
David Heinemeier Hansson, 37 Signals - Unlearn Your MBA (Audio) - hbien
http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=2334
======
ryanwaggoner
Uh-oh...MBA in the title. Cue edw519 popping in to tell the tale of how all he
remembers from b-school is his professor telling him that a degree in business
is a degree in nothing :)

[http://www.google.com/search?q=site:news.ycombinator.com+%22...](http://www.google.com/search?q=site:news.ycombinator.com+%22a+degree+in+business+is+a+degree+in+nothing%22)

~~~
edw519
Actually, I remember 2 things from business school. Thanks, ryanwaggoner, for
reminding me of the other.

~~~
ryanwaggoner
Oh, don't be stuffy. I'm just giving you a hard time :)

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patio11
_This recording contains explicit language and is not appropriate for all
viewers._ Sometimes you've just got to go with the brand, you know? ;)

Edited to add: This talk is very, very good -- much of it is what you've heard
from 37Signals before, but it is well delivered and there are unique insights
too. (In particular I like how people are socialized into maladaption to the
preferences of professors. Oh, and I agree with this: "Our most important
competitive advantage is good human writing" -- it is probably my most
important skill that I talk the least about.)

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newhouseb
I attended this talk in person, and have to say it was easily the most
entertaining of the series I've seen all year.

The most interesting take-away was that DHH wants to build scalable companies
in the sense that profits grow non-correlated to the workforce, ie. you don't
hire 2 more people for $500million more in profits. Someone asked, wouldn't it
good to employ 100k of people and create 100k jobs to which DHH said, no it's
better for my personal wealth (which is the point of all good business) if I
keep the profits to the smallest number of people possible - those 100k people
should actually go out and make shit instead (his words). Food for thought.

~~~
evandavid
It is interesting to consider how many jobs (globally) have been created, or
shall we say, how many people's professional life has been shaped, by the
software framework that DHH released to the world. So in a way, he has created
jobs. Without ever diluting his revenue from 37signals. (comments?)

Personally I really enjoyed this talk. As a business school grad who taught
himself to programme and now works for a bootstrapped web startup, I still
value what I learned at business school. I think DHH is a bit harsh with the
'unlearn' label. I consider the core principles learned at b-school to be very
important to shaping my everyday thinking. It is the specifics (DHH's example
of Porter's five forces applies here) that can be forgotten. But those
specifics were a great tool for developing the overall business mindset that
he also describes. I don't regret my time there whatsoever.

~~~
jamesbritt
"how many people's professional life has been shaped, by the software
framework that DHH released to the world. So in a way, he has created jobs."

This suggests that were someone not using Rail they'd be unemployed. But,
really, if there were no Rails then people would have been using (say) Nitro,
or sticking to some Java or PHP framework.

~~~
gregcmartin
Or like lots of people who are/were new to programing an exiting, creative and
forward thinking framework to allow anyone to learn and create functional web
apps inspired them to learn and to create when they were not programming
before.

~~~
jamesbritt
That was part of my point. Rails got massive attention, but it wasn't unique.

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hedgehog
The talk was done at 5:30, in the following four hours it was trimmed down,
intro voice & music added, uploaded w/ a photo taken at the event, found by
someone here, and posted to HN. Got to love the internet.

~~~
vijaydev
yep! DHH thought the same too :) <http://twitter.com/dhh/status/8015012471>

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fendale
Definately a good talk, and really inspires me to try and finally get
something built and released in my spare 10 hours a week. I have been messing
around with various projects over the last year or two, but it takes a long
time to get anything decent done in 10 hours a week with one person before the
motivation runs out.

One thing that just occurred to me, is that while DHH was working 10 hours per
week on Basecamp, I'd bet that Jason Freid was putting in at least 10 hours on
the design side too. For me, the programming side of things isn't the big time
sink - its getting the application to look and flow correctly. I would guess
that for every 10 hours I spend coding, I spend at least that trying to get
the UI to look even half professional.

Thats not to take anything away from the achievement of building Basecamp in
spare time, more an observation of how much more productive I would be if I
had someone doing the UI elements along side me.

~~~
andymism
I've got to point out too that wrapped up in those 10 hours per week were 1000
lines of a little web framework in Ruby.

~~~
fendale
Yea, well Rails was born out of Basecamp - certainly an impressive
achievement.

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waratuman
Only after this talk did I fully understand the difference the company he is
trying to make / building (37 Signals) and the path that so many others
follow.

Great advice that should be considered before any company brings on VC money.

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msort
My take-away: 1) Goal: "Make a dent on the universe" 2) Don't take VC money,
which is a "time-bomb" 3) Don't be a workaholic. "Greatness comes from well-
rested minds". Constraints force you to do less and different things. 4) No
overnight success. It takes time.

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cellis
For those that wish to see a video of roughly the same talk given by DHH at
Startup School '08:

[http://www.omnisio.com/startupschool08/david-heinemeier-
hans...](http://www.omnisio.com/startupschool08/david-heinemeier-hansson-at-
startup-school-08)

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sreitshamer
I found this really inspiring. It reminded me why I put myself on my MicroISV
path. I've heard him say many of the same things before, but this was a nicely
distilled 20-minute version.

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gregcmartin
I think it's funny that he referenced Domino's pizza CEO as an example of a
lame MBA. Because just within the last week he resigned to coach college
football at Michigan. Bizarre.

<http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=4797284>

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Tawheed
David was great as usual. I found Steve Blank's questions/demeanor toward him
to be a little condescending.

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access_denied
"this audio contains explicit language" haha, funny dave.

