What They Teach You…Or Don’t

I’ve just finished reading ‘What They Teach You at Harvard Business School‘ which is a book that doesn’t seem to have a purpose really. I can’t spoil it either because there’s no grand secret you learn from it to make up for the fact that you weren’t rich or smart enough to go there but if you see it in a library read the author’s intro. If that doesn’t put you off then it must be that it’s intriguing you somehow.

Yes, the book title sounds like some ‘How to’ kind of book but really it’s not. I just have a magnet for books that sound like they’re trash because it makes me wonder why people read them. And what they could learn from them.

But there’s something about the intro and there’s this bit where the author says he read a guide written by current (or were they former?) students. It contained advice on what HBS is, what it is not, what you should expect, what to bring with you during your stay and one of the things it did mention was ‘don’t bring that musical instrument you always wanted to pick up again’ with no explanation whatsoever as to why not. Whereas most universities here encourage you to pick up from where you left, it’s not the case at HBS but what it does seem to me after reading that is most graduates have a very, very different mindset. It’s just business. Nothing else. For every hour you spend in university it’s not about another extra one or two hours spent reflecting and doing individual study. It’s more like three or four. And a job. 

I bet they’d love the Economist pizza boxes though:

Because pie charts have always looked like, well, pies and pizza I suppose.