The 3-minute abs fallacy

When I was in junior high, there was this ab roller device where the commercial seemed to promise six pack abs to people with just 3 minutes of daily use. Being that age, I bought into the gimmick and purchased said device. It did not work. As it turns out, getting six pack abs is contingent on a much more elaborate mix of favorable genes, intensive workouts, and strict dieting.

Yet, the 3-minute ab roller is a metaphor for many products and services on the US market. We live in a capitalist society, after all, where starting a business is seen as generally a positive thing. The issue comes, however, in the ethical consideration of balancing the truth versus staying financially solvent, and I think there are some people out there who will do anything to avoid the public humiliation of going out of business.

I think where this critique has been echoed is in Elon Musk’s statement of the “MBA-ization of America” where the focus for many companies has become too fixed on meetings regarding spreadsheets and finances over the development of genuinely good products and services. Recently, the MBA degree has lost some of its luster as evidenced by many top business school (such as Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania) graduates’ inability to secure employment.

When I think of my personal experience with business courses, I recall that many I’ve taken as an undergraduate student have taught a lot of very fundamental skills which don’t necessarily have to be acquired in a classroom. A fine dining etiquette lesson in a management class? For real? I can see as to why one of the heavy criticisms for business majors is that much of it, aside from perhaps finance and accounting, is common sense.

It’s no question that we currently live in a society and a time that idolizes wealth–think billionaires. However, research has shown time and time again that our fulfillment in life only requires a baseline amount of money–much less than most people think–and that more does not make us any happier. Thus, perhaps a bit of soul searching is in order as to what we as a modern society should really be putting our value on.