While I do understand the stresses of being in a highly competitive environment,I feel annoyed by his cynicism, and need to feel-goodery attitude because these are clearly predictable side effects of being in a demanding environment. It seems he never could get control of his skeptical nature.

I was most intrigued, excited, inspired, and I felt edified by even his briefest paraphrasing of lectures he described while he seemed exasperated and lost all the time. I think he felt incredibly insecure, which makes sense because he didn’t really know what the hell he wanted to do or what he could do, and he had a family to provide for. He felt emboldened by Google’s interest in him, but eventually fell back into his cynical, high-horse ways, while feeling ambivalent toward finally capitulating to the demands of the job hunt, even though he had a supercharged credential with a very solid promise of great financial reward, a feeling that many people will never have the chance to experience (which is way he often qualifies his public criticism by saying something like “Oh, I loved Harvard, and appreciated the experience”). It seemed like he railed against the institution as a coping mechanism for his intellectual insecurity. All the Other students in his section, even those who also felt annoyed or insecure at times with the course material nevertheless found jobs like grownups (I wouldn’t be able to admit that I didn’t find a job if I were him. I would feel too embarrassed, personally). It didn’t seem like he ever reconciled the fact of his lack of expertise or experience in business, so when something seemed particularly hard to understand, rather then grill the professor to make sense of the lesson, he simply characterized it as non-sense, while describing his appreciation for throngs of working-class people protesting the powers that be - people that, in all honesty most likely know nothing about running a business themselves or managing resources, would most likely view economic sense with suspicion when it doesn’t seem to enrich them to their satisfaction (Which, admittedly, I too would feel the same way, I’m sure), and would most likely be just as susceptible to narcissisism and self-preservation as any business owner (which, again, I am just as vulnerable to).

In the end, his book seems like cry for help disguised as a valiant expose of a conspiracy of an elite group of Mormons and Military Veterans. What I take from this is that when I finally - if I ever get the chance - get to graduate school (my hope for the near future) I can expect to feel like a little kid again bickering with no-it-all adults (until I get a grownups’ salary).

Try reading the book before commenting on it.

I’m sure you have better things to do like bankrupt energy companies or the economy.

Or are you simply trying to encourage publishers to send you free books for review purposes?

What exactly is bad about avoiding insecurity, staying centered, and promoting integrity, growth, and transformation?

Chris you know damn well integrity has no place in business.

Here’s a simple thought experiment to explain why capitalism has helped more people in India than Mother Teresa:

Assume that Mother Teresa and her outfit were able to help 100 people per day, every day, for 40 years. That’s some 14.6 million people (and that’s assuming that it was a different 100 people every day).

That’s 1.5% of the population. What percentage of the population of India is better off because of capitalism today? According to Wikipedia, the Indian middle class numbers anywhere from 200-300 million people, all of whose lives are substantively better because of capitalism.

The cars we drive, the food we eat, the computers we write posts and comments on would not exist without capitalism. Sure seems like a noble pursuit to me.

Wow….that is a big statement, what do you mean by “help”? I don’t really see your logics.

It is a little shocking to hear this from a HBS grad.

I’ll send you the address via email. No worries, I’ll send it back when you’re done. Or, if you’re in the Bay Area, we can meet up to effect the transfer.

I love it when a reader steps up like this!