I came across an older essay, which I found on Hacker News earlier, from a student at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. A lot of what he says is extremely accurate and telling of the b-school experience, which I lived through in an alternative form over the past few years as a media management student at Columbia College Chicago. All of the bullshit, as this author puts it, is incredibly on-point and I have since changed my major to Interdisciplinary Arts (graphic design & business). It is a great read overall, and a nice insight to what you can expect if you pursue a business degree. The main lesson: Don’t. Here is the essay.

She didn’t mention sandwiches until I asked her which one she liked the most. She didn’t mention that the owners traveled extensively picking ingredients at tiny farms and bakeries, or brag about their customer service (their founder wrote a best-selling book about it), or describe their massive mail-order sales, or explain the seminars and tastings from which they generate a substantial profit, etc. In short, she didn’t really say anything at all, and yet the kids around me were taking notes

That’s the root of the problem. That’s what the business school teaches us to do. Not once has a professor told us to “make great products” or “do something people love.”

Thank you Michael Arrington. Read it here.

Pentagram has a fantastic, funny, short quiz/game that asks you four questions about your character-traits and pairs you with the typographic font most similar to you. Try it out here. Make sure you turn the volume up to hear the questions.

Fred Olivira, former writer and designer for Techcrunch, wrote an open letter to Jon Rubinstein, CEO of Palm. The letter is about Jon’s terribly stupid comment from an interview at CES which he stated he has never used an iPhone. Ever. I wrote about this yesterday here, and Fred’s letter says what I wanted to but was too lazy to articulate. Read Fred’s letter here.

Paulo Coelho, author of The Alchemist and many other books, found a site online called Pirate Coelho. This site offered many translations of his books to download for free. He decided to send an email to the owner of the site. Most authors would send a cease-and-desist order. Instead, Paulo sent a request to add the links to his website. Go here to find multiple translations of many of Paulo’s books. Download them. Read them. Buy them. Print them out and take them to your local library, school, prison, etc. Don’t fight the pirates. Exploit them and use it to your advantage.