It took 45 years, but spreadsheet legend Mitch Kapor finally got his MIT degree

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/06/24/business/mitch-kapor-mit-degree-bill-aulet/

by bookofjoe • 1 year ago

199 25 1 year ago

bostonglobe.com

bookofjoe• 1 year ago

https://archive.ph/HHZeM

lproven• 1 year ago

That was a while ago -- I wrote about it at the end of last month:

https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/30/mitch_kapor_mba/

fsckboy• 1 year ago

replying to that register article:

he finally finished his nominally 12-month master's degree there

A Sloan SM/MBA is 2 yrs (nominally and actually). There is also a 12 month SM/MBA for "senior executives", so that's probably what is being referred to. But in that case, it wouldn't have been him "finishing" the degree program he had left (because he would not have been taken as a senior executive then), so they probably applied the credits he did have to this other program for which he would have to write a paper anyway.

(as a side quibble, MIT only started offering "an MBA" in the '90's (purely for job-market name recognition) and prior to that time the (same) degree was called SM Management, which is what his original program would have been. the SM is technically "better" because it entails also writing a thesis)

He visited a company I worked at when I was fresh out of school, and he was brought by my office impromptu to see what I was working on. my software crashed immediately, and he laughed, in a friendly way, but didn't ask for my resume.

mrbonner2• 1 year ago

I became familiar with his work through "Dreaming in Code." If you haven’t read it yet, I highly recommend giving it a try. The writing style is lively and engaging—definitely not your typical tech book.

mindcrime• 1 year ago

I second this recommendation. Dreaming in Code is well worth the read.

foldingmoney• 1 year ago

(not the Ada Lovelace book of the same name)

dxroshan• 1 year ago

Who is the author?

mrbonner2• 1 year ago

Scott Rosenberg

aanet• 1 year ago

His master's thesis, which focuses on socially responsible impact investing, is worth reading. Especially in this age where growth-at-all costs is de rigeur.

PDF here: https://www.d-eship.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/kapor-mdk...

ohjeez• 1 year ago

I worked as a contractor at Lotus for about a year, back in 1987. My client/friend told me a story about Kapor that has stuck with me, although it turned out that she was an utterly unreliable witness... so take this with a grain of salt. She was Lotus employee #70, though, so maybe it's true.

Kapor found himself in an elevator with another employee sometime after he had handed over the reins to Jim Manzi. The other employee, who apparently didn't recognize Kapor, was dressed in a full three-piece suit. "That's when Kapor decided to leave," my erstwhile friend told me. "He said, I started Lotus because I wanted a company where I could wear Hawaiian shirts and sandals. I didn't want to work somewhere where I had to wear a suit." But that's what Lotus had become, so it was time to go.

We never met, but I have always admired the guy.

arcfour2• 1 year ago

I want a company where I can wear a suit and not stand out. It feels nice to look good.

getpokedagain• 1 year ago

What an interesting and well polished dude. I'm really happy to see someone advocate in such a calm well reasoned way in 2025.

jama211• 1 year ago

This is great, just what I needed to read today. There indeed is always hope!

Zigurd• 1 year ago

Thanks Mitch. My mom is gonna be on me about this.

fitsumbelay• 1 year ago

Manz is living my dream. Go Mitch. Been reading about this guy since BYTE and my age was in single digits

oc1• 1 year ago

True Legend, wish more investors were like him helping the underrepresented.

burnte• 1 year ago

I think this is proof that no matter who you are, you can make it through college! :D

brcmthrowaway• 1 year ago

He got rich outside of school

neilv• 1 year ago

We should make more people like Mitch Kapor.

fuzztester• 1 year ago

Similar:

Azim Premji completed his degree from Stanford, many years later, after having to leave it and go back to India, to take charge of the family business, after his father's death, IIRC.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azim_Premji

I could not find it in the Wikipedia article, but I remember reading about it some years earlier, in some Indian magazine.

aspenmayer• 1 year ago

I could not find it in the Wikipedia article, but I remember reading about it some years earlier, in some Indian magazine.

I didn’t find it in an Indian magazine, but here it is in a magazine Stanford puts out.

https://stanfordmag.org/contents/the-world-according-to-azim...

Premji was just finishing his engineering studies at Stanford in 1966 when he got word of his father’s sudden death. “It came as a complete shock,” he says. “I just had to rush back.” He had only one term until his graduation, a passage the news would delay 30 years. (Premji eventually sought—and got—permission to attend arts courses by correspondence to complete the requirements for his bachelor’s degree. “I had met all the core requirements for engineering—I just wanted that degree.”)

It took 45 years, but spreadsheet legend Mitch Kapor finally got his MIT degree

Related Stories