It appears that Business Schools need a Liberal Arts Curriculum

By Shana | Published: August 24, 2009
The philosopher Plato
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So this week Fred Wilson‘s a post went up about which books entrepreneurs should read.  The comments are now being turned into a wiki.

The original post was in response the following question “What should a budding Entrepreneur Read?” by a regular reader, which inspired the writing of post.  A well thought idea, if I say so.

What is really surprising, if you look at the list that he, Brad Feld, and commentators develop, is how many of the books are not books about math, or science, or classics of business literature about selling something.  It was almost assumed that one either comes with those skills, or will pick them up as one goes along with life.  (Or Fail with the business, which inherently, may not be a bad thing, if one can pulls out a bunch of positive successes from the failure.) The vast majority are classic meditations in literature and philosophy, from a variety of places, genres, and periods in history.  Even children books appeared.  It looks almost as if the commentators wanted to pass on wisdom, the sorts of wisdom that only comes from questioning the basis of society.

It brings up a really good question:  Business schools curricula, as the running joke (and from what I can tell from looking at their schedules), are in theory designed to create “top leaders in business,” but in practice probably are sticking to a very defined curriculum that lends to some jokes about “selling out.”

That makes little sense looking at this booklist.  It shouldn’t be that business schools inspire jokes about “selling out.”  Beyond educating the fundamentals of business, they clearly need to be doing something inspiring for their students so that they want to stick to it beyond for hard cash.  Their are arguments to be made that business schools, much like college, are advanced, yet more technically oriented, schools for generalists, and are there to inspire their students to be better generalists in their professions so they can make good decisions.  Considering the amount of skills that go into whatever one to call a good decision, it makes sense for business schools to start looking to the classics for inspiration about what it means to be in society, to be a leader, to have money, to be poor, to be female, to be male, to be human.

The story of companies are much like that of people; they are bildungsromans.  Although we have this running assumption in our heads that companies are start by young people and are only young once in their lives, in truth, much like people, they can constantly be re-examined and have fresh vitality be brought in and out of them with a great deal of thought.  Teaching people who want to build businesses how to think with vitality and with creativity should be a top priority. One of the best ways to do so is through modeling, and some of our best teachers come from our great artists, our great writers, and our philosophers.  Lists like this mean that perhaps we need to teach something more than how to crunch the numbers and how to sell, for what and why are we crunching these numbers and for what and why are we selling?  We should be able to answer to ourselves at the end of the day, or at least strive to.

I would consider this especially true considering that economies, at the end of the day, run on humans wants, desires, fears, ingenuity, and brilliance.  We are the shining star at the center, as vain as that sounds.  People who want to be in business should spend some serious time studying humans and what it means to be human.  The fact that business schools don’t currently offer a classic curriculum, ala the Undergraduate University of Chicago, Columbia, or St. John’s College curriculum, means that future leaders are losing out.

I wonder if our economy, if our leadership, if so many things would be different if everyone got together and read about such topics as biopower, negative reads of Plato’s Republic, different kinds of social contract theory, the Gettysburg address, among the many texts they should sit their and read.  They have responsibility in their hands.  How to cultivate it…

I wonder.

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  • http://www.victusspiritus.com/ Mark Essel

    I was really impressed with the reading lists suggested. But my reading time has been primarily consumed with blogs. I want to know what people like Fred Wilson, Seth Godin, Kevin Kelly, Vladimir Vukicevic and yourself Shana are busily spending your neuron processing time on. I can't converse with most book authors so blogs allow me to ask questions, to hyperfocus in on specific topics.

    I've got a library of books at home or that I've given away or tossed out (depending on how much I enjoyed the read :D ). Books take a big commitment of time, even spread out over a week or three.

  • http://shanacarp.com/essays ShanaC

    Thanks. I'm just a newbie out here, still figuring out so much of life (really, and it shows up a little bit more in person). I find that despite the fact that I am losing my attention for books (and I am upset about that, make no mistake), when I can settle in, I converse with the book author by questioning the premises, the story, what I think, what s/he thinks, etc. My mind expands, and then I want to share. It's been a problems since I was a child. ;)

    I'm afraid that if we lose books, and our ability to reason with them, and replace them with blogs and such short messages, we'll lose wisdom of ages, and we'll lose the ability to make new wisdom. It would be amazing to Seth Godin take on and teach what he thinks about The Republic where the guardians of the perfect state, described in their founding myth as Golden people, philosopher-warrior-kings, bans the classic poetry of his age, such as the Iliad, because they don't reflect proper values. It would be incredible to hear the man who came up with the idea that we all have something to say that has a kernel of wisdom, a kernel of truth, in the business world, expound of the very man who opens up the very possibility of the opposite. In fact, the idea intrigues me so much, I might send him this comment.

  • http://www.victusspiritus.com/ Mark Essel

    While a blog post may only be a few hundred words, the sum total of hundreds or thousands of posts can in total be comparable to may texts (albeit in smaller sections). I prefer the concise nature of blog posts for the most part with my current schedule.
    I still do enjoy an occasional book, but it has to stand out as something really worth my time and commitment.

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  • http://www.victusspiritus.com/ Mark Essel

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