Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Last Quarter to Go

We've just started our last quarter here at the University of Chicago's full time MBA program, and sure enough, I'm getting pretty wistful at the thought of leaving the place for a macroeconomic climate that might just cut me down immediately like I'm running off a Higgins boat on Omaha Beach

But the school sent us a friendly reminder today, and I thought it was worth sharing:

Dear Second Year Students:

Congratulations, you have officially entered your final quarter at Chicago Booth!

As you progress through this quarter, you will encounter many scheduling conflicts with your academic classes including the possibility of a continuation of your job search, social opportunities such as DisOrientation and Celebration, and of course, warmer weather and the lake front. Please know while Academic Services is aware of these outside activities, you are still expected to remain responsible to the Chicago Booth degree requirements. Failure to do so could jeopardize your ability to graduate at the end of the quarter.

Additionally, in a ten week quarter, faculty have a limited time frame to present course material and measure your performance and progress. Given this, they are unable to reschedule courses or exams to help ease the pressures of spring quarter on your behalf. Academic Services asks you remain mindful of your commitments throughout the quarter and make the appropriate trade-offs.

If you feel you need additional assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us at XXX-XXX-XXXX to make an appointment with an academic advisor or email Academic Services.


To summarize the message:

"We know it will finally be nice outside, but you still need to go to class"

I guess they think we're a bunch of 8th graders or something. I know I'm paying a lot for these classes, you can bet I'll be there (although if the Phillies are visiting the Cubs...)

Friday, March 20, 2009

NCAA Tournament and a Dilemma

Now that finals are wrapping up I can spend much more time watching TV and reading about stuff on the internet.

In a nice coincidence, the NCAA man's basketball tournament just started, and that provides a ton of stuff to watch and a ton of stuff to read.

I'm like just about every other guy out there, entered into a couple NCAA bracket pools. But, I've definitely changed methodologies since I started filling out brackets, which must've been in middle school.

I used to pore over the Inquirer's special extra section on the tournament and carefully analyze all the information. Among the things I looked for...

- Schedules
- Height of starting lineup (under my theory that some team with a big guy would obviously be good)
- 3 point shooting

and other random crap. I'd spend a lot of time on it, and have varying degrees of success (but mostly failure)

That all stopped with a work pool in 2005, when I did exceedingly well in a large group, nailing tons of predictions and coming in second by just one point.

Of course, the group rules paid out all the money to 1st place.

After that, I stopped putting a lot of time in it.

So I was spending a quick 3 minutes making my picks this year, and the only trouble I had came in the first round, Illinois vs. Western Kentucky.

To start, it was a 5 seed vs. a 12 seed. Everyone knows that one of those little 12 seeds always wins, it's a fact like the world is round or Commando is one of the best movies of all time.

Beyond that, Illinois' starting point guard was hurt, and the game's betting line was so close that it seemed WKU had an obviously decent chance to win.

But then, my gf went to Illinois...

Ordinarily I would just pick with my head, but the problem is we had talked about the NCAA tournament and brackets and such and she asked whether I would be picking (and rooting for) Illinois.

Well, I really thought WKU would win. And I didn't think I should be forced to go against my instincts.

That wasn't the best explanation, apparently.

The conversation ended with me being asked to pick Illinois

And so when it came to actually filling out my bracket, the game sat there, waiting for my decision.

I really wanted to pick WKU, I really thought they would win.

But for some weird reason, it was very important that I support Illinois.

Then I wondered, my gf would never actually see my bracket...why couldn't I just pick WKU and SAY a picked Illinois???

Because if I picked Illinois, wasn't I really lying to myself?

And I wouldn't just be lying to myself, but also this guy...



The WKU mascot...the Hilltopper!

Look at him and his goofy eyes! Who could be against such a lovable guy, or hill, or whatever that thing actually is?

Of course, lying to my girlfriend...that would probably be worse...

And it wasn't like I had any dates scheduled with the WKU Hilltopper in the future.

So I gave in, and picked Illinois, feeling better about myself for the confirmation that I'm not a jerk.

And then as if on cue, Illinois lost to WKU

So if I lose my pool by one point this year, the girlfriend's feelings will join the Inquirer special section in the group of things I completely disregard in NCAA tournament prognosticating.

Maybe.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

B-School Book Review

I just finished another holiday book gift, which I guess isn't that exciting, but I was very interested to read it (and my girlfriend did I very good job in picking it out)

Ahead of the Curve: Two Years at HBS

It's a book written by an HBS student (and former professional journalist) about his two year experience at the most prestigious business school in the history of the universe.

It was definitely an interesting (if pretty brief) read. Anyone who's currently in business school or recently graduated will find a fair number of similarities to their experiences. At least, I did.

But I'm hoping that nobody out there who's thinking about attending B-school someday picks it up thinking it's a completely fair and accurate assessment of business school in general and/or Harvard specifically. I just think it would give them a pretty biased view.

The author, although he seems to have positive takeaways, really seemed like he didn't like his experience at HBS (the book takes place between 2004 and 2006, so it's not like it's skewed by the complete collapse of the global economy).

But reading the book (and the author writes this himself a number of times), it's clear he's not a typical MBA student and not pursuing typical MBA goals.

He's older (early 30's), has a family, and from my perspective really seemed like he had no idea what he wanted out of business school or what path he wanted to pursue.

I expected to get a lot of space dedicated to his adventures as part of the business school community...but I really felt like this guy just didn't really put himself out there and get involved.

I think one of the reason's I've enjoyed business school so much is because I specifically tried to get involved and meet lots of different people. To hear this guy tell it, he would go to school, observe stuff, then go back and tell his wife about it, all the while wondering what it all meant. How does an MBA change you? What does an MBA do? Why are we here? Blah Blah Blah

It's not that I think introspection is a bad thing, and it's not that I think people who put their family first are wrong, but I think it's slightly disingenuous to write a book about two years attending business school if you're more of an observer. He sure didn't seem to have too many close friends in school (maybe that's a HBS thing? I'm sure if I had to take all my first year classes with the same people, I'd definitely have fewer close friends, but I really have no idea)

Anyway, it does give people a flavor for what the whole MBA experience is like. The parts about his recruiting efforts in particular, were lots of fun to read (and very familiar). But the more I read it, the more it seemed like maybe his goal in going to business school was to get out and write a book about it. He seemingly didn't put a ton of effort into getting an internship (or maybe he just didn't write about it) and instead worked on a novel.

I'm a little suspicious to say the least. Anyone who really did want to have a business-type job would at least try something for the summer, and I find it hard to believe a guy from HBS couldn't find anything that he wasn't at least a little interested in.

Whatever, that's just my theory. If you told me that I could do nothing over the summer, graduate without a job and then write a (seemingly) successful book about my MBA, I'd definitely consider it

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Laundry Revelation

I got back from school a little early today and desperately needed to do laundry.

Let's preface this story with the fact that I hate having to do laundry. It's not that the actual physical labor is particularly tough, or that I don't know how to wash clothes, fold them, or anything like that.

I have a few definite things I hate about the laundry:

1 - The fact that it takes up so much freaking time. 43 minutes per wash cycle, 50 minutes per drying cycle, adding 10 minutes for travel and changeover time, plus another 10-15 minutes to fold. That's around 2 hours for the whole process. That's a good two hours I could easily spend blogging, doing homework, or watching Jon Stewart's latest CNBC rant (after taking down Crossfire years ago, and going after CNBC now, I wonder what the next target will be)

2 - The fact that I need to get a bunch of quarters. Aren't we at the point where just about every convenience store has a credit card swiper for even the most trivial purchases? EZ Pass has made all our highway travel much more convenient. My Chicago Card is great for the CTA. How has this technology not filtered down to our laundry rooms yet? Is it that complicated??? I don't like having to carry around $5 in quarters

3 - The lint trap in the dryer is never clean. I always try to clean it, but it seems like no one else ever thinks to. Last time I went down there I found two dryers whose traps were completely full with sheets of bright pink lint. Maybe it was a ballet dancer or the pink panther or something.

Anyway, my discontent with laundry is likely to continue long after I leave Chicago, given that I'll be moving to NYC, where I believe the concept of an in-unit laundry is still unheard of.

But today's laundry story is one of happiness, surprisingly.

I went down with my two loads of laundry as I always do, and went to a pair of machines (out of the 20 or so we have in the building). I started putting my laundry into the two machines, and looked at the control panel which displays the price.

As usual, each one read, $1.25.

However, I pushed a couple of buttons on the machine, and switched it from warm water to hot.

The price changed...to $1.00.

I tried the same thing on the second machine, but there was no change.

I tried another machine down the line, again, no change from the standard $1.25 machine.

Which means I found a malfunctioning or improperly set machine...and got to save 25 cents

Multiply that by the number of times I do laundry (estimated at three weeks), and you have yourself an annualized savings of a little over $4.00, assuming I can get the machine every time and no one from maintenance notices and/or fixes the problem.

Of course I can't figure out why this has gone unnoticed. Plenty of people in my building do laundry, and I'm sure they've used the machine in question. Given that, one would expect that machine would always be the optimal choice for laundry-does...

But it doesn't appear that way.

Maybe it's because people feel that a machine that charges a lower price will provide a lower quality wash...

Maybe it's because people never change the settings on the machine, and no one but me has noticed...

Or maybe it's just because no one gives anything about a measly 25 cents.

Oh well, it's their loss. I saved 25 cents today and they didn't.

Ca-Ching!

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Bidding for Courses

It's a very dreary weekend here in Chicago, lots and lots of rain and fog and gloom.

Looking out from my building's gym, which is on the top floor, gives you a view of absolutely nothing. It's more than a little creepy considering most of the time you can see out onto Lake Michigan and see into Soldier Field down south.

It reminded me of a certain fog-laden sports disaster from the 1980's

And since the sun has not been shining and it's been too wet to play, I've spent the majority of the weekend sitting around alternating my attention between cases for upcoming classes and lots of other little distractions that are much more interesting.

I also have been giving some thought to the bidding process for getting my last quarter's worth of classes.

In short, we've got a bidding system that allows MBA students to allocate points across multiple classes (and sections of classes) in a multi-round auction format to try and get what we want.

The system recently underwent a transformation so that we now bid on individual classes (rather than a slate of multiple classes). Changes were also made to prevent anyone from speculating on the value of classes, purchasing seats in the first auction round only to sell them in future rounds for inflated prices (and they say we're all about free markets here!)

Anyway, I've been debating whether a certain strategy would be ethical, and even though I've concluded it wouldn't be, it still might be a good idea.

To explain, in the first round of our auction process, one that's already been completed, I mis-allocated my points. While I got two of the three classes I really wanted, I missed the third that I was interested in by a relatively small amount. Turns out I allocated way too many points for those first two classes, and just barely not enough for the third. The points I overbid for those two classes, were refunded to my bidding account, so I can use them in future rounds.

Well now we're in the second round of our bidding process, and I'm still interested in that third class, which filled up with 65 students.

However, our new system also immediately reflects anyone who drops the class (for reasons including they double booked themselves, they didn't read the syllabus, or complete and total accident).

Now I've been checking the system to see if anyone dropped this third class, and for the first few days there was no movement. Not one person dropped it.

Then, finally, one person bailed. So it's currently got only 64 of the 65 slots filled.

That leaves an opening for me, but also for all the other people that didn't bid enough in the first round or just figured out it's a good class.

So now the question is, whether I can bid enough in this round to get that one slot.

Obviously, the price will go way up. However, the fact that there's only one slot open is what's really interesting to me.

Because clearly, when there's only one slot, the person with the most bid points can get it.

So my thinking was that, shouldn't I go on facebook, where I'm friends with roughly half the class, and post a status update...

"I'm desperate to take class X with Prof XXXX and am going to bid (insert my actual bid + 20,000) points for it!"

If I could convince other people that I have more points than they do, and that I'm willing to spend all of them on this one class, then logically, if they believe me, they shouldn't bid at all and should just go after other classes where their points will work.

This definitely wouldn't work if we were playing a game with multiple rounds, but this hopefully will be my last bidding process, and it's definitely my last quarter of school...

Obviously that's not ethical...but then, I really want the class...

Monday, March 2, 2009

Less than Legendary

I've seen a bunch of commercials from Domino's recently. Unfortunately, these commercials aren't heralding the extreme value of the 555 deal (one of the greatest pizza inventions since adding cheese to breadsticks [bonus sub parentheses...notice that I didn't cite the cheese in the crust as the former greatest invention? That's because that joke's way past its prime])

Anyway, the commercials are all about these American Legend pizzas. Yes, these are pizzas that are somehow patriotic...real American pizza that you should order, especially since you might now be unemployed and unable to afford really authentic pizza.

But I really don't get this whole legend thing. I looked over the choices...these pizzas are legendary...and American???

George Washington is an American Legend...

Abraham Lincoln is an American Legend...

Hulk Hogan! There's your god damned American Legend!

But pizza? Can that be truly legendary???

Perhaps...but it's definitely more likely to come from an experienced Chicago deep dish artisan, as opposed to Amulfo...the guy who actually does make my pizzas when I order from Domino's. And by 'makes,' I mean he takes the frozen sheet in whatever size I pick and sprinkles on the allotted amount of my selected toppings.

His name is actually Amulfo by the way, I know that thanks to Domino's cool pizza tracker when you order online. Some people doubt it's genuine...but I say who are they to question Amulfo's honor?

That's an aside however, because while I know the Domino's American Legends aren't legendary...I'm also damn sure they barely register as American!

On this point you may object. How can I, a native Philadelphia, decry pizzas earmarked as American when they include the 'Philly Cheesesteak Pizza' ???

Easy...they aren't American ENOUGH!

If it were a REAL American Legend pizza, it would be covered in 32 pounds of cheese!

If it were a REAL American Legend pizza, it would be the size of a city block, would cost only 19.99, and would come with a free Sham-WOW!

If it were a REAL American Legend pizza, it boast 36 different meat toppings, half from a pig, and half from a wide swath of the animal kingdom including at least 2 endangered/extinct species (because it's not really American without a slice of Bengal Tiger or Spotted Owl)

Wow, I am so hungry right now