In the SDM program, where the median age is about 31, my age lies somewhere in the middle percentile. Whereas in the TPP program, I am ranked the second oldest person in my cohort. Yikes... I have never felt this old until my matriculation to the TPP program, although conversely I am feeling mighty proud of my experience and wisdom. I can finally empathize what Milt and Camille meant when they said: "I was in high school when they were born." Indeed, one of my TPP classmate just turned 21 a week ago. 21 years ago, I was just a freshman in high school!!! Here's another scary thing, almost half of the incoming TPP students have less than 2 years of work experience with many coming straight from undergraduate programs. Yep, this means that I have more work experience in years than some of my fellow students have internship experience in months.

Enough of lamenting on my old age, there are advantages of being old. I am more mature, financially secured, and wiser. Moreover, it is always refreshing to get different perspectives from the younger minds during class discussion. Despite the age disparity, I don't feel any older than my fellow TPP classmates. For those who don't know me, I am always the young-at-heart. For a change, it is good to actually to immerse with a group of people who are more energetic and sociable.

9/13/2005 6:52:50 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [6]

School

Yoav has posted on his blogsite a reference to Ivan Tribble's article on the detrimental effects of blogging have on job hunting.

I agree with Ivan's arguments to the extent that every blogger should be tactful and blog with the notion that his/her thoughts are now in public domain. However, I see that blogging is still a good way of maintaining an online presence. Regardless of audiences, search committee or job recruiter notwithstanding, a blog is still a good medium to gain insights to someone's thoughts, personality, and wit. So potential employer, read this blog to your heart's content.

9/12/2005 6:07:38 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [1]

Blog

I pleasantly surprised how many people actually visit and read my blog on a regular basis. From MIT, I have a growing legion of regular readers from my SDM cohort. Fellow SDMers like Yoav and Ilana literally got cranky with me if I didn't update my blog for more than 3 days. Well, guys... That's the highest compliment a blogger can get. Thanks for reading.

There are other surprises as well. Recently, I was approached by staff from both Sloan and ESD explicitly asking me for the url of this website so that they, too, can start reading my blog. There are also friends like Ramey, Eimear, Siobhan, Steve, Fanny, etc who now know more about me than I do of them. Last but not least, I have heard from a few people who read my blog because they appreciate my insights to MIT and the SDM program. I wonder who else besides those that I have mentioned read my blog on a fairly regular basis? You can always leave a comment on this blog entry.

9/12/2005 5:35:55 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [3]

Blog

Last Saturday, I attended Rachel and Noah's wedding ceremony. I have known the couple for a while and I happy that they are finally married. I wish them all the best in their journey together. Here's a picture of Milt and me offering Noah our congratulatory gestures.

9/12/2005 12:25:01 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Personal

Interesting... Randal Pinkett, a 98 graduate of our sister program LFM, was selected to the upcoming season of the Apprentice. According to Tina, a former classmate of Randal and a colleague of mine, Randal was a hotshot back when he was student at MIT. Indeed, his profile was remarkable. Well, Randal you gave me a reason to watch the Apprentice this fall. Just bring home the bacon. God speed Randal, God speed...

9/7/2005 10:18:48 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [1]

School

Here's a quick blog before the next networking event at MIT. I am just wasting time before the pub crawl event at Walker Memorial in 15 minutes. So much had happened since I last blogged but I am simply have no time to chronicle them all. School hasn't officially started and I am already feeling like I am running like a chicken with its head cut off. Yikes... This is the time of the year when the school is full of energy.

The turnout for the Labor Day Sports event that I organized yesterday was so-so. Only 14 people showed up to play Ultimate Frisbee. It was disappointing at first, but as it turns out the smaller number of people did made the event more enjoyable and fun. Incoming PhD candidate Andrew from Ocean Engineering (or course 13 in MIT lingo) was extremely helpful in organizing the Ultimate Frisbee game. He was more effective as a leader and organizer than I was. Thanks Andrew.

Sorry for the incoherent writing. Ooooo.... It's almost 8pm already. Time for pub crawl.

9/6/2005 8:12:50 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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School

I have finally tasted the mythical Kobe beef last night at Grill 23. Yes, it is as good as they claim it to be, very tender and melts in your mouth. Yummy... (More later...)

9/3/2005 7:25:25 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Food

This is surreal. Almost a year ago, National Geographic ran this article, which accurately predicted the consequences of major human-induced catastrophe if a hurricane were to strike head on to the Bayou.

9/2/2005 4:05:41 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Internet

So upset I was with the Sloan picture book that I went to talk to Ted about my dissatisfaction. From my conversation with Ted, I found out that I was wrong about my assumptions in my previous rant. Sorry, I was wrong. It wasn't Sloan's fault that SDM wasn't included in the picture book. It was us, the SDM students, who are to be blamed. A majority of us had failed to update our profile description on Sloanspace (a website) despite 2 earlier emails notifying us to do so. Due to the lack of information, the administration decided at the last minute to pull the SDM section off the picture book.

I even more upset by this new revelation. What a disgrace that we can't even get our act together to follow simple instructions to update our profile on the website.

9/1/2005 12:45:08 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [7]

Rants

While visiting the LFM-SDM office to check on my mail after TPP orientation, I discovered the freshly minted Sloan picture book of 2005. But when I opened the book, I couldn't find a single picture of anyone from my SDM cohort. I flipped the book multiple times but I only found pictures of students from the MBA, Sloan Fellows, Undergraduate, and Doctoral programs. I know this may sound trivial to some people, but I am really upset by this lack of representation of SDM in the Sloan picture book. Isn't the SDM program a part of Sloan? This is yet another incident that confirms the bigger pattern of the SDM program as being a second class citizen at Sloan. We often have to operate in "guerilla" mode to get around the limited Sloan elective that every SDM students are constrained with. Not to mention that we get ZERO assistance from Sloan career placement office. I can continue ranting but I am going to restrain myself for now.

In closing, I have this personal observation to share. The SDM program is a joint degree program between Sloan and ESD. So all SDM students are technically part of both Sloan and ESD. I have observed that even with the lack of goodwill and respect from Sloan, most SDM students will more likely identify themselves as students from Sloan than from ESD. All this despite that the fact that ESD holds the SDM program on a higher pedestal, hosts the SDM office in its building, and provides administrative and logistical services to SDM students. I guess the Sloan brand name is hard to beat, huh.

9/1/2005 12:49:13 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [5]

Rants

I attended the first day of the TPP orientation earlier today where I was introduced with students, staff, and faculty members. There is a total of 40 students for the TPP class entering 2005. The age of incoming students are between the ages of 20 to 35 while professional experience ranges from 0 to 12 years, with a few who came straight from undergraduate programs. 40% of the students are female, a far cry from SDM (my other degree program) where female represents only 6.25% of the students. Compared to other degree programs in ESD which are oriented more for professionals, TPP is a research-based degree program. One point that was reiterated in the orientation is that the TPP master thesis is research intensive and almost all TPP students get some form of Research Assistantship (RA) during their stay at MIT. The official amount of time required for an RA varies between 20-30 hours per week. Financially, an RA is really not a bad deal considering how expensive tuition at MIT is these days. Tuition is always covered and stipends can vary depending on the research program or department. According to one source, it averages out to about $1,500 per month after taxes. Not a bad deal at all.

8/31/2005 11:38:14 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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School

Now that I am concurrently pursuing two degrees within ESD, I have to come out with a thesis topic with content that integrates the system engineering and/or management aspect of the SDM program with the policy aspect of the TPP program. Furthermore, I am beginning to feel that I should exploit my thesis as a key determinant of getting a job in think tanks and consulting firms. During the 2-hour drive to the Ikea store in New Haven last Saturday, I contemplated deeply on the thesis topic with the new focus and purpose. A possible thesis topic that I have in mind is one that is based on economic competitiveness, specifically how the business environment is affected by government policy and a nation's infrastructure like education, transportation, and finance. I like the direction where my thesis proposal is going. In the next few weeks, I need to narrow down my topic further.

8/30/2005 12:46:19 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [4]

School

I am a huge fan of Ikea furniture and I have always longed for an Ikea store that within reasonable driving distance of Boston. The good news is that my wish is finally answered with a new Ikea store slated to be opened in Stoughton, a 20 minute drive from Boston. The bad news: it won't be opened till the end of November. Having a need for furniture for my new new apartment, I drove 2 hours to the Ikea store in New Haven last Saturday. I got a lot of stuff that I had wanted to get and even picked up gifts for 2 weddings that I will be attending next month. Notwithstanding the long hours of driving, it was a productive day for me. Unfortunately, I pulled a muscle while lifting a package at the Ikea parking lot. The back still hurts today despite spending the past 2 days nursing it. I have to remind myself that my back isn't as strong as it was 5 years ago. Alas, the consequence of growing old.

8/29/2005 11:20:18 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Personal

Yesterday, I went to Amazon.com to shop for books to read now that I have more free time. All the talk about Economics on my blog lately prompted me to get Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner. I am curious to see how the principles of Economics are used to explain and connect things and events that happen in our everyday life. The next book in the shopping cart is Truth against Logic by Jamie Whyte. And my reason for purchasing this book: I am so sick of today's political discourse and want to gain some frameworks to dissect the arguments of politicians (both left and right), pundits, and religious leaders. Last but not least, the book The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century by Thomas Friedman was strongly recommended by my classmate, Kevin, for its anecdotal account of world history and for better or for worse, how it shaped today's globalized environment.

8/26/2005 10:26:14 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Personal

Last week, I volunteered as an event coordinator for Labor Day Sports, one of the events in the MIT 2005 Graduate Student Orientation. My responsibilities for the event include setting up logistics and leading sport games. During a Graduate Student Council meeting yesterday, I was informed that I now have the entire Barry Astroturf to my disposal. This is cool, there will more games to lead and play. The games "on tap" for that day include Ultimate Frisbee, soccer, and possible softball. The bad news: With the expansion to the Astroturf, I now need more volunteers for this event. I better send out a chain email to solicit help soon.

There are plenty of fun and quality events worth checking out in the graduate student orientation. I am looking forward to it.

8/25/2005 12:37:38 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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School

Having nothing to do tonight, I decided to read the blog entries that I wrote in the last few weeks. I came to 2 conclusions: (1) I am still not an eloquent writer and (2) I have to proof read my blog for typos. Arggghhh... Seriously, in the future I have proof read my blogs more carefully after writing them. In any case, I edited a few entries for grammatical correctness. They should be more reader friendly now.

8/25/2005 12:34:39 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Blog