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Wow, what a useless blog post that was. A MUCH better, less flame-worthy title would have been: "What is the value of reading a 101 level business textbook fro

Wow, what a useless blog post that was. A MUCH better, less flame-worthy title would have been: "What is the value of reading a 101 level business textbook from 2005?" A formal, GOOD, business education is invaluable, in combination with some domain-specific skill (I do think the pseudo-advertising in the book is appalling) It's not very useful to know about how "business works" without knowing and experiencing a real living value chain [whether it be retail, financial services, web software, or film making, etc]. (disclosure, I have a B.S. in finance from the University of Virginia...and an MFA in percussion performance from CalArts...all we did at UVA was read HBR and other intellectually stimulating material and then get grilled on it in full-class discussions...not to mention courses in C++ [viva the 1990's], statistics, and Black-Scholes ;-)

nostrademons 19y ago
I've got a couple coworkers trying to steer me towards business school (MBA, not undergrad), and they said that the real value is the network of classmates that you develop. The courses basically consist of reading lots of case-studies - if you read a lot, you probably do that or the equivalent anyway. But you can't fake the experience of getting a lot of smart, successful people together. I found that that was also the primary benefit of going to a top private college. My courses at Amherst weren't all that much better than those at a good state school - yeah, they were challenging, and the professors were good, but if you look hard you can get that at many other universities. But almost every single one of my classmates is doing something interesting, whether it be physics grad school or traveling abroad or running a hedge fund or eliminating child soldiers in Africa or writing Broadway musicals or starting a company with me.
- byrneseyeview 19y ago
  "the real value is the network of classmates that you develop." True unless everyone knows it: what happens when nobody is there to learn and everyone is there to network? A network that doesn't transmit any content (and exists mostly to network) is useless. I wrote a little about that as it applies to reddit (and LinkedIn): http://www.byrneseyeview.com/byrnes_eye_view/the_tragedy_of_the_common_all.html http://www.byrneseyeview.com/byrnes_eye_view/the_tragedy_of_...
- colortone 19y ago
  I agree that "networking" delivers value, but the academia is very worthwhile, too. Marc Andreesson's post analyzing the credit crunch that forced hedge fund Citadel to dissolve is a great example of the value of "business education." Command of that realm of knowledge is completely germane to a web software startup, etc.
  - nostrademons 19y ago
    You can get most of that info elsewhere, though. I have no formal education in finance, but I understood everything in the Sowood letter, even without Marc's commentary. (Really, sometimes I think that money managers would do well to read Benjamin Graham's The Intelligent Investor and nothing else. Many of the complicated mathematical stuff - which my employer makes a business of selling - actually hurts your performance in the long run.)
    - far33d 19y ago
      Often, it looks like the last proponent of Graham left in the finance world is Warren Buffett.

nostrademons 19y ago

I've got a couple coworkers trying to steer me towards business school (MBA, not undergrad), and they said that the real value is the network of classmates that you develop. The courses basically consist of reading lots of case-studies - if you read a lot, you probably do that or the equivalent anyway. But you can't fake the experience of getting a lot of smart, successful people together. I found that that was also the primary benefit of going to a top private college. My courses at Amherst weren't all that much better than those at a good state school - yeah, they were challenging, and the professors were good, but if you look hard you can get that at many other universities. But almost every single one of my classmates is doing something interesting, whether it be physics grad school or traveling abroad or running a hedge fund or eliminating child soldiers in Africa or writing Broadway musicals or starting a company with me.

byrneseyeview 19y ago
"the real value is the network of classmates that you develop." True unless everyone knows it: what happens when nobody is there to learn and everyone is there to network? A network that doesn't transmit any content (and exists mostly to network) is useless. I wrote a little about that as it applies to reddit (and LinkedIn): http://www.byrneseyeview.com/byrnes_eye_view/the_tragedy_of_the_common_all.html http://www.byrneseyeview.com/byrnes_eye_view/the_tragedy_of_...
colortone 19y ago
I agree that "networking" delivers value, but the academia is very worthwhile, too. Marc Andreesson's post analyzing the credit crunch that forced hedge fund Citadel to dissolve is a great example of the value of "business education." Command of that realm of knowledge is completely germane to a web software startup, etc.
- nostrademons 19y ago
  You can get most of that info elsewhere, though. I have no formal education in finance, but I understood everything in the Sowood letter, even without Marc's commentary. (Really, sometimes I think that money managers would do well to read Benjamin Graham's The Intelligent Investor and nothing else. Many of the complicated mathematical stuff - which my employer makes a business of selling - actually hurts your performance in the long run.)
  - far33d 19y ago
    Often, it looks like the last proponent of Graham left in the finance world is Warren Buffett.