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Startups: a hidden lifestyle at MIT

tech.mit.edu

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Re: Startups: a hidden lifestyle at MIT

#11

Post by strawbucks »

jiggy2011 wrote: post #8
snikolov wrote: post #4

I often think back to why I came to MIT, especially when the semester gets tough. I remember I came to the admitted students weekend and toured one of the dorms. The walls were covered with murals and the floors with junk --- motors, robot parts, circuit boards. People had built their own lofts; someone had rigged their door to open automatically when it recognized them. Someone had hooked up a camera and a projector…

Sounds like there is an incredibly strong hacker culture there. Is working on personal projects outside class considered the norm? It certainly wasn't when I was at uni, not with CS students anyway. After studying most CS students spent their time playing video games, watching movies, smoking pot or doing other activities. Making a door with face detection or similar would be very unusual.

The culture varies across campus regarding those kinds of in-house projects. It is very common for people to have either an internship or research position outside of class, though.

Re: Startups: a hidden lifestyle at MIT

#12

Post by jpdoctor »

borski wrote: post #5

When I graduated in '09, everybody was worried about going into finance because of the '08 disaster. Now, all of a sudden, startups seemed like better ideas because finance was so crappy. I, for one, am incredibly excited by the startup community at MIT. We were just there for the StartLabs career fair (hi asuth!) and it was really refreshing to see how many students showed up to it really interested in entrepreneurs…

> Now, all of a sudden, startups seemed like better ideas because finance was so crappy.

When the Fed raises rates, then it will be back to the tech bust once again.

So make hay while the sun shines.

Re: Startups: a hidden lifestyle at MIT

#13

Post by jpdoctor »

asuth wrote: post #2

From the time I arrived at MIT in '08 to the time I left in '11, I witnessed a pretty huge shift in the interests of MIT students towards startups. Many people who probably would have gone into finance or defense diverted themselves to the startup world. The 100K competition at MIT and things like StartLabs have gotten big. Dropbox being homegrown was a big thing. For me, it's been awesome to see the best engineers d…

> From the time I arrived at MIT in '08 to the time I left in '11, I witnessed a pretty huge shift in the interests of MIT students towards startups.

I've witnessed now multiple decades of change, and the interests of the student body vary according to the fashion of the day.

If I were to advise fellow alums about preparation, I'd advise: Prepare for change. As trite as that sounds, it's been the only consistent trait.

Re: Startups: a hidden lifestyle at MIT

#14

Post by snikolov »

jiggy2011 wrote: post #8
snikolov wrote: post #4

I often think back to why I came to MIT, especially when the semester gets tough. I remember I came to the admitted students weekend and toured one of the dorms. The walls were covered with murals and the floors with junk --- motors, robot parts, circuit boards. People had built their own lofts; someone had rigged their door to open automatically when it recognized them. Someone had hooked up a camera and a projector…

Sounds like there is an incredibly strong hacker culture there. Is working on personal projects outside class considered the norm? It certainly wasn't when I was at uni, not with CS students anyway. After studying most CS students spent their time playing video games, watching movies, smoking pot or doing other activities. Making a door with face detection or similar would be very unusual.

In reality, everybody's very busy, but enough people find time to hack on things that it's very frequently an inspiration to hear/see what people are doing.

Most people seem to be just surviving. But there a decent amount of people who hack on things frequently, and a small, but still sizable number of very prolific hackers. There are some people that comfortably take 8 or more classes a semester. Certainly some of those types of people choose to take a normal course load and have a lot of time to hack. But it seems like the more common situtation is that you end up neglecting your schoolwork and getting poor grades.

Re: Startups: a hidden lifestyle at MIT

#15

Post by jiggy2011 »

snikolov wrote: post #14
jiggy2011 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like there is an incredibly strong hacker culture there. Is working on personal projects outside class considered the norm? It certainly wasn't when I was at uni, not with CS students anyway. After studying most CS students spent their time playing video games, watching movies, smoking pot or doing other activities. Making a door with face detection or similar would be very unusual.

In reality, everybody's very busy, but enough people find time to hack on things that it's very frequently an inspiration to hear/see what people are doing. Most people seem to be just surviving. But there a decent amount of people who hack on things frequently, and a small, but still sizable number of very prolific hackers. There are some people that comfortably take 8 or more classes a semester. Certainly some of t…

Yes, I found when I was at university that it was very difficult to take on a personal project and still be motivated to do my school work.

I would start hacking on something and not notice the time going by, so I would end up having to do assignments the day before. This was easy to begin with since the course starts easy but after a while becomes impossible.

The only way I can see it being possible would either be to have super high intelligence and productivity or military level discipline.

That's why I am amazed to hear of people who start whole companies whilst still getting top grades.

Re: Startups: a hidden lifestyle at MIT

#16

Post by rocha »

jiggy2011 wrote: post #8
snikolov wrote: post #4

I often think back to why I came to MIT, especially when the semester gets tough. I remember I came to the admitted students weekend and toured one of the dorms. The walls were covered with murals and the floors with junk --- motors, robot parts, circuit boards. People had built their own lofts; someone had rigged their door to open automatically when it recognized them. Someone had hooked up a camera and a projector…

Sounds like there is an incredibly strong hacker culture there. Is working on personal projects outside class considered the norm? It certainly wasn't when I was at uni, not with CS students anyway. After studying most CS students spent their time playing video games, watching movies, smoking pot or doing other activities. Making a door with face detection or similar would be very unusual.

Sounds like there is an incredibly strong hacker culture there.

Some would say that the connotation of the word hacker used here originated in the 60s at MIT.

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