w29 thoughts

some quotes, some thoughts

Considering doing masters #

Luring opportunity of doing masters while working is what I have been thinking for a while. Not for the first time I read:

"The wage premiums for a master's degree and a professional degree over a bachelor's are 19% and 57 respectively." (Business, 2018)

The Economist argues that the market is growing and service that is provided is not student-oriented enough.

The article mentions the following personalities:

• Chip Paucek, 2U's chief executive,
• Richard Garrett, member of Eduventures consultancy,
• John Kalzman, founder Noodle Partners,
• Iwan Streichenberger, president of Pearson Online Learning Services.

I learned that Noodle Partners pairs with universities to bootstrap them in the real of online education.

How companies treat time #

In my favorite column on disruptive ideas that I always try to read, the Economist discussed how companies might change to think of time/future effectively. The newspaper brings up the following key phrases: "lionise the "long term"" and "follow big, futuristic "mega-trends"".

"...firms need people who are adaptable but self-confident enough not to be swung too much by fashion, as well as balance-sheets that are strong enough to absorb the mistakes." (Schumpeter, 2018)

The article made me think of the price of error and the place of error in business model pivoting/development (Blank and Dorf, 2012, p433). Only business that generates money can give some room for learning, experimenting. It also means that until a sound business models is in place, nothing can be a priority, nothing can be in question for experimentation. The other thing that I thought of is there are trends that every developer falls into from time to time. The buzz around artificial intelligence and blockchain exists. It is painful to implement cutting edge technologies, though you are part of a "big trend" and it takes courage not to follow the fashion.

Bibliography #

Blank, S. and Dorf, B. (2012). The Startup Owner's Manual: The Step-by-Step Guide for Building a Great Company. California: K&S Ranch, Inc.

Business, (2018). Learning difficulties: A third of America's graduate degrees are now taken online. But the bulk of the spols go not to famous universities but to obscure firms. The Economist, 428 (9101), 51.

Schumpeter, (2018). Schumpeter: A minute of your day. The Economist, 428 (9101), 52.

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