Fun of reading

My course load this semester is not bad. Plus, I am enjoying the work as I have to read a lot for two of my courses, MTIE - Seminar and Capstone. I like the former more because of its quality of content. This week, we read about search, cloud computing, thinking machines and brain computer interface. You may wonder what the connection among these topics. Well, the theme is how a technology came into existence. Did someone "push", or did society "pull", or did some other entity enable. I wont get into the details of the class.

The fun part for me was in learning about Richard Feynman's role in thinking machines. I have read his books before and did not know about his role in computing. It is indeed a great quality to synthesize complex problems in to smaller pieces that you can work with.

For Capstone course, we have to read a lot of articles and the theme for the upcoming session is "Nations and Societies in Flux". To me, most of the materials covered were known.

PS: attention first years and soon to be Babson students: If you want to take this blog over after I graduate this May, contact me.

What got you here wont get you there

I came across a review of the book, "What got you here wont get you there" in Knowledge@Wharton. I got hold of an executive summary of this book through books 24x7 service. I downloaded as audio and listened while I was driving. I liked it a lot though I am not sure where I want to go.

It is hard to believe that I am going to graduate this semester. Speaking of second year, I liked my electives last semester. I enjoyed evening classes where we had students from all programs (2 year, 1 year, evening/part time). Many students came prepared way more than what full time students did (contradictory to commonly held that they do not contribute much)

In Spring semester there are lot of intensive electives (1.5 credits) which gives us more options. Well, technically. The new requirement of Capstone course (3 credits) takes away this freedom.

We had our first session of Capstone course on last Friday. It was really good to see all my batch mates at the same time. Our dining services came up with a brilliant idea of $5 lunch buffet on Fridays for MBA students. So, most of our first year cohorts ended up there socializing.

Here is something interesting that I observed in India on a local (not a long distance) bus - "MP4 Hard disk stereo coach".

Thankful to...

I just read a case/article for tomorrow's marketing class. It is about the story of radio. Actual HBS case title is "The introduction of FM radio". The story starts with Marconi and gives an account of De Forest. Builds on the contribution of Howard Armstrong and business acumen of David Sanroff. I am looking forward to our class discussion tomorrow.

It is unusual of me to write down what I am thankful for. One great thing about doing an MBA is about how much we learn over this period through these cases and articles, complimented by class discussions. I wonder if I ever would have paid attention to so much material in my entire life if I had not opted to pursue my MBA. So, my thanks to all those who had influenced me to do so.

I had taken GRE prior to my Master's and did not think GRE mattered much towards what I learned in graduate school. However, MBA is very different. What I prepared for GMAT is very helpful and am appreciating every piece on my preparation for GMAT. Thank you GMAT planners!

I had mentioned in my prior post about BCAP. It was indeed very well structured and our deliverables were very well planned that helped us to think about a plan and stick to it. Thanks to my fellow BCAP team and the program office for their support.

There was a great event today, a talk by John Dragoon, Novell CMO, on "Embracing competitors for the benefit of customers". We, Babson Tech Venture Group, along with Marketing club organized this talk. It was very well received and we ran out of pizzas!.