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admin
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Joined: 14 Jul 2005
Posts: 1826
Location: Greater Boston
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 Posted: Fri Dec 19, 2008 5:54 am GMT Post subject: |
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| Boston ITer wrote: | | Quote: | | Why are you interpreting it that way? |
I've traveled around the world and people are not exactly infatuated with America, like they were some time ago. When a bright person sees that he can handle MIT's curriculum, does it spurn him to fly across the oceans or to stay at home and try to build his own Watson lab, with the help of local investors? Think about it; it's got nothing to do with peer review. |
What does that have to do with MIT's motivation for founding the OpenCourseware project, though? You are at best arguing that the end effect is negative (which I disagree with), but I see nothing to support the assumption that the motivation was hubristic.
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stillRenting
Joined: 02 Oct 2008
Posts: 4
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| Posted: Fri Dec 19, 2008 5:31 pm GMT Post subject: |
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| I agree with Boston ITer, sharing ideas is a very bad thing. and maybe we should also build a giant wall around Cambridge. ...now where is my tin-foil hat? |
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Boston ITer
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| Posted: Fri Dec 19, 2008 7:04 pm GMT Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | sharing ideas is a very bad thing. and maybe we should also build a giant wall around Cambridge |
Just late last year, I was at a VC meeting with an Israeli company, a partnering firm in Beijing, and some Boston area elite school (see MIT, Harvard, Cornell grad) denizens. And what were the topics: a startup at Kendall Sq vs abroad, near one of the dev-to-production centers in Tel Aviv or Beijing. The conclusion was that the Boston area was too costly and that they had all the talented they needed, since the MIT *output* is the same. Yes, it's anecdotal but it's something which ten years ago, no one would have said. Those ivy leaguers were financial/management types so they were on the same page with the internationals.
Like I said earlier, you fellows are living in our storied past and unlike the Celtics, we don't have a new Big Three for science and technology. |
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admin
Site Admin
Joined: 14 Jul 2005
Posts: 1826
Location: Greater Boston
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| Posted: Fri Dec 19, 2008 8:47 pm GMT Post subject: |
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Like I said earlier, you fellows are living in our storied past
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Your anecdote can't be the consequence of MIT's OpenCourseware because OpenCourseware is simply too new. Whether MIT is losing its dominance or not is a wholly separate issue which I am not arguing one way or another. I am stating specifically that your indictment of sharing as a catalyst for the supposed decline is wrong as was your original indictment of high tuition costs (MIT is tuition free).
I think you're also making the mistake of treating technological progress as a zero sum game as if we were mining a limited natural resource. There are not a fixed number of innovations that need to be partitioned between Kendall Square, Tel Aviv, Beijing, etc. The possibilities are infinite. The important question is whether Kendall Square has a sufficient supply of productive companies, not whether it has the only supply. As the rest of the world progresses technologically, of course they are going to favor building their companies closer to home. Do we have enough homegrown innovation to keep the engine going here? That's where I think you may be onto something which is important to consider.
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Boston ITer
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| Posted: Sat Dec 20, 2008 8:12 pm GMT Post subject: |
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As far as tuition goes, MIT does have a better financial aid office than let's say Columbia or Cornell, where loans make up a larger percentage of the burden for students. On the other hand, a top applicant (A+, 1600, National Science Award) to Carnegie-Mellon, Purdue, or GaTech can get a full scholarship (no loan component) regardless of family contribution amounts. I know graduates of the aforementioned programs, owing $0, upon graduation, pretty remarkable.
Now, where is that idea relevant? The bright minds don't need a school, they need access to research facilities and financing for their future entrepreneurial activities. In a sense, MIT has sold this concept to the world for the past few generations which is why you see so many entrepreneurs over there vs let's say the Univ of Chicago.
Where the OCW comes in is the concept of a let's say a local resident attending the ex-Soviet Leningrad Polytechnic { now St Petersburg Polytechnic } (vs MIT). Well, I know of faculty members at American elite schools { Chicago, Berkeley, etc } who'd done the undergrad abroad and then Masters/PhD at MIT (and like programs) and the consensus was that their undergrads were just as intense, however, they don't tend to advertise/vocalize it too much, since the American product has more access to the postdocs and latter professorships. Where the OCW comes in is that now, some of the eastern European & Asian, current generation geniuses are downloading the OCW stuff in high school, nevermind waiting till college, and are basically skipping the whole attendance aspect of college, outside of being visible for the final exams. FYI, much of the world operates on the British university system of ones' finals determining 80-100% of ones' marks. Therefore, they can stay at home, start companies (since being strapped to Kendall Sq isn't on the daily schedule), get a Polytechnic certificate, and attract global financing for their future ventures. Well, I see that as true departure of the old paradigm where being in Kendall was the be-all, for science and engineering aspirants worldwide. |
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Boston ITer
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| Posted: Sat Dec 20, 2008 8:37 pm GMT Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | Well, I see that as true departure of the old paradigm |
If I might add, there's one aspect of the old paradigm which still sort of holds true. A lot of academically bright, entrepreneurial types might, after having made a successful venture, go back an get an executive MBA from MIT-Sloan, Harvard, Wharton, Oxbridge, London, or Columbia for the name/prestige, connections, etc but we all sort of know that that's a *Ring Knocker* elitist type of ritual passage than an authentic educational experience. It's like a person buying a title of nobility with a few spare million dollars lying around. |
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Guest
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| Posted: Wed Dec 24, 2008 10:15 pm GMT Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | after having made a successful venture, go back an get an executive MBA |
The MBA culture or cult of Jack Welch wannabes is the root of all of our business failures today. The actual running of a business is the best MBA out there. A fraternity of those B-school adherents, who see every company as a financial futures instrument, and not a place of real products and services, is the true cause of all our problems. |
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