Elon Musk Talks About the Importance of Physics, Criticizes the MBA

New submitter ElSergio writes "In a two-part interview with the American Physical Society, Elon Musk, founder of PayPal, Tesla Motors and SpaceX, talks about how important it is to be able to think in terms of first principles, a tool learned as a physics student. Later in the interview, he recommends against obtaining an MBA, claiming, 'It teaches people all sorts of wrong things' and 'They don't teach people to think in MBA schools.' In fact. if you are in business and want to work for SpaceX, you will have a better chance getting hired if you do not have one. According to Musk, 'I hire people in spite of an MBA'. He goes on to point out that if you look at the senior managers in his companies, you will not find very many MBAs there."

Dungeons and Dragons

[Piata]

I think the most important thing from this interview is that Musk played D&D and is a self professed nerd.

Re:Phases of Evolution

[MightyMartian]

And then the MBAs will take over, fire the physicists, hire a bunch of equally vile and sociopathic marketing types, and will find ways to cut corners, move all manufacturing to low-tax cheap-labor cess pools, hire equally vile and sociopathic IP lawyers to sue anyone who ever had an idea that even vaguely resembled the company's, rob the company of every dime it has, drive it into the ground.

Rinse and repeat.

Re:Better chances if you do not have one?

[ElSergio]

If you read the actual article (and even the snippet above) it says you have a better chance being hired at HIS companies if you do not have one, based on the percentage of his upper level business people and the degrees they hold. Also in the original interview he goes on to state exactly what you are saying, that he hires based on skillset, and in his opinion the people without MBAs tend to be the more eligible candidates if you ignore degree. His hireing practices are based more on what have you done, rather than what agree you have obtained, since your academic carer can be fixed to an extend by what classes you choose to take in order to bump up your GPA.

Groupthink not wanted?

[ebno-10db]

According to Musk, 'I hire people in spite of an MBA'.

What's that, he doesn't like mindless groupthink, and the inability to understand the difference between a rule of thumb and actual thought, judgement and understanding of reality? No wonder the guy is a failure.

Re:couldnt agree more

[al0ha]

Elon is not the only genius who thinks an MBA is bogus and he's 100% correct; but we have to give FZ his due as he was way ahead of the curve on this thinking.

" When people started taking MBA seriously, that was the beginning of the ruination of the American industrial society. When all decisions are based on an MBA's concept of numerical reality, you're in deep shit, because the only thing that can be judged as real is that which can be proved by a column of figures. And when all aesthetic decisions are turned over to these kinds of people, who use these criteria to make steering decisions for a company with no regard for people and no regard for what the product really is, and the only thing that matters is maximizing your profit, you have a problem. Because you can't have quality then; you cannot have excellence. Quality's expensive. I think most of these people that come from business schools have the desire to make sure everything is cheesy. That's what happens when you do things that way." - FZ

http://home.online.no/~corneliu/mother1.htm [online.no]

Re:Phases of Evolution

[ebno-10db]

Saying you dislike MBA's is not the same as saying you don't need managers and executives. Groves was brilliant at organizing and running major projects, but he was an army officer for the Corps of Engineers, not an MBA. The degree hadn't even been invented back then, which helps explain why we aren't speaking German or Japanese.

Re:couldnt agree more

[entrigant]

In my case it's because my job is to talk to computers, not people. I don't need or want to hear every co workers phone call, every impromptu in the middle of the hall way meeting, etc. It's only a distraction and absolutely destroys productivity.

Re:Please expand

[Anonymous Coward]

It was a professor for my (AACSB, in case you are wondering) MBA. He was an adjunct professor and he was a business professional. Incidentally, he didn't have an MBA but rather a degree in finance or accounting (something involving money).

As to your second question, it is really three fold. The first is because most places tout up their degree as the equivalent of a Ph.D. or M.D. or D.O. The second is that many people who go for the MBA already have high feelings already and the constant positive feedback does that. The third is that, in the classroom, no one gives bad answers because the bad answers are so obviously bad no one would pick them, are evident from the reading (after reading about the fallacy of sunk costs all the right answers will obviously ignore them) or you are redirected to another answer.

For example, you read a problem that mentions a failing business with 5 employees that are all essential. You say, "cut costs by firing someone," instructor says "all employees are essential," so you respond with, "increase revenues by hiring salesmen," they respond with, "interesting choice, let's talk about the pros and cons of hiring when losing money." All the person called on hears is "interesting answer" and he associated dopamine rush of being able to relax now that the professor is back on lecture mode, instead of examine mode.

Now that I think about it, the way class is conducted requires quick gut responses. True, exams require more nuance, but you don't live exams everyday.

Re:couldnt agree more

[shutdown -p now]

I don't understand why open-floor layouts get a bad rap. I work in one now, and it's great. I never want to see the inside of another cube.

You assume that cubicle is the starting point. It's probably true for many, but I've seen people moved out of individual offices to open floor layout for the sake of "collaboration".