

Cheapest MBA Program for CS Students Costs $99: It's Called the App Store - alain94040
http://blog.fairsoftware.net/2009/08/12/the-cheapest-mba-program-for-cs-students-costs-99-and-its-called-the-app-store/

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MicahWedemeyer
I came ready to hate, but it's actually a good idea presented well and simply
in the blog post. The one statement I (slightly) disagree with:

"Strike that. You will know that you passed the class when you recoup that
investment tenfold. How many other classes you took offer such direct,
undisputable grades?"

I doubt you'll make $1k, or even $100, but even if you don't you'll still
learn a hell of a lot, so just by doing it you pass the class.

~~~
alain94040
_I doubt you'll make $1k, or even $100_

How do you know if you haven't tried? What does it take to make it to $100?

The App Store solves a very nice problem for learning sales: every product is
put on an equal footing on the App Store, unlike the wild, wild Internet.

~~~
cesare
> every product is put on an equal footing on the App Store

This is not completely true since what Apple decides to promote in the "what's
new", "what's hot", "staff favorites" etc spots makes a huge huge difference.

~~~
alex_c
Out of curiosity, how would one go about bringing their app to Apple's
attention to be potentially listed there? Or is that process, as well,
completely opaque?

~~~
cesare
It isn't possible as far as I know. And it wouldn't make much sense since
everybody would like to be featured.

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Brushfire
As a person who is entering a top ranked MBA program in about 3 weeks, I think
any MBA would agree that doing something like this is a good idea for the
learning. At very worst, you will learn what doesnt work.

~~~
jonsteinberg
As someone who did the MBA, I think it's an incredibly valuable asset but one
that is mispriced and too long in duration. I've gotten more experience
building apps on elance and trying to build business cases. The valuable
insights can be gained from the books of the best lecturers (in my case Bruce
Greenwald <http://bit.ly/Vz5SL>) and direct correspondence.

I think the MBA should be 3-6 months long and priced accordingly. And have a
larger entrepreneurship component for those that are so inclined.

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codedivine
Well for people who do not own a Mac, make that $1100 :( If only Apple made an
SDK for Windows ., _sigh_.

~~~
kqr2
Actually, you can put together a much cheaper system. I put together one for
about $400:

    
    
      * Dell Mini 9 on sale (~$200)
      * Memory and SSD upgrade (~$100)
      * Retail Mac OS X (~$100)
    

[http://gizmodo.com/5156903/how-to-hackintosh-a-dell-
mini-9-i...](http://gizmodo.com/5156903/how-to-hackintosh-a-dell-mini-9-into-
the-ultimate-os-x-netbook)

~~~
cesare
The Dell Mini 9 (which is Atom based) wouldn't be fast enough for the iPhone
emulator (which you would use most of the time even if you own an iPhone).
Moreover, Xcode on OSX86 kernels is unstable and buggy (first hand
experience).

~~~
pcc
Afaik the iPhone is simulated not emulated, the binary is built for x86. So I
doubt it would be too slow -- certainly not slower than the device itself.

~~~
cesare
Now that I think of it, I've tried it on a machine with an AMD processor which
was 2Ghz (don't remember the exact model) but it hadn't SSE3 support. SSE3
instructions are emulated on OSX86 which makes it inherently slower. And on my
2Ghz machine with 2Gb of ram the emulator was in fact slower than the device
itself.

The Intel Atom has support for SSE3 instructions so it should work better but
I believe the stability problems are still there.

~~~
pcc
Intriguing you would find it slower, I guess it is possible that the binaries
are built to the baseline Mac architecture requiring some instructions to be
emulated via invalid instruction exception on lower instr sets, which may also
explain some of your other stability issues.

But looking at your other comments I'm surmising your main contention is that
one might just as well get a real Mac (eg Mini). I agree fully with this, imho
the price difference is hardly worth the time to deal with all the various
issues around install, upgrading etc.

I've also found the Mac mini to be completely adequate; and it still seems to
me that even buying an iMac at $1k+ is still a pittance for a toolchain for
this type of platform, considering one also gets a general-purpose computer to
boot.

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joshfinnie
Unfortunately, I think an apps popularity isn't based off of the things
mentioned in this article. Apps like "Pull my finger" and "Mafia Wars" are not
popular cause the creator priced them correctly or they were marketed well.

~~~
jamesk2
Knowing a market is pretty intrinsic to marketing. It seems obvious now but
iFart was genius in that lots of people found the concept funny enough to pay
a dollar for. I know plenty of people who have bought it on a whim at parties.

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Tichy
I think there have been similar opportunities at most times? There are always
ways to try to make money off small applications.

Also, entering the app store costs more: you also need a Mac and at least an
iPod.

~~~
w1ntermute
_Also, entering the app store costs more: you also need a Mac and at least an
iPod._

You can also just dual boot/virtualize OSx86 on a non-Apple PC.

~~~
Tichy
"just" might be an overstatement: I wouldn't know how to go about it, and I
would feel uneasy about using a hack for professional development.

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joez
The article neglects the networking aspects of getting an MBA. The connections
you develop while getting an MBA is often described as the most valuable
element. Paying a large sums is what is both right and wrong about an MBA.
Networking is important, I am just not sure if it is worth a 200k tuition.

Maybe if you are also expanding your network while building your iPhone
application to investors and fellow hackers, you might be indeed getting most
of an MBA for $99.

~~~
alain94040
You are raising an important point. Let's say half of the value of an MBA is
in the teaching of business, which the article covers. The other half is in
getting the diploma, the network and the brand recognition.

I guess my view is that for the average MBA person, whose goal is to get a
high-paying job in a mid-size to Fortune 500 company, the piece of paper and
the network are very important - go get the formal MBA.

For the 1% of hackers who like to get ahead of everyone else and take the fast
lane to life, the App Store is an intriguing approach. More efficient.

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dlevine
I just finished my MBA, and decided to start a company out of business school.
I can honestly say that I've learned more about starting a company in the past
3 months than I did in the two years before that. The only way to learn
entrepreneurship is by doing it.

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mindhacker
Well, you can do the same thing for lot less by developing a
facebook/opensocial application.

