Set Theory
Set theory is an often overlooked avenue of explaining complex things in a simple manner, rather than its current form, which terrorizes young math majors by making simple things more complex.
In this article, I’d like to look at the two most popular operations, the ‘union’ and the ‘intersection’, and how exactly it relates to a business school experience.
A set is a many that allows itself to be thought of as a one.
The Union
Our innate and primal urge to socialize and create communities, one of humanity’s biggest strengths, finds its way of paying dividends, especially in the context of a business school.
A collection of accomplished individuals from different geographies, ethnicities, educational and professional backgrounds create a cocktail perfect to conduce the most important element in a business school - peer learning.
Graduating from an epoch of traditional business schools keeping ‘academic output’ as the central metric of success, we see new-age, non-traditional business schools moving away from the beaten (read trodden) path towards thinking of newer avenues as major takeaways for students from their university experiences.
Although it might not be very transparent, learning about ‘business’ might not be a business schools prime objective. Educational material sourced from friends, libraries and online can be used to gain what would be called as a traditional understanding of business. Even better, we’re at an age where you can bootstrap your startup and get started at almost no cost. There’s not better business education than that! When it comes to learning business for free, there’s been no better time at any time in human history.
But why go to business school?
It’s because of the ‘union’. The gathering of driven, motivated and accomplished individuals and their experiences forging through a rigorous academic experience creates something quite special. The late-nights till 4 am trying to help your friends nail their essay, the last-minute tutorials before an exam, the long hours of discussion after classes - it is these experiences and these people that contribute to your business school experience. It might not be the 7th problem set you get for statistics class.
The Intersection
Options overload, choice paralysis and all the other names it’s been called, we clearly face an inability to act when faced with too many choices or too much information. The clearest path forward is to simplify.
Applying this to the use-case of postgraduate education, we need to demand more relevance and simplicity from our curriculum. Pro tip: a good decision before choosing your postgraduate destination would definitely include going through the course curriculum to see if what you’re studying lines up with your career goals.
How does business school help? Can’t I study what I want online?
Business school provides you with the optimal synthesis of material - what to study in detail, what to study briefly, what kind of tools do you need to use, access to research/labs for more interested students - this is the kind of soft architecture a business school can provide. But more importantly, it provides you with the access to the union.
What is the synthesis? Take Masters’ Union for example. At the intersection of technology and business, the curriculum weaves through both fundamental knowledge and tailored electives that students can use to customize their experiences. Students coming from a tech background get to ground their newly acquired business knowledge in a familiar context, while students coming from a business background find themselves in a unique place to upskill themselves in tech and add a unique element to their arsenal.
Investment bankers who can code in python? Who would have thought of that?
An ecosystem fashioned by a union of future industry leaders, complemented with a curriculum that exists at the intersection of the past, present and future. That’s the golden ticket that Willy Wonka found in the chocolate bar.
The Round 1 deadline of admissions is on the 23rd of January, so if you’re someone who has read this far and hasn’t started your application, you should really be doing so here.