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

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

#11

Post by edcastano »

ryanlchan wrote: post #9

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…

Absolutely Ryan. Thanks for your sharing your thoughts with me.

I also see other parallels between building great software and building a great business. For one, focus is important for scaling both. You don't want to be all things to all people.

In addition, whether you're bug tracking or solving business problems, it's important to get to the root cause. Full disclosure: I used to be a management consultant.

Finally, it takes a great team to build great software and a great company.

I'm sure there are many others. Would love to hear what others here come up with.

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

#12

Post by john_b »

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.

My impression was always that MBA programs are best suited for people who wanted to work within an existing organization rather than create their own. Most of the MBAs I know are middle management or above in engineering companies, and the MBA is one way of moving up for them. Maybe it's a new fad for business schools, but I hope they aren't beginning to advertise themselves as good preparation for starting your own business.

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

#13

Post by eru »

stfu wrote: post #10

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.

That's why great programmers are boundless optimist and masochists.

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

#14

Post by edcastano »

viscanti wrote: post #8
oscarleung wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 M…

I agree.

I've also learned that there is no one path to entrepreneurship, or programming for the matter. For some people it makes sense to quit school or avoid college. Others follow a more traditional route. There are pros and cons to each. More importantly, it is an extremely personal process. What makes sense for one person does not make sense for another.

As for me, I am very happy in my decision to attend business school. In addition to the networking benefits you pointed to above, I've found that some of the things that I've learned (e.g. Coaching and Mentoring) have wonderful applications to my personal life. Put differently, business school has made me a better father. I plan to write a post on this soon. All the wonderful friendships I built while I was there is icing on the cake.

I should also point out that I didn’t go to business school for the hard skills (i.e. finance, accounting, etc.). You can learn a lot of that by picking up a book. I went to business school to become a better leader and person. Classes like Interpersonal Dynamics (aka "Touchy feely"), High Performance Leadership, and Leadership Coaching and Mentoring are the main reasons I attended business school.

Finally, while at business school, I made an effort to meet and build friendships with brilliant graduate and undergraduate students across all of Stanford. I now know wonderful people that studied CS, Engineering, Earth Sciences, Stats, Medicine, and much more. I feel fortunate to have had the chance to study with all these people.

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

#15

Post by edcastano »

eru wrote: post #13
stfu wrote: post #10

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.

That's why great programmers are boundless optimist and masochists.

Great point. I've been accused to being dogged in the past. Truth be told, it helps to be both focused and determined.

@stfu There are two ways you could try to go about it:

1) Try sticking to one technology and working on a project you're really passionate about.

2) Work on a tutorial from start to finish.

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

#16

Post by mikhaill »

viscanti wrote: post #8
oscarleung wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 M…

To follow up to the parent, there is a lot more to B-school then just to network. From common MBA-bashing that takes places on HN it seems that that many people fail to grasp the difference between building a product and building a company. If you want to build a product - MBA may not be necessary, but if you want to build a good company, an MBA will be a great help along the way. With all aspects of running a business covered in one class or another, you at least have an understanding of the issues you'll run into.

An MBA doesn't provide you a road map, it gives you a framework of how to approach business questions and an understanding how simple decisions cascade down to all aspects of a company (hr, accounting, operations).

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

#17

Post by edcastano »

mikhaill wrote: post #16
viscanti wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 M…

To follow up to the parent, there is a lot more to B-school then just to network. From common MBA-bashing that takes places on HN it seems that that many people fail to grasp the difference between building a product and building a company. If you want to build a product - MBA may not be necessary, but if you want to build a good company, an MBA will be a great help along the way. With all aspects of running a busine…

Nice point. You can build a great ruby site without Rails, but Rails gives you a nice framework to make the process easier. Similarly, you can build a business without an MBA, but an MBA gives you a convenient framework to help with important decisions.

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

#18

Post by stfu »

edcastano wrote: post #15
eru wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's why great programmers are boundless optimist and masochists.

Great point. I've been accused to being dogged in the past. Truth be told, it helps to be both focused and determined. @stfu There are two ways you could try to go about it: 1) Try sticking to one technology and working on a project you're really passionate about. 2) Work on a tutorial from start to finish.

Thanks for trying to help! 1) This is really difficult. Like I tried getting started with PHP but as soon as potential project ideas became "interesting" I needed to go at least into JavaScript or Databases/MySql. Like for a seemingly simple project that I had in mind (e.g. that took data from a form and generate a pdf file based on that) I needed at least JavaScript to make it a smooth process. 2) I seem to suck there in the "transferring the knowledge" part. One of my most recent ventures is into RapidMiner, an (open source) data mining/text mining software. While I went through each and every tutorial available I am still unable to understand basic issues like when to use certain algorithms or how to adopt the knowledge towards a concrete research idea/problem that I have in mind. But if you have any suggestions for great tutorials feel free to share. I won't stop trying :)

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

#19

Post by curt »

gtani wrote: post #7
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 inte…

This is exactly what I did. I treat the MBA as just another tool. Started a business sadly it failed after a couple years, but I just moved out to SF last week and loving it. As an engineer with an MBA that can code well, does stats, and took a handful of law classes it's a seller's market.

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

#20

Post by alexatkeplar »

viscanti wrote: post #8
oscarleung wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 M…

This myth is so widely repeated I have to call it out. The people you meet doing an MBA either a) leave and go into corporate middle management or b) go start their own businesses. The chance that the middle managers end up in a position where they can directly or indirectly help your startup is extremely low; the idea that you could be fully occupied as an entrepreneur just exploiting those contacts for 12-24 months is laughably naive. As for your MBAers who become fellow entrepeneurs - well they have their heads down working on a startup which is probably in a totally different sector to you - they're incredibly busy building their own businesses and contacts in a totally different sector, and even less able to help. Overall, best case scenario is that an entrepreneur starts a B2B business and a handful of his classmates end up as potential clients/introducers to potential clients - but even with five of these contacts, at $100k for an MBA that works out at $20k per lead, hardly the best return on investment. There are plenty of reasons to do an MBA, but networking to establish a startup isn't one.
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