David Heinemeier Hansson says, 'Unlearn Your MBA'

While I don't disagree with what he's saying, there is a nuance that isn't coming across that is pretty important:<p>It's not just about entrepreneurship - every real business is steeped in stuff that just can't (or shouldn't be) taught in school. Business school theory is meant to be <i>general</i>, and sometimes painfully high-level in its focus.<p>BUT! That doesn't make the knowledge and experience of business school worthless or something that has to be "unlearned". A broad knowledge of business practice and theory is not a substitute for practical domain experience and knowledge. It <i>is</i> a great compliment, however.<p>It seems trendy to dismiss MBA's (the degrees, not the people) as worthless, or even worse, apologize for having one. The truth is far less sensational: It's a degree - nothing more, nothing less. As long as you keep an open mind, all knowledge is good.

While I have a lot of criticisms of the MBA program I was in, I was lucky to get a few important lessons that I think are useful:<p>1 - From my small business professor: Don't think about it, just do it. If you overanalyze your idea, you'll never start your business.<p>2 - Guest speaker in advertising: The customer always gets what they deserve.<p>3 - Economics professor: Most of the experts out there just read a couple more articles more than the next guy.<p>4 - Same economics professor: If you want to be rich, sail and ski. You'll make your best connections. (I don't do either, but I don't disagree with his assessment)<p>5 - Strategy classes: Focus on what you're good at<p>6 - Final Strategy Study: Learning how to work with people you want to fire but can't<p>Of course, everyone gets different stuff out of their program - it seemed like everyone in my cohort wanted to be a product manager at Proctor and Gamble, but that's another story.

I think a lot of the problem comes down to MBA students who have zero critical thinking or problem solving ability. I see it all the time in my program - students take everything they learn verbatim and act like it is gospel. In reality, they should always be questioning what they are learning, thinking about how it might apply in the real world, and what the benefits/consequences are. For example, my Entrepreneurship class is making us write a business plan with the sole intention of gaining funding. That's nice - but at the same time I'm using it as an exercise to also see what the plan would look like as a lifestyle or small (37signals-ish) business.<p>Secondly, MBA programs are just now beginning to (somewhat) teach that pure profit maximization is not the only goal of a business. It will take a while for this to catch on, and not all MBA students are going to adopt this way of thinking, but there are some of us out there who do. This is happening with both social ventures and sustainability-focused businesses.

This feels like link bait. The same full-length talk was given over 6 month ago, which this story doesn't seem to link to <a href="http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=2334" rel="nofollow">http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=2334</a>

Most schools do a terrible job at teaching entrepreneurs and future small business owners. MBA programs are meant to prepare students for mid-level positions in big companies that already have a set plan.<p>If you want to run a startup, you definitely need to unlearn your MBA.

People take MBAs to network with other people.

I have an undergraduate business degree from the University of Washington in Seattle and I think it was very helpful. I'm sort of a "business geek" and I really enjoyed learning some things that I wouldn't have been able to learn on my own. Basically, I know I can teach myself a new programming language, but I can't really teach myself finance or marketing. I did take a handful of CS courses, just enough to realize that CS isn't really about writing software.<p>A few months ago, I went to an informational seminar for the UW Technical Management MBA and I realized that MBA, in that context, stands for <i>Microsoft, Boeing, Amazon</i>. Something like 76% of the students came from those three local companies. I see the value in networking, but if I wanted to meet a bunch of Microsofties, I would go work at Microsoft. (Not that I have anything against Microsoft, but I know it's not the right culture for me)<p>And while I don't doubt the quality of the education (some of the professors were the same ones I had in my undergrad and they were awesome) the whole thing was pitched not as "look at all the cool stuff you'll learn" it was pitched as a way to break through into a better job/better salary at your current big company, which felt a little discouraging. I felt a sense that actually writing code was somehow distasteful to some of the audience, and they were willing to pay around $80K to not have to do it anymore.<p>If the lack of paper diploma is really holding you back, then I guess it's a good thing. If you really just want the education, there are plenty of better learning experiences to be had for that kind of money.

This directly addresses an internal struggle I have been having as of late. Pursue an MBA or not?<p>The way I see it is that business is a fluid process and while learning the basic framework of it is beneficial, it in no way corresponds to success. Any of the classes in an MBA can be learned through books. What you are paying for is the experience and the network that you can gain at a low risk, while firmly rooting a foundation of fundamentals.

DHH makes a few mistakes in his reasoning here. I have an MBA and work for a successful YC startup. Here are the flaws with his argument:<p>1. Mediocre business schools aren't worthwhile. And although school rankings are only an approximate quality measure, any school that isn't in the top 30 in the world or top 10 in the US is probably mediocre. He is basing his analysis on his experience at the University of Copenhagen, which doesn't make most global rankings (<a href="http://rankings.ft.com/businessschoolrankings/global-mba-rankings" rel="nofollow">http://rankings.ft.com/businessschoolrankings/global-mba-ran...</a>, <a href="http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/MB_07_Scoreboard.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/MB_07_Score...</a>, <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/rankings/" rel="nofollow">http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/rankings/</a>), doesn't crack the top 30 in Europe (<a href="http://rankings.ft.com/businessschoolrankings/european-business-school-rankings" rel="nofollow">http://rankings.ft.com/businessschoolrankings/european-busin...</a>), and doesn't actually offer an MBA (<a href="http://uk.cbs.dk/degree_programmes" rel="nofollow">http://uk.cbs.dk/degree_programmes</a>). In addition, the 3 year program the DHH refers to is actually an undergraduate program (the MBA is a graduate degree).<p>2. Internet businesses operate at large scale (if they are successful), and understanding large scale businesses operations requires quantitative analysis. Working for a YC startup myself, I can attest that what I learned in business school is <i>incredibly</i> useful. My school (Wharton), focused on quantitative analysis, and I came out of it with a set of tools that I use everyday. These include statistical analysis, quantitative model building, quant marketing tools, and financial analysis. Of course you can learn these tools on your own, but you risk not knowing what tools are available to address the problems you face.<p>3. In addition to tools, a good MBA program will teach a general problem solving technique to systematically break down, analyze, and solve business problems. And it will teach you to effectively communicate your solutions to others (you boss, a client, a VC, whoever). Some people are naturally good at this and don't need an MBA to do it. But many need to be taught how to think in this manner.<p>4. As another commenter pointed out, a lot of value from getting an MBA comes from networking. However if you get an MBA in one country (Denmark) and then move to another continent, that network will be less useful.<p>5. Many of DHH's lessons about building a successful startup - including charging for your product, picking a competitor, and rejecting conventional thinking about starting a tech company - are exactly the type of things you learn while getting an MBA. In fact, rather than learn specific lessons like these, you learn a framework for evaluating your business and market, and formulating the right way to structure your company.<p>DHH does make a few good points, both explicit and implied:<p>1. Strategy frameworks like the Porter's 5 Forces (he incorrectly describes it as a management theory) aren't particularly useful for starting companies. Although these frameworks can help to gut check if a startup is entering a good or bad market, they won't be at all useful in the day-to-day running of a company.<p>2. Based on my small sample set (of 1 school), I don't think business school is useful for learning how to build a product or be entrepreneurial. Granted, some schools specialize in this and mine did not, so other schools may be useful in this regard (Stanford GSB is known for entrepreneurship).

DHH is too overconfident. Even if it's true, how can you talk about MBA, if you never got one?

I think there are too many people on the internet who are making money telling others how to make money on the internet.