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Comment by biohax2015 | Hacker News Reader

biohax2015

What is the point of discussing MBAs on a website like this? The discussion only ever goes in one direction.

Whenever I get asked about a topic where there's clear orthodox HN groupthink, I always point to MBA discussions. MBAs get universally dunked on here, a lot of it well-deserved. But I argue that it's not the degree itself that makes people like the stereotypical "MBA bro" that everyone here hates, but rather the kinds of people who tend to go for the degree.

It's not like you're a talented, highly technical software developer, get an MBA, then suddenly forget how to code and only know how to reduce costs by 4% per year. I mean, I don't think I forgot how to code. But I did encounter classmates who boil down businesses to spreadsheets where human beings are merely "capital resources that ate lunch". I can assure you the piece of paper with "MBA" written on it didn't suddenly make them that way.

I'm not going to stop HN from dunking on MBAs but I encourage people to look a little deeper than the person's diploma before judging them.

It’s worth noting that engineering is now close to if not the most common undergrad degree for mba graduates

Maybe some brave soul will set us all straight and devastate us with facts and logic. To me, the MBA is a useful creature for extracting value for investors for a product/company that is on a path to death. I mean that as a compliment actually, some companies shouldn't waste money on trying to innovate or improving product quality and should just ride out whatever wave they caught, minimizing costs and maximizing revenue while the cash flow still exists.

A plain MBA can be likened to a vulture over a late-stage dessicating corpse. Too extreme, sure, but MBAs rarely, if ever, pay off for the company hiring them. It's just that the blame and the losses get distributed. You can't avoid MBAs, they're an invented, coerced requirement like lawyers. Getting sued by another lawyer because you don't have some guy running defense for you (as long as you fill his pockets -- indeed the lawyer against you would be ready to bat FOR you if the circumstances were right) is ridiculous.

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