2 weeks in, and loving it! (report on the subjects I'm doing ...) Part One

You might have remembered that one of my first blog entries from a few weeks back was about my exemption exams. 5 exams in 1.5 days ... that was tough!

Well, let me say that it was completely worth it ...
Yup, five out of five - which not only gave me a warm and fuzzy feeling all over, but, more importantly, allowed me to skip most of the core curriculum for this term and do some really exciting electives.

You see, part of the way that universities (including the business school at Stanford) provide more "rigour" in their courses is to put in a LOT of work into them. The good news for me is that they tend to do this for all the early classes - the first two terms, when everyone is learning the basics. Thus, apart from allowing me to choose some great subjects (which I'll go through below), these 2nd year subjects have a lot less work in them - usually just a 10-20 page reading, rather than a 50 page reading and 2 hour assignment twice a week (times 4.5 subjects!). This has led to great jealousy amongst many of my peers, and conversations such as "I can't believe you got out all of this" and "I'm going to kill you, Foong!" - compliments which I wear as badges of honour! =)

So, I thought I'd spend some time sharing with you some of the subjects I'm doing. In general, these subjects are absolutely fantastic, and it's a thrill to be here.

My only core subject - Organisational Behaviour with Professor Lowery

One subject which you can't exempt out of is Organisational Behaviour. It's a fascinating subject - basically psychology applied to business. We basically do little activities/competitions in teams, such as the tangram activity ...

Mixed pieces ...

... careful thought ...



... and success!



OK, so you're probably thinking, "so they spend all lesson doing jigsaw puzzles, painting and talking in teams!"?. Well, you're not incorrect! But the argument, insights, and discussions about how teams function (and, as I'm discovering in many of my teams, don't function!) has been a great learning experience ... and fun! (in retrospect)


Advanced ("turbo") Economics with Professor Bulow

Whilst most of my peers are doing the "normal" micro-economics course, about 20% of us elected to do this extra "turbo" economics course with Professor Jeremy Bulow ...


(Prof Bulow - not to be confused with Bueller (... Bueller ...!) - pictured with some the bizarre calculus stuff we're doing)

Professor Bulow is a freak. Brilliant (able to do linear optimisation models in his head, as well as mentally calculate the logarithms of numbers on the fly whilst teaching!) and with a gentle and kind demeanour, Bulow was the economic head of the US equivalent of the ACCC for a number of years, and designed this complex but amazing auction process for the mobile phone spectrums for the US and UK governments (which resulted in well over 50 billion dollars being raised in the UK auction alone - more than 3 times what governments and analysts were predicting). Needless to say, he is rumoured to be in the running for a nobel prize in the next few years.

However, Professor Bulow is a freak in other ways. Imagine what you think a brilliant economics professor might look like ... A nerd (complete with appropriate glasses)? Lots of awkward, in-house jokes and weird silences; including jokes about economics/mathematics that no one gets? Pants that are too big, resulting in his shirt being perenially untucked? Imagine that and you have probably visualised Professor Bulow. Needless to say, we both learn a lot (or have plenty fly over our heads) and have a great time during class ... =)

This is a long entry ... I'll continue it in part two (duh!) ...!