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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

#21

Post by gbeeson »

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…

Very well put and I certainly agree. This thought process can also lead to far more realistic goal planning for all walks of life (you give a great example about weight lifting). Learning just to learn is admirable in and of itself but perhaps not as realistic than learning for a specific need that can be enumerated.

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

#22

Post by gbeeson »

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.

I have had to grind out many tutorials over the years; helped my immediate focus since there were obvious steps to take towards a goal I wanted to acheive. Nothing says love like getting your feet wet via tuts!

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

#23

Post by viscanti »

alexatkeplar wrote: post #20
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…

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…

It depends on the school you attend. The networking effect is bigger than just the people you attend class with, although those connections are often very valuable. Most MBA students aren't studying for entrepreneurship. They're someone who has already had success in the business world and are going to advance their career. Having a network of connections across business domains can be very valuable.

Obviously it depends on the startup. B2B businesses would get more value out of those connections. I stated that it's likely the biggest benefit of business school, not the only benefit. A true cost-benefit analysis would look also at the knowledge acquired as well as the strength of the alumni network.

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

#24

Post by plinkplonk »

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…

"but if you want to build a good company, an MBA will be a great help along the way."

An easy way to see if this is statistically valid, or just something that MBAs tell themselves, is to make a list of 'good' companies (by your personal definition of 'good') and see if the folks who built them had MBAs. The results might be surprising (either way).

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

#25

Post by civilian »

stfu wrote: post #18
edcastano wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 the…

Some web frameworks build wrappers for MySQL. That being said... SQL isn't too hard either! Google is your co-pilot, always.

This summer I was thrown onto an android project with no experience, no in-company mentors, and I barely remembered how to write java. The first two weeks I just did tutorials. I didn't even try to patch them together to actually make a product-- I just did a dozen tutorials which covered different aspects and left them all in my code folder. When it came to actually building my app, I now had a personalized pool of code to grab from! It really helped to be able to go back and reference it.

Also, I think you are not going to be well helped by tutorials. You need a freaking textbook. http://greenteapress.com/thinkpython/html/index.html You are required to do at least 50% of the exercises for each chapter.

Furthermore, it is important that you master a single language rather than dabble. Once you understand a single language in&out, it will make it much easier to pick up other ones. (My 'mastery' is in python, and I've picked up java, C#, SQL, javascript.)

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

#26

Post by Maven911 »

curt wrote: post #19
gtani wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

i dont get it, whats so special about stats ? dont al engineers take a stats class and then end up not using most of the concepts ?

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

#27

Post by ajaycancherla »

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…

To each his own. An MBA helps some people - the network is powerful coming out of schools like HBS and SBS. At the same time, a determined entrepreneur can create his own network and wow people with a great product.

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

#28

Post by ajaycancherla »

edcastano wrote: post #17
mikhaill wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

True. Good point. So it comes down to - which type of person are you? I stick by my original point - YC is the new grad school. MBA's learn all the theory of business, and YC throws you right into it. There's no better way to learn.
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