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Though I had a Stanford MBA and regularly consulted on multimillion-dollar projects, I didn't know the first thing about starting a business. Truer words have

Though I had a Stanford MBA and regularly consulted on multimillion-dollar projects, I didn't know the first thing about starting a business. Truer words have never been spoken.

edw519 18y ago
Reminds me of my second favorite line from Rodney Dangerfield's "Back to School". Thorton Melon's opinion of his business professor, "He tells it like it ain't." (My favorite line? "Bring us a pitcher of beer every seven minutes until someone passes out. Then bring one every ten minutes.")
timr 18y ago
I'm saddened that the two highest-rated comments are snarky comments about the man's degree. He's telling an embarrassing story in good faith, and the best we can do is insult his education? Classy.
- fallentimes 18y ago
  Insult him? It was the author's own words; I was agreeing with his realization. Before doing a startup, I (fallentimes) used to be the consultant on "multimillion dollar projects". I agree with regards to the second comment though.
  - timr 18y ago
    The author clearly wrote that sentence to express the irony of the situation; your comment contributed no additional information, except to lay on the sarcasm. Point being, when there are a thousand different insightful things that one could say about the content of the story, a seven-word zinger about the value of his MBA degree doesn't strike me as a particularly constructive comment.
    - fallentimes 18y ago
      In my opinion, the quote perfectly summarized not only the entire article, but the situations each of us often find ourselves in. "Shit, I watched my Dad do this a million times why can't I do it now?" "Wasn't I supposed to learn how to do this in college - where the heck was I that day?" "I thought after learning how to do X, I'd know how to apply it to Y" "I thought after listening to him, I'd be able to do this" But, fair enough, I see your point (I should have added the above comment to my original posting); I'll try to elaborate more in the future.
    - mattmaroon 18y ago
      If you think genuinely agreeing with something the author said is sarcasm, you should look the term up in the dictionary. I don't know whether the comment added value or not, but it certainly wasn't sarcastic and almost certainly wasn't insulting.
      - timr 18y ago
        If your dictionary has rules for sarcasm, I think I would like to see it.
        mattmaroon 18y ago
        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarcasm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarcasm "Sarcasm is stating the opposite of an intended meaning especially in order to sneeringly, slyly, jest or mock a person, situation or thing." I don't think agreeing fits.
        deleted 18y ago
        [deleted]
        timr 18y ago
        Well, if wikipedia says it, it must be true. (See that? Agreement.)
        timr 18y ago
        I see the humor police are out in force. For those of you who are unable to resist clicking the little down arrow on comments that seem vaguely negative, let's be clear: the whole point was to demonstrate that it's possible to be sarcastic while still agreeing with someone. Yeesh. In particular, when you "agree" with something that you have quoted out of context, it's quite easy to paint it with the opposite of its intended meaning. That's what the OP did -- he took a remark that wasn't intended to disparage the MBA degree, and turned it into something that did. That's called sarcasm, whether wikipedia is your authoritative reference on the subject, or not.

Though I had a Stanford MBA and regularly consulted on multimillion-dollar projects, I didn't know the first thing about starting a business. Truer words have never been spoken.

edw519 18y ago

Reminds me of my second favorite line from Rodney Dangerfield's "Back to School". Thorton Melon's opinion of his business professor, "He tells it like it ain't." (My favorite line? "Bring us a pitcher of beer every seven minutes until someone passes out. Then bring one every ten minutes.")

timr 18y ago

I'm saddened that the two highest-rated comments are snarky comments about the man's degree. He's telling an embarrassing story in good faith, and the best we can do is insult his education? Classy.

fallentimes 18y ago
Insult him? It was the author's own words; I was agreeing with his realization. Before doing a startup, I (fallentimes) used to be the consultant on "multimillion dollar projects". I agree with regards to the second comment though.
- timr 18y ago
  The author clearly wrote that sentence to express the irony of the situation; your comment contributed no additional information, except to lay on the sarcasm. Point being, when there are a thousand different insightful things that one could say about the content of the story, a seven-word zinger about the value of his MBA degree doesn't strike me as a particularly constructive comment.
  - fallentimes 18y ago
    In my opinion, the quote perfectly summarized not only the entire article, but the situations each of us often find ourselves in. "Shit, I watched my Dad do this a million times why can't I do it now?" "Wasn't I supposed to learn how to do this in college - where the heck was I that day?" "I thought after learning how to do X, I'd know how to apply it to Y" "I thought after listening to him, I'd be able to do this" But, fair enough, I see your point (I should have added the above comment to my original posting); I'll try to elaborate more in the future.
  - mattmaroon 18y ago
    If you think genuinely agreeing with something the author said is sarcasm, you should look the term up in the dictionary. I don't know whether the comment added value or not, but it certainly wasn't sarcastic and almost certainly wasn't insulting.
    - timr 18y ago
      If your dictionary has rules for sarcasm, I think I would like to see it.
      - mattmaroon 18y ago
        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarcasm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarcasm "Sarcasm is stating the opposite of an intended meaning especially in order to sneeringly, slyly, jest or mock a person, situation or thing." I don't think agreeing fits.
        deleted 18y ago
        [deleted]
        timr 18y ago
        Well, if wikipedia says it, it must be true. (See that? Agreement.)
        timr 18y ago
        I see the humor police are out in force. For those of you who are unable to resist clicking the little down arrow on comments that seem vaguely negative, let's be clear: the whole point was to demonstrate that it's possible to be sarcastic while still agreeing with someone. Yeesh. In particular, when you "agree" with something that you have quoted out of context, it's quite easy to paint it with the opposite of its intended meaning. That's what the OP did -- he took a remark that wasn't intended to disparage the MBA degree, and turned it into something that did. That's called sarcasm, whether wikipedia is your authoritative reference on the subject, or not.