I just read Paul Grahams fantastic article "Hiring is Obsolete" (written in 2005!) and he has a great line in it:"Have you ever noticed that when animals are let out of cages, they don't always realize at first that the door's open? Often they have to be poked with a stick to get them out."

I feel thats what the altMBA is doing to us. The further in we get and the more I read other peoples work (and see their goals, hopes and processes), the more I realise that we are all being poked (yes, in the uncomfortable sense) into action, into thinking, into doing the emotional labour, into reading the instructions and then then being encouraged to go nuts and do things however we want, simultaneously with structure and non-structure.

He goes on to say:"I remember hearing a lot of that word "experience" when I was in college. What do people really mean by it? Obviously it's not the experience itself that's valuable, but something it changes in your brain. What's different about your brain after you have "experience," and can you make that change happen faster?"

He would have done well in the altMBA! We are less than a week in and its nothing but change. There isn't a moment to sit still, but at the same time, I feel learning is setting in, new grooves are being formed in my brain.

Lastly, he says "A few steps before a Rubik's Cube is solved, it still looks like a mess. I think there are a lot of undergrads whose brains are in a similar position: they're only a few steps away from being able to start successful startups, if they wanted to, but they don't realize it."

It takes a special kind of person to translate the parable of the "darkest hour" into an infuriating colour toy.The caged animal is a fantastic visual metaphor…can anyone else feel themselves moving towards the open door?