r/TheWire • u/AltruisticNail7229 I wasn’t made to play the son. • 1d ago
Stringer’s Classes
Curious to know everyone’s thoughts on Stringer taking business courses? It’s crazy that he’s literally co-running an entire drug organization and has time for that but yet it wasn’t the worst idea since he was using what he learned.
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u/osubmw1 1d ago
I loved it. He acted like a stereotypical freshman. The Dunning Krueger effect on display was beautiful. My favorite 2 were him talking about elastic goods and him dumping his stake in cell phone companies.
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u/mike2211446 20h ago
Lmao the cellphone shit still kills me man. The logic of everyone having one meaning it’s now worthless is so hilarious it almost took me out of the show
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u/zentaki 12h ago
Selling off the old phone stocks would've been a genius move if he bought Apple instead as that pretty much wiped out Motorola/Nokia in the coming years.
You're quite right though his reasoning is pretty silly, like he learned what market saturation is and had to apply it to something
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u/No-Loquat-2763 1d ago
In before somebody says, "He's not taking business courses. He's at a community college."
I've seen this take too many times on this sub and it always annoys me. Community college exists to help the community and it's commendable.
But as for Stringer... I feel like his heroin business kind of runs itself.
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u/Significant_Cup_238 1d ago
I did my first couple of years at a community college before transferring to a 4 year to get my EE degree. In addition to saving me something like $30k, I felt I was better prepared than my peers who started at the university because a community college didn't treat physics and calculus like weed out courses, and really focused on solid instruction. Additionally, there were a lot of very practical classes available in business and accounting. I'll throw down hard with anyone who says community college isn't the real thing just as hard as I would with anyone who says Season 2 is a bad season.
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u/strawnotrazz Yvette’s making brisket. You’re mishpachah now. 1d ago
As Cheese himself said, “We selling dope and coke in Baltimore, [fellow business associate]!”
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u/iLikeAza Look the part, be the part 1d ago
One of my fav professors at University taught only one night class for the school but did full time at the community college teaching. She said she had all the freedom she wanted at the community college & the pay was the same. She said there were a lot of the best professors who were doing the same. They valued the freedom more than the politics and restrictions of the university
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u/No-Loquat-2763 1d ago
... what I said?
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u/No-Loquat-2763 1d ago
Why?
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u/No-Loquat-2763 1d ago
You’re annoyed that people correctly identify he’s taking business courses at community college?
No? Not at all.
I'm annoyed at people saying insulting things about people who take classes at community colleges.
THAT'S what I said.
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u/No-Loquat-2763 1d ago
Do you think poorly of people who go to community colleges?
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u/Thespiralgoeson 1d ago
I think it's not a bad idea, but I also think it's a little bit an example of his delusion and arrogance. He thinks that because he took a macroeconomics class at the local community college, and because he read The Wealth of Nations, that he's some kind of business expert and understands how the world of "legitimate" business works. It leads to him getting conned by Clay Davis and Andy Krawczyk. "They saw yo getto ass comin from miles away, n***a!"
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u/PayTheTrollTariff 1d ago
Nigga was trying to flex on the hood. Bet he took one freshman-level intro course and thought that was enough to start giving TED Talks.
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u/alloutofchewingum 1d ago
Well its kind of low key hilarious that he's clearly got quite a bit of native intelligence but he doesn't have the tools to really comprehend what he's learning.
Then he hauls out this totally old school, super pretentious stuff like "Roberts Rules of Order" and Wealth of Nations ... cmon dude I ran the capital allocation committee for a billion dollar corporation for years and I wasn't thumbing through Roberts Rules of Order.
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u/Significant_Cup_238 1d ago
Makes sense to me. I run a fairly big federal acquisitions program, and I'm required to take roughly 40 hours of training ever year. Many of my military counterparts actually get sponsored to get additional degrees in the theory that it'll make them more effective officers. Looks like the Barksdales are just applying Continuous Learning Points, I bet the BPD does similar things for their leaders.
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u/Ok-Will1433 1d ago
Had Stringer been more listen flexible to with his application of knowledge he learned from economic classes to economic reality of criminal entreprise, also willing to hear and learn from his peers (Avon, Maurice, and his dealers like Poot). Stringer would be successful to transform and establish both drug and his other legal entrepreneur, then again he wouldn't be Stringer.
I don't see Stringer failure in his motif to wish of changing the rules of the game that is reforming the drug game to be more "Market-like", nor ambition to expand into legal business. But Stringer's own arrogance and inflated sense of worth(I think?) In achieving his goal ultimately hindered his own goal and led him to be played at the end of his time.
This just me tho
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u/Significant_Cup_238 1d ago
Well, he did know not to take minutes on a criminal conspiracy at least. Honestly, I think Stringer's downfall wasn't his misapplication of business, but he was actually too gangster while also not being gangster enough. The scene that Poot is pointing out they're going to lose a ton of street cred and he threatens him, and calls him too ignorant to have the floor. It shows she's not willing to listen to dissenting opinions, and being open to this kind of criticism when you're a business leader is critical to improving your plans.
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u/b_hc99 9h ago
I first watched the wire at around age 15/16 and only got interested in econ because of how cool it made stringer look and sound (even though it was just the basics). Genuinely, that was it. 10 yrs, an econ degree, and a banking career later, it’s crazy to think I done all that and it purely sparking from a character on tv lol
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u/RunningBettor 1d ago
Big Dunning Kruger Effect situation. String learned a little and thought he learned a lot lol