Saturday, June 28, 2008

2 year MBA over 1 year MBA

I recently joined a 2 year MBA program, and here I realized one important advantage of a 2 year MBA over a 1 year MBA. This is something which had not occurred to me when I was making the decision for a 2 year MBA vs. a 1 year MBA. But, now that I realize this, I am glad I did not take up a 1 year MBA.

The advantage is this - seniors and juniors. In a 2 year program you get to interact with the senior batch and learn from them. In your second year, you get to interact with your junior batch and pass on your learnings. This not only helps your build a much larger network ( 3 times ), learn from that many more people, but most importantly, helps to build a unique culture for that institute, which can be carried on batch after batch.

Why is there so much more illness in humans than animals?

Nature developed the process of natural selection which meant survival of the fittest. This process automatically eliminated any weakling among the animals. The weak male would loose to the strong ones and would not get the opportunity to spread his genes. And that would be the end of the bad gene. A weak female would be unable to reproduce any cubs, or feed her cubs (if any) who would not survive as result.
However, humans have totally surpassed this natural selection. Survival of the fittest in terms of health has been replaced by survival of the fittest in terms of affluence. The moment we have some illness we are able to cure it. The bad gene not only stays but very comfortably gets the opportunity to produce offspring’s and hence spread. Women who are unable to give birth to kids by natural means, resort to extensive medical treatment to be able to do so. Results are disproportionately high multiple births and offspring's with a greater propensity to have genetic and other diseases. Men don’t have to fight to be able to spread their genes - having enough affluence helps.

As a result, we see an increase in the diseases over time. Yes, life expectancy has increased considerably, but at the same time, there is great sickness at younger ages. e.g. diabetes now strikes younger people. So does cancer, and the number of younger people being affected is increasing. Overall, there are more diseases.