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This probably sounds fatuous, but hacking experience will make you a better business person in the same way that a daily column will make you a better writer. T
by aristus 18y ago
This probably sounds fatuous, but hacking experience will make you a better business person in the same way that a daily column will make you a better writer. The reason is that while we are farting about with bits & bytes and star trek jokes, what we're really doing is translating human imagination into a system that is not capable of self-delusion. It does not believe, it does not miss details, it blows up at the smallest inconsistency. Dealing with that is unspeakably frustrating, but it trains you to think more clearly about how systems, any system, actually function. If you are really paying attention you can start using that capacity in other parts of life. The closest business-school type classes to this training would be probably logistics and quantitative analysis
- bigtoga 18y agoSo then I would assume you would also argue that hackers need to know the business side of things for the same reason - yes? Either way, you're choosing a strategy of "Strengthen your weaknesses." There are other strategies like "Play to your strengths" that a lot of people will advocate very strongly. Personally I cannot think to advocate one and only one strategy; I think you have to fit with the dynamics at hand and go with the optimal strategy at the moment.
- aristus 18y agoI'm a generalist, so I suppose that's right. But I am saying something a little more than that. Computer Science is the first serious attempt to study process as a concept in and of itself. It's the study of how to do things, and how to learn how to do things. A lot of things in life, from business planning to washing a sinkfull of dishes, can be done better if you apply a little process analysis.