Inside the Office
I was having lunch with a freshman and, as usually happens in these situations, our conversation turned toward potential majors.
I asked her plans and she said: “I’ll probably do econ. I want to do business, but, since Duke doesn’t have a business major, econ is the closest thing.”
I’ve been teaching at Duke for over a decade. And, for over a decade, I’ve been hearing students tell me econ is a de facto business major. Which, at least according to my understanding of economics, would surprise a lot of econ faculty. Economics isn’t “basically business.” Economics is a social science focused on things like incentives, markets, and resource allocation. In contrast, business educations usually focus on topics like accounting, marketing, operations, organizational behavior, leadership, and management.
Do they have some overlap? Sure. But they’re definitely not the same. I’d go so far as to argue other disciplines — like psychology or even philosophy — would better prepare students for the business world.
Regardless, I’m not sharing this story to argue for a better business major alternative or convince anyone not to major in econ. Instead, I’m sharing this story because it represents a larger tendency we all have of adopting other people’s assumptions without much meaningful critical thinking.
Whenever any of us steps into a new place and don’t know how things work we immediately start looking around for people who seem like they do. And then we copy them. But we very rarely stop to ask where the information came from. Instead, We just assume the people before us were smarter. And that’s a dangerous assumption… especially for entrepreneurs.
Entrepreneurship is full of assumptions that survive mostly because everyone keeps repeating them. You’ve probably even heard some of them…
“You need a technical cofounder.”
“Two-sided marketplaces are impossible to build.”
“You have to raise venture capital in order to scale.”
And, to be fair, some of those things might be true. But others probably aren’t. More importantly, you can find the answer if you’re willing to spend a little time looking for yourself. In fact, a tiny bit of skepticism and a willingness to search for the truth on your own can become an enormous competitive advantage simply because so few people are willing to do that extra bit of work.
Yes, I realize following the herd is efficient. And we can’t personally verify every piece of information we encounter, which makes other people’s assumptions useful proxies. However, at the same time, when the stakes are high, maybe take a little time to add a touch of extra scrutiny. It could be the tiny bit of skepticism you need to figure out what everyone else is overlooking.
-Aaron
Worth Your Time
In the same conversation with my student referenced above, she also asked how to become a better writer… particularly in the age of AI.
Immediately I suggested a book written by the person I learned to write from: George Gopen. And his book is called The Sense of Structure.
Professor Gopen was my writing professor when I was a Duke undergraduate, and his approach to writing changed my life.
The best way I can describe it is: “Design thinking meets grammar.” Which, I realize, probably doesn’t sound exciting, but trust me when I tell you it’ll completely change the way you see language. Specifically, you’ll see it from what Professor Gopen describes as “the reader’s perspective,” which is exactly what design thinking tries to teach entrepreneurs to do… see things from a consumer’s perspective.
By the way, yes, the book is expensive, particularly for a thin paperback. But go hunt down a used copy or check your university library. It should be there, and it’s worth a careful read. I re-read my copy ever couple of years, and, every time I do, I learn something new about writing.