Quarter 10 - Week 1

Snifffffff..... do you smell that? Of course you don't, unless you're from my batch! It's the smell of vacant weekends and jobless evenings in the near future. Many of our classmates have taken on a radiant glow, and I'm guessing it has nothing to do with better face wash products.

Just because I am going to be here till next quarter because there's a couple of awesome subjects I want to take, I've taken the phenomenal decision of doing only two courses this quarter! Yes, two! I'm expecting that it will result in increased concentration in these subjects, to an extent of an extra 50%! I have not factored in the 'Going-to-leave-shortly' aspect, but the dampening factor of the same can be calculated at the end of the quarter based on the deviation from the mean... BUTTT I DIGRESS!

Business Data Mining & Decision Models (BDMDM)

I took the course just because it has such a big name, and the abbreviation sounds like thunder. Actually no, but I wouldn't put it beyond me. The name is so obviously suggesting the amount of trouble it can cause, it would be a crime not to undergo the pain of it! We don't really come to study to have a fun life now, do we...

The first week was reasonably intriguing. The prof knows his stuff, and has a way of describing the problems in a imaginative manner. If he fails to help you picturize the complexity in your head, he'll have it drawn up on the presentation so you have no doubt about the fact that you're confused. He also spoke about how business data mining has evolved, from just simple metrics collection to metrics analysis. While making it absolutely clear that we are going to suffer under the load of the project, he has also managed to convince me on the value of doing this course. This week, we looked at cluster analysis and how this differs from cluster sampling (diametrically opposite in fact! These mathematicians have no sense on how to name things, thats for sure!) and we then went on to discuss how clustering can be done from the many different angles. Looks set to be an interesting course, especially since there's only one textbook which, in all probability, we wont read, and sets of slides that will be shared!

Strategic Thinking & Decision Making (STDM)

Fortunately not as dangerous sounding, this course attempts to explain the thought process behind decision making by people. I'd have put this down as an OB course, given the chance. This prof is very engaging, but the catch is that you need to get on his boat right at the start! If you happen to disengage in the middle of class over a game of Angry Birds, and then suddenly pay attention... you get completely flustered at the jargon being thrown your way! Therefore, the important lesson would be to avoid the Angry Bird. Or don't play the game.

For the first week, after the standard 'study-your-ass-out-or-else' sermon to a set of bored-looking 'Been there, heard that' students... the prof gets down to some practical examples. Takes up a mini case and asks us our thoughts on whether the decision taken was right or not. After a bunch of suggestions from the class, he breaks down what seems like a 'poor-chap' case into a set of discrete 'if-then' and 'cause-effect' scenarios. Talks of what would happen if you do this, or do that... about what the other person has in his mind, and why he should cede to your point-of-view. That seemed enough to get the class hooked, as he went on to explain in light sciency terms about why people make the decisions they do, and how it turns out. Something tells me that some of the students didn't realize what the course entailed, as after the break there was approximate 3/4 of the class around. The rest, having realized this has more to do with the fundas behind decision-making and not with actual strategic frameworks, had strategically decided to bolt out the door!

We then also spent some time discussing Game Theory, and it pretty shortly came about that the underlying principle is that every man's for himself. This intensely individualistic appeal also came about to explain how people look at the immediate short term, under the rules of Game Theory, than the collective long term perspective. Therefore, my takeaway was that Game Theory needs an infusion of collective thinking if it should take into account long-term prospects. Having said that, it's not the Game Theory itself that needs fixing... it's the inherent programming of the individual, who's being told to look out only for himself. A tall prospect, which probably explains why not much has happened to influence this theory in quite a while.

All in all, it sounds like it will be a fun quarter... I haven't done many quant subjects since my first year, and BDMDM seems to pose a good enough challenge. Similarly, strategy not being my weapon of choice, gets SOME makeover with STDM. Hopefully, I'll learn more consumer behaviour from this, and 'enhance' my Marketing knowhow!