Tue, Sep 27, 2011, 6:12 PM UTC

Coming from a similar perspective as the OP, but so far I always failed to go through with actually mastering a language. Over the years I attempted to learn so many different ones, from Action Script to Assembler, from Delphi to C++, but always became either bored of it after a few hours or got frustrated because the ideas I had in mind turned out to be far more complicated to realise than I had hoped for.