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I wouldn't travel on a ship steered only by shipwrights, and I wouldn't travel on a ship built by sailors alone. An engineering company needs engineers at the

I wouldn't travel on a ship steered only by shipwrights, and I wouldn't travel on a ship built by sailors alone. An engineering company needs engineers at the top levels, but we all know at least one brilliant engineer who is puzzlingly naive in other aspects of life. The business of engineering is more than "make good devices and sell them at for a profit." A good engineering business needs shrewd businesspeople to keep it running. You need solid management and solid engineering throughout the entire hierarchy of the business. > It just doesn't follow that all people who went to Harvard are better than all people who went to some state school. I totally agree. The capability of a student transcends the imprimatur of the institution where s/he learned. However, business school is also about connections, and learning in an enlightened group often gives rise to a sort of intellectual critical mass that begets even greater learning through discussion and the interchange of ideas. If given a choice, I'd rather study engineering at Cal Tech than some middle-tier school, and I'd rather study business at Harvard than some less reputable school.

selimthegrim 6y ago
Depends if you want to a) actually practice engineering and b) fork out 70k a year (which if you’re shrewd you can make back by more lucrative SWE opportunities). HBS I totally get
api 6y ago
I think of it this way: to run a business, you must understand what the business does at least well enough to "grok" how it creates value and to tell the difference between good ideas and bullshitting. At the very least you have to be knowledgeable enough about the details to spot other people who know more than you do about said details and distinguish them from bullshitters. In technical companies, engineers are often (but not always) the people who really "get it." Yet not all engineers have the other skills you need to lead a business like good communication skills, people skills, decisiveness, etc.

selimthegrim 6y ago

Depends if you want to a) actually practice engineering and b) fork out 70k a year (which if you’re shrewd you can make back by more lucrative SWE opportunities). HBS I totally get

api 6y ago

I think of it this way: to run a business, you must understand what the business does at least well enough to "grok" how it creates value and to tell the difference between good ideas and bullshitting. At the very least you have to be knowledgeable enough about the details to spot other people who know more than you do about said details and distinguish them from bullshitters. In technical companies, engineers are often (but not always) the people who really "get it." Yet not all engineers have the other skills you need to lead a business like good communication skills, people skills, decisiveness, etc.