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The problems that MBAs are trying to solve are not those at which your average engineer is particularly good. Also, these problems are usually ill defined and n

The problems that MBAs are trying to solve are not those at which your average engineer is particularly good. Also, these problems are usually ill defined and not easily testable. On top of that, to "deploy" your solution you need to show a schizophrenic amount of confidence for the amount of ambiguity and risk you plan to take, and you have to do it all in the form of a PowerPoint slide deck for people who are most likely have no clue what you are talking about and have an attention span of a 5 year old child. All this leads to a relatively high error rate. So, it's easy for engineers to ridicule them, while still keeping well within their own comfort zone. It doesn't add credibility though, I agree.

mkl 7y ago
> a schizophrenic amount of confidence What does that mean? "A lot"?
- jevgeni 7y ago
  Yes.
Aperocky 7y ago
So you're basically saying, MBA's are making decisions based on guesses and feelings, which would then be formalized in PowerPoint slides. I as an engineer like neither of those things. Research the market, create a product per spec, then write documents in markdown. The idea of business are not foreign to us, there are plenty of engineers who start business. And I think the balance is tipping over to the engineers. In my opinion we don't need a dedicated decision making class. decision making is a skill that engineer can acquire - no need to involve people with no technical understanding into the equation.
- bumby 7y ago
  >we don't need a dedicated decision making class. decision making is a skill that engineer can acquire This statement seems to trivialize the skills necessary for good decision making. I would argue good risk based decisions and awareness of cognitive biases (not to mention more “science” based decisions from fields like operations research) probably should be based in formal mentoring/instruction.

mkl 7y ago

> a schizophrenic amount of confidence What does that mean? "A lot"?

jevgeni 7y ago
Yes.

Aperocky 7y ago

So you're basically saying, MBA's are making decisions based on guesses and feelings, which would then be formalized in PowerPoint slides. I as an engineer like neither of those things. Research the market, create a product per spec, then write documents in markdown. The idea of business are not foreign to us, there are plenty of engineers who start business. And I think the balance is tipping over to the engineers. In my opinion we don't need a dedicated decision making class. decision making is a skill that engineer can acquire - no need to involve people with no technical understanding into the equation.

bumby 7y ago
>we don't need a dedicated decision making class. decision making is a skill that engineer can acquire This statement seems to trivialize the skills necessary for good decision making. I would argue good risk based decisions and awareness of cognitive biases (not to mention more “science” based decisions from fields like operations research) probably should be based in formal mentoring/instruction.