Comments on: The Genteel Nation https://www.isegoria.net/2010/09/the-genteel-nation/ From the ancient Greek for equality in freedom of speech; an eclectic mix of thoughts, large and small Wed, 29 Apr 2026 21:58:02 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.6.1 By: Isegoria https://www.isegoria.net/2010/09/the-genteel-nation/comment-page-1/#comment-20352 Isegoria Sat, 11 Sep 2010 16:20:43 +0000 http://www.isegoria.net/?p=21949#comment-20352 I’m reminded of why MBAs fail at entrepreneurship and the infamous Harvard MBA Index.

]]> By: David Foster https://www.isegoria.net/2010/09/the-genteel-nation/comment-page-1/#comment-20159 David Foster Fri, 10 Sep 2010 22:18:11 +0000 http://www.isegoria.net/?p=21949#comment-20159 Also, regarding Michelle Obama’s line about “don’t go into corporate America,” the business guy who created the container freight industry did more to reduce world poverty than all of the foreign-aid bureaucrats of the last five decades. And while he made a lot of money, it probably wasn’t as much as the Obamas will extract from their career in “public service.”

]]> By: David Foster https://www.isegoria.net/2010/09/the-genteel-nation/comment-page-1/#comment-20158 David Foster Fri, 10 Sep 2010 22:16:03 +0000 http://www.isegoria.net/?p=21949#comment-20158 There is much truth in this, but even David Brooks makes the mistake of confusing “America’s brightest minds” with “Ivy League.” There are plenty of very smart people who would be very pleased to work for a small, entrepreneurial manufacturing company in Akron.

Too many college graduates indeed tend to be too trendy in their career choices, and I would bet this is especially true in the Ivy League. (GE CEO Jeff Immelt has observed that the most popular employer among members of his own HBS class was the videogame maker Atari — seventeen of his classmates went to work there.)

Following the herd is not a sign of intelligence; often it is a sign of cowardice.

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