Back to Earth

Had you asked me what my opinion on an MBA was eight weeks ago, I would have espoused the virtues and necessity of getting the MBA. I'd call this my honeymoon period with graduate school.

Eight weeks later, two more classes completed and I'm singing a different tune. All the articles I read denigrating the value of the MBA make more sense. The successful entrepreneurs like Guy Kawasaki that fight against MBA education sound less like popular self-deprecators and more like sage advisers.

This has been quite the pendulum swing. And I haven't quite made sense of it.

This past week I had a reading assignment for my Organizational Behavior. At the same time, I finished one of the best books I've read the past year: How the Scots Invented the Modern World by Arthur Herman. Both reading pieces used statements from Adam Smith to make points: Specialization is good because it moves society/business forward. I agree. However, business school forgets the warning Adam Smith and Alex Ferguson gave: the pitfall of specialization is a society that allows people to focus purely on their specialty and does not encourage a liberal arts education that enables citizens to think "outside the box."

This needs to be restated: if we allow people to specialize without explaining the source of ideas and how ideas fit together, we develop myopic people and a myopic society. This rings true for me in the broader scheme - i.e. United States, the World, etc. - and more specifically in my microcosm of life - i.e. School, Workplace, etc.

My biggest disappoint with this module has been this issue. Last night our course had a guest speaker that disparaged some of the natural sciences, arguing them as irrelevant to business. I wrote on my paper, "Everything that is left on this presentation is now suspect." And I've realized, that the professors I've had this module teach from this perspective: their specialty is paramount.

What a let down. Coming into the program, I was excited about the tools I was going to walk away with. Through the first module, the material presentation impressed me. My feet are now firmly back on earth: the burden for insuring that I have a firm grasp of multiple mental models rests squarely on my shoulders.

I'm sticking with the MBA program. I'll finish it. Some of the other benefits I listed for pursuing the degree are still valid. However, my view about the content has been skewed. I have professors who are true authorities and worthy of emulation. Others leave little to be desired. This empowers me to continue reading books on physics, social behavior, microbiology, etc. I'm the better for it.