Airbnb

This article is a lightly edited version of 20 Obstacles to Scalability by Sean Hull (with permission) from the always excellent and thought provoking ACM Queue.

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As we enter the golden age of design in startups, highly talented user-interface and product designers are becoming ever more important.

Some companies leading the charge are Apple, Path, Pinterest, Square, and Airbnb. What those companies have in common is that design is at the core of their businesses.

But which school is best suited to get you the design job you want?

Over the past couple of months, we conducted a survey to find the top 25 design schools in the world. 

All of these schools are comparable in terms of academics, quality of staff, and amazing campuses. But what matters most is how valuable these schools really are. 

Of our 633 respondents to the survey, 87.8% said they studied or participated in a college-level design program.

Most of the respondents were either art directors (26.9%) or product designers (30.3%). The vast majority of respondents (76.6%) said skills and knowledge were the most valuable asset their respective design programs offered.

 We ranked the schools by a simple metric: What percentage of respondents ranked the schools somewhat valuable, valuable, or extremely valuable?

25. Illinois Institute of Technology

Rating: 55% of respondents said the program is valuable.

About: The IIT ranked number 13 on Businessweek's list of best design schools in 2009 for its focus on the intersection between strategy and human-centered innovation.

Location: Chicago, IL

Founded: 1940

Total Enrollment: 7,738

Business Insider's rating is based on a simple and pragmatic survey that asked how valuable each design school's program really is. 

24. Georgia Institute of Technology

Rating: 55.3% of respondents said the program is valuable.

About: Georgia Tech has a great blend of engineering, manufacturing, business, and design in its curriculum. It's also the alma mater of several prominent designers including Michael Arad, who designed the World Trade Center Memorial in New York City and "Trading Spaces" designer Vern Yip.

Location: Atlanta, GA

Founded: 1885

Total Enrollment: 20,000

Business Insider's rating is based on a simple and pragmatic survey that asked how valuable each design school's program really is. 

23. Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture (fka University of Art and Design Helsinki)

Rating: 55.6% of respondents said the program is valuable.

About: The School of Arts, Design, and Architecture is broken into five departments: Media; Design; Art; Architecture; and Motion Picture, Television and Production Design. All departments put an emphasis on a humanist world view and aim to implement human-oriented environments.

Location: Helsinki, Finland

Founded: 1871

Total Enrollment: 2,779

Business Insider's rating is based on a simple and pragmatic survey that asked how valuable each design school's program really is. 

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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From WeWork Labs to General Assembly, there are a lot of incubators that give entrepreneurs a place to code during the day.

There aren't many that offer sleeping arrangements as well.

Three "hacker hostels" have cropped up in Silicon Valley, The New York Times reports. Coders, designers and scientists can spend the night packed like sardines in rows of bunk beds for $40. The hostels are all run by the same management company, Chez JJ, with accommodations in Menlo Park, Mountain View and San Francisco.

Chez JJ was founded by 28-year-old neuroscientist Jade Wang and Jocelyn Berl. Wang had used Airbnb to rent a room in her apartment; a fellow "nerd" crashed with her. The idea for hostels sprung from there.

Most of the hostel tenants are 20-somethings who are currently building startups or are in search of inspiration. Every new comer is given a blanket, pillow, towel and sheets. There's no TV. Every once in a while food is cooked for the group.

Not just anyone can stay at the hostels. Like any startup incubator, you actually have to be working on something to be accepted. Tenants are screened by hostel captains, all of whom are women, to make sure they'll contribute to the hacker community. Tenants also have to have a good attitude or they're kicked to the curb.

“The intellectual stimulation you get from being here is unparalleled,” one of the tenants, Justin Carden, tells NYT. “If you’re wanting to do something to change the world and make it a fundamentally better place, you need to be around the right people.”

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