The M.F.A. is a degree in servitude. It is a way to keep writing safe - to keep reading safe from writing.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Often, M.B.A.s will parachute around from one company or industry to another, without really understanding what's behind it.
What you get out of an M.B.A. programme, no matter how much experience, is functional tools and understanding in disciplines: you'll understand economics, you'll understand marketing, finance, accounting. That, M.B.A. programmes do very well.
I.B.M. was my college education, effectively. They were very good at teaching you management.
What I have against M.B.A.s is the assumption that you come out of a two-year program probably never having been a manager - at least for full-time younger people M.B.A. programs - and assume you are ready to manage.
In Sydney, I gave what was billed as a masterclass to bright students of writing at the University of Sydney. But the term 'masterclass' was possibly over-egging the pudding. All I could do was pass on some lessons from my own life, and the most obvious is that if you want to be a writer, you must first have been a reader.
A degree is an asset, but it doesn't mean anything by itself. It's just another asset. So is being persuasive, having good personality, being smart.
The most important thing I learned at the University of Florida is that a Ph.D. and writing papers is very important in the United States.
M&A is always an opportunistic tool to grow a company.
Earned a bachelor's at 27, then an M.F.A. that is still completely unused and in mint condition, never taken out of the box.
My M.F.A was in directing, and all the films I've made, for film school and after, I've written, directed and shot.