Monday, April 10, 2006
Seven more days of class left. The days at Wharton are sliding quickly like sand at the end of an hourglass. The days move fast, and trying to catch them is like trying to stop water as it flows through your fingertips.
I really enjoy my classes this quarter. As I mentioned before, I'm only taking four classes. Two are semester long. The first, Marketing Strategy, is taught by one of my favorite professors from the core. It's kind of like a capstone marketing class. The lessons are subtle, and you need to pay attention to get the take aways. The second semester long class is Creativity. This class is about learning how to be more creative and how to manage creative people and processes. The class is very unstructured, which was initially very annoying, but I really enjoy it. I've learned a lot about not just how to manage the creatives, but how to be a better leader. One of the major lessons I've learned has been about the importance of not shunning failure - and that's a recurring theme at Wharton.
My other two classes are quarter long. The first, Pricing Policy, is a combination of the core Marketing class, Managerial Economics, Decision Modeling, and Consumer Behavior all rolled into one. The other quarter long class has the propensity for making me feel incredibly stupid. It's a class on Behavioral Economics and Prediction Markets. The class is taught by another one of my favorite profs from the core, and it's very interesting. It's an area I was completely unaware of before this class, so that's cool. But the class is a lot of sports and betting lingo, and I know nothing about either subject. Top that with a lot of math and stats, and I'm in stupid land. The behavioral part of the class is pretty interesting though, and I'm learning a lot about markets and human biases.
I'm going to miss the chance to learn about things I didn't even know existed. I guess that doesn't necessarily need to end. Maybe the key is realizing that the gift of Wharton is not just the opportunities to learn during the two year break from the real world. Wharton awakens a curiosity to learn - and that isn't dependent on being in the classroom.
I really enjoy my classes this quarter. As I mentioned before, I'm only taking four classes. Two are semester long. The first, Marketing Strategy, is taught by one of my favorite professors from the core. It's kind of like a capstone marketing class. The lessons are subtle, and you need to pay attention to get the take aways. The second semester long class is Creativity. This class is about learning how to be more creative and how to manage creative people and processes. The class is very unstructured, which was initially very annoying, but I really enjoy it. I've learned a lot about not just how to manage the creatives, but how to be a better leader. One of the major lessons I've learned has been about the importance of not shunning failure - and that's a recurring theme at Wharton.
My other two classes are quarter long. The first, Pricing Policy, is a combination of the core Marketing class, Managerial Economics, Decision Modeling, and Consumer Behavior all rolled into one. The other quarter long class has the propensity for making me feel incredibly stupid. It's a class on Behavioral Economics and Prediction Markets. The class is taught by another one of my favorite profs from the core, and it's very interesting. It's an area I was completely unaware of before this class, so that's cool. But the class is a lot of sports and betting lingo, and I know nothing about either subject. Top that with a lot of math and stats, and I'm in stupid land. The behavioral part of the class is pretty interesting though, and I'm learning a lot about markets and human biases.
I'm going to miss the chance to learn about things I didn't even know existed. I guess that doesn't necessarily need to end. Maybe the key is realizing that the gift of Wharton is not just the opportunities to learn during the two year break from the real world. Wharton awakens a curiosity to learn - and that isn't dependent on being in the classroom.
