Master Master Rob - he likes them apples

A few weeks ago I was watching TV and caught Good Will Hunting. Something about that movie has always confused me, but I was afraid to bring it up in case no one else was confused by the same thing. Of course, I've since stopped caring if I look stupid (lord knows it happens often enough). I'd rather just have the answer.  So I figured the best way to get my answer was to blog about it.

Then, while pondering how I would write the blog entry, I finished grad school. How interesting! I'm thinking about writing a blog about a movie about college, and I finish college in the process. I should probably tie those 2 topics together.

But wait, there's more! I pitched a rough idea for a new comic (yeah, we do still make them... just not always post them) about graduating from school in these tough economic times, and then Trian draws it that same night!

Well, all these things together make it easy to write a blog entry. Let's start with Grad School, shall we?

About 2 weeks ago I finished my second Masters degree. It took 3 years, and more money than I care to talk about, but I am now the proud owner of a MBA (Masters of Businessy Stuff) and a MIS (Masters of IT and Businessy stuff mixed together).

After finishing undergrad I went into the workforce for a few years, and I think that had a huge effect on my view of grad school. In most classes I found that I knew the material already. At times this was great because I could go deeper into the material and get into some really cool discussions with my professor (like how Low-cal foods don't test well in marketing, but low-cal drinks do great) but other times I would tell the teacher that I couldn't sit through the subject matter and needed to go home (like the day they were going to teach the classes what a database is....ugh....).

In the end, I learned a lot about how to be a manager, but I feel like grad school was a little unnecessary. And this is where Good Will Hunting comes into the blog. Because everyone's favorite quote is....

"See, the sad thing about a guy like you is in 50 years you're gonna staht doin some thinkin on your own and you're gonna come up with the fact that there are two certaintees in life. One, don't do that. And Two, you dropped a hundred and fifty grand on a fuckin education you coulda got for a dollah fifty in late chahges at the public library" - Matt Damon

I could have bought a few books on management and read them on the weekends and I probably would have learned just as much. Of course, you don't go to school for the information - you go for the diploma - you go so that you can put those acronyms on your resume.

But backing up. The thing that confuses me about Good Will Hunting was in the quote above. "One, don't do that" ... does he mean that you shouldn't belittle a guy when he's hitting on a girl in a bar? Or was it a more general "don't do that" about life? Was he being deep? Or am I reading in to it too much?

So what's left here? Oh yeah... that comic. One morning I was telling Trian that a funny idea for a comic would have to go with graduating from school during a recession. So he took my general joke (which was more specific than this description) and sketched up a comic. He only intended it to be a rough draft but everyone I've shown it to has agreed that it's really good just like it is. So I think I'll share it. Feel free to heap praise upon him.

(Click to Embiggen)

NOTE: I stole "click to embiggen" from Patrick Rothfuss