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David Heinemeier Hansson-Unlearn Your MBA (Entire talk)

David Heinemeier Hansson-Unlearn Your MBA (Entire talk) on HackerTube: recommended by 2 Hacker News commenters across 2 separate months, 2017–2022.

Entrepreneurship.org

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David Heinemeier Hansson, creator of Ruby on Rails and partner at 37signals, argues that planning is guessing and startups should focus on today. He says constraints are an advantage and that startups can bootstrap profitably in sizable markets.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN recommends it as the classic counterpoint to Silicon Valley growth-at-all-costs startup thinking.

people recommended it
2
separate months
2
strong recommendations
2
discussed on HN
2017–2022
“His talk "How to unlearn your MBA" in particular was fantastic in providing a counterpoint to Silicon-valley style Startups”
— sarabande, Sep 2017, in “YC’s Essential Startup Advice”

What HN commenters said

3 Hacker News comments link this video. Each one links back to its thread.

AgloeDreamsSep 2020Strongly recommends

Reminds me of this very controversial but incredible talk by @DHH of Basecamp/Hey: ▶ this video Things that don't require scale require a VERY different line of business thinking, generally centered around profits vs growth.

in “Do things that don't require scale” · View on HN

sarabandeSep 2017Strongly recommends

I would check out the writings of 37Signals (now Basecamp)/RoR founder David Heinemeier Hansson, who advocates bootstrapping for not-necessarily small markets. His talk "How to unlearn your MBA" in particular was fantastic in providing a counterpoint to Silicon-valley style Startups: ▶ this video . He directly comments on the YCombinator model at 53'57" ( ▶ this video ), but the whole thing is worth watching.

in “YC’s Essential Startup Advice” · View on HN

redthrowMar 2022Cites it

DHH (who also happens to be from Denmark) gave the classic "Unlearn Your MBA" talk in 2010: ▶ this video

in “Managers with MBAs are the best at taking money from workers and not much else [pdf]” · View on HN

Topics & tags

Startups & entrepreneurshipManagement, leadership & organizationsdhh37signalsbootstrappingstartupsmba critiqueprofitability