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": the idea of Silicon Valley has spread so far that it's now seen as the way for technology people to get rich. Hence, the industry is flooded with technology

": the idea of Silicon Valley has spread so far that it's now seen as the way for technology people to get rich. Hence, the industry is flooded with technology people. So, if there's type of startup 1), which focuses more on pure technical skill, and type of startup 2), which focuses more on social skills and deal-making ability, it's probably going to be a lot harder to make money doing type of startup 1), because there's so much more competition. Hence, the most successful people tend to be people like Sam Altman, who is a good programmer, but who also does "businessy" things that a lot of hackers wouldn't like, like doing deals with cell phone company executives." All of which has nothing to do with an elite MBA. Does Sam Altman have an elite MBA? let's check From Wikipedia "Loopt was founded during Altman's sophomore year at Stanford University[2] where he studied computer science with a focus on security and machine learning. He helped build an autonomous helicopter navigation system." Doesn't look like he was one of the people who would be happy taking business classes. Skills other than hacking may indeed be the future of becoming an X millionaire, but these hardly correlate to having "elite MBA" s which was what the first portion of your post was about (not to mention the title). You ask, "What you really want to look at is what things are causing people to become successful, right at this moment. How does technology stack up?" Better than having and "elite MBA" The ability to write code and understand customers , much more so than having an "elite mba". An "elite mba" probably helps you become a business consultant or something corporat-ey more than become an entrepreneur building multi million dollar startups, which was the point of the portion of PG's essay you extracted. You set out to debunk it and didn't do so at all.

apsec112 17y ago
"All of which has nothing to do with an elite MBA. Does Sam Altman have an elite MBA?" Of course not. What I was saying was: suppose you accept that an MBA is more likely to make you a billionaire than going into technology startups, but you don't want to get an MBA because you wouldn't like it, and you're fine with the comparatively lower returns in the startup industry. In which case, I argue that you still shouldn't focus on programming skills (which was Paul Graham's suggestion), because other skills will probably help you more. This does assume that you are already a good programmer to begin with. "The answer is still, the ability to write code and understand customers, much more so than having an "elite mba". An "elite mba" probably helps you become a business consultant or something corporatey." I was talking about the world in general, not just the startup world. Being a partner at a management consulting firm and making seven figures is "successful" by most people's standards. "become an entrepreneur building multi million dollar startups, which was the point of the portion of PG's essay you extracted. You set out to debunk it and didn't do so at all." No, it wasn't. Paul Graham was making a point about being successful in general, not just being successful in startups. Read the quote: "So if you want to invest two years in something that will help you succeed in business, the evidence suggests you'd do better to learn how to hack than get an MBA." He's talking about business in general, not just startups, which is why he talks about MBA prevalence among all billionaires, not just those that made their fortune in startups. I agree that getting an MBA will help you very little in the startup world, but both me and PG agree on that.
- plinkplonk 17y ago
  "I argue that you still shouldn't focus on programming skills (which was Paul Graham's suggestion), because other skills will probably help you more. " You don't have much of an argument yet. You are just stating this as a conclusion and it still has nothing to do with the title of your post ("elite mba") and neither does it debunk PG's point (learn to hack as opposed to trying for an elite MBA)
  - apsec112 17y ago
    I was making a related point that I thought was interesting, not a direct rebuttal of PG's statement. I was rebutting the related claim "if you choose not to get an MBA and go into the startup industry, you should focus on improving your programming skill, even if you're already a pretty good programmer".

apsec112 17y ago

"All of which has nothing to do with an elite MBA. Does Sam Altman have an elite MBA?" Of course not. What I was saying was: suppose you accept that an MBA is more likely to make you a billionaire than going into technology startups, but you don't want to get an MBA because you wouldn't like it, and you're fine with the comparatively lower returns in the startup industry. In which case, I argue that you still shouldn't focus on programming skills (which was Paul Graham's suggestion), because other skills will probably help you more. This does assume that you are already a good programmer to begin with. "The answer is still, the ability to write code and understand customers, much more so than having an "elite mba". An "elite mba" probably helps you become a business consultant or something corporatey." I was talking about the world in general, not just the startup world. Being a partner at a management consulting firm and making seven figures is "successful" by most people's standards. "become an entrepreneur building multi million dollar startups, which was the point of the portion of PG's essay you extracted. You set out to debunk it and didn't do so at all." No, it wasn't. Paul Graham was making a point about being successful in general, not just being successful in startups. Read the quote: "So if you want to invest two years in something that will help you succeed in business, the evidence suggests you'd do better to learn how to hack than get an MBA." He's talking about business in general, not just startups, which is why he talks about MBA prevalence among all billionaires, not just those that made their fortune in startups. I agree that getting an MBA will help you very little in the startup world, but both me and PG agree on that.

plinkplonk 17y ago
"I argue that you still shouldn't focus on programming skills (which was Paul Graham's suggestion), because other skills will probably help you more. " You don't have much of an argument yet. You are just stating this as a conclusion and it still has nothing to do with the title of your post ("elite mba") and neither does it debunk PG's point (learn to hack as opposed to trying for an elite MBA)
- apsec112 17y ago
  I was making a related point that I thought was interesting, not a direct rebuttal of PG's statement. I was rebutting the related claim "if you choose not to get an MBA and go into the startup industry, you should focus on improving your programming skill, even if you're already a pretty good programmer".