[jmduke]

This article bothered me. First off, it seems like a false dichotomy: the ideal situation is to have the hard skills afforded by a computer science education (something that irked me as the article seemed to equivocate 'learning to code' with 'knowing computer science') while having the soft skills and networking afforded by an MBA. (This is to speak nothing of the assumption that great developers suddenly have those 'lightbulb moments' -- I know amazing programmers who have no desire to think outside the box.)

The second issue I had with the article demonstrated the kind of mindset that comes from undervaluing 'soft skills' and the MBA education (as engineers tend to do) -- "If you build an excellent product with product/market fit then people will buy it." Obviously there are exceptions, but in the general realm of business, this is laughably naive -- there's a reason that marketing expenses (especially for startups who compete more for mindshare than monthly fees) are so high. Amazing products fail all the time.

I certainly don't mean to undervalue the ability to code: I'm a CS/Business double major, and without a doubt the CS degree is opening way more doors than the BBA. But, just as you're not going to hire an MBA to 'build stuff for the web', you're not going to -- or shouldn't -- hire a software developer to spearhead business development or marketing.

[bradlind]

You are right - horses for courses. At the end of the day its about having a balanced team that can execute across product and business. As an individual you can't be all things to all people. As a founder my strength is in product management and driving a vision, although I have a computer science degree, I choose not to code because I prefer to drive product and business and hire people who are way better than me to code.