How to understand the business world
When I graduated from University, there was a lot about finance I didn’t understand.
I was aware that I should probably put my money into savings and investments, but didn’t really know how. I read news about start-ups, funding and valuations, but didn’t really understand what it all meant. I’d heard of corporate take-overs, mergers and redundancy but didn’t know their significance.
This week, I’m happy to say, I graduated from my MBA class and now understand this stuff much better.
Now an MBA is probably a long-winded way to go, and not for everybody. So I just wanted to share some useful ways to improve financial literacy (MBA or no MBA):
1. Watch this video:
There’s not much else to say - the video speaks for itself. I challenge you to find 30-minutes that is more informative.
2. Subscribe to some newsletters
There are multiple email newsletters that provide digestible business news and insights. Subscribing can be a good way to build up understanding over time, in 5 minute chunks.
I’ve used:
The Hustle (probably my favourite)
The Morning Brew (also great)
Finimize (great, but now charging for a subscription)
3. Browse financial websites
For general awareness, I’d recommend:
Investopedia - a wiki-style website, with pages on all key topics
The economist - decent perspective articles on various economic issues, although quite political
For personal finance, I’m a big fan of:
Money Saving Expert - brilliant guides on all major personal finance decisions; credit cards, savings accounts, mortgages, insurance, etc. For UK audience.
Mr Money Moustache - a great blog covering all things personal finance, advocating for saving and spending wisely to achieve financial freedom
4. If you want to do an MBA, but don’t want to spend thousands
I obtained my MBA from the Quantic School of Business and Technology. Chances are, you probably haven’t heard of it.
Some would say that an MBA no-one’s heard of won’t get you far compared to a Harvard or Wharton MBA. And I would have to agree.
But if we’re saying it’s lower value, what are we basing that off? What is learnt or what is being signalled to employers?
The Quantic MBA is taken remotely, with digital learning modules and remote group projects. It’s well-suited to people who can’t study full-time, but can still devote time over a sustained period. It covers the same theory so, arguably, you can leave with a similar level of knowledge to a ‘conventional’ MBA. (And it’s an accredited degree.)
I’d say it’s worth considering if you want to build an understanding of finance that you can use. But probably not if you want to work in finance/management/consulting, and want to signal to potential employers.
(I’m happy to answer any questions about my experiences - just hit ‘reply’)
My favourite things this week:
(1) Computer Science Fundamentals: I’ve been attempting to kill two birds with one stone over the last few weeks, by watching Harvard’s CS50 course to revise computer science fundamentals + watching the Spanish version to help my Spanish study.
I also stumbled across a guest lecture that Mark Zuckerberg gave on the CS50 back in the early Facebook days.
(2) Medical datasets for analysis
I shared the below tweet a few days ago and got some really great responses. I’m planning to collate a list of useful datasets and share them on my site.
(3) A tool for writing directly onto the computer
After watching my friend Faisal’s awesome video, I decided to try out this ‘tablet’ for writing onto my MacBook. It turns out this is what Andrew Ng used in his legendary Machine Learning course. I’ve been loving it for annotating my notes, and for drawing overlays in some of my videos.
(You can get it with my affiliate link here if interested)
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About Me
Hi! I’m Chris Lovejoy, a Junior Doctor and Data Scientist based in London.
I’m on a mission to improve healthcare through technology (particularly AI / machine learning), but along the way I want to share learnings that are relevant no matter your career choice or background.
In this weekly newsletter, I share my top thoughts and learnings from each week, as well as links to the best things on the internet that I come across.
VERY INTERESTING!
Very interesting!!