On writing / Daily crono / On groups / On presentations

On writing

I have now been trying to write a few pages about the Soviet moon program for our project paper. It has been hard, and I have totally failed to put any words down on the paper. Since writing is easy for me, at least most of the time, and I have already written quite a bit about this (see Monday, 18th of April), I started to get desperate, and decided that it is now time to do some self-analysis. So, why am I failing? I remember that it was hard to start writing the interview report a few weeks ago. I do not remember any other real writing difficulty this semester. Therefore, this problem must have something to do with the course. I think I have set myself too high quality standards, and I am taking this too seriously. It may also be, that I am a bit lazy, and would not like to use the material so much. So, what is the remedy? I think there is something I can do: first, I must relax, try to take this course just as another course, and do my best; second, I must be a bit humbler, and read the book again; third, I must accept, that this time I may even have to edit the text, not just write and submit it. I hardly ever do that, since editing is really boring. Now that I know all this, I think I will be able to write whatever needed.
Here is a great poem. I have read it so many times, and still I wonder. It is a bit sad, though.

At a Lecture

Since mistakes are inevitable, I can easily be taken
for a man standing before you in this room filled
with yourselves. Yet in about an hour
this will be corrected, at your and at my expense,
and the place will be reclaimed by elemental particles
free from the rigidity of a particular human shape
or type of assembly. Some particles are still free. It's not all dust.

So my unwillingness to admit it's I
facing you now, or the other way around,
has less to do with my modesty or solipsism
than with my respect for the premises' instant future,
for those afore-mentioned free-floating particles
settling upon the shining surface
of my brain. Inaccessible to a wet cloth eager to wipe them off.

The most interesting thing about emptiness
is that it is preceded by fullness.
The first to understand this were, I believe, the Greek
gods, whose forte indeed was absence.
Regard, then, yourselves as rehearsing perhaps for the divine encore,
with me playing obviously to the gallery.
We all act out of vanity. But I am in a hurry.

Once you know the future, you can make it come
earlier. The way it's done by statues or by one's furniture.
Self-effacement is not a virtue
but a necessity, recognised most often
toward evening. Though numerically it is easier
not to be me than not to be you. As the swan confessed
to the lake: I don't like myself. But you are welcome to my reflection.

-- Joseph Brodsky

Daily crono

Meeting with professor Weigel in the morning, some work on NGATS, Bengali lunch, desperation in the Baker-library, interesting lecture about bio-nano-technology companies in the disruptive technologies class (seems that small companies do well in that industry, even though they should not), another lecture in the PDD-class, no comments on that, some work on PDD, dinner with Robbie in the Island hopper (udon noodle, as always, and I am well recognized there too), and then 3 hours work on NGATS with Kumar. We got the value map ready, and so are almost all set for the course.

On groups

In January, professor Katz told us that teams may or may not be an efficient working way. I have now proofs of it: unless the group is exceptional, and all people professional (i.e. understand what others are talking, take initiative voluntarily, deliver their promises in time and with good quality, and keep others up-to-date with email), having a group is totally wasting time. It takes just one person who is not professional in a group, and most of the time goes to non-productive team issues instead of real productive work. This is true, and it is sad, since most of the time one is not allowed to pick up his own groups mates, and because in the beginning one does not know the professionals from the non-professionals. Or maybe it is not that black and white, maybe there is a continuum of professionalism, and one has to work with people, who are at the same level. Anyway, my rough guess is that with same-level-groups, I could have done at least 25% more classes this spring.

On presentations

I asked one teaching assistant, how come we are evaluated by our presentation skill, when a) nobody tells which kind of presentation is good in which case, and b) the class does not teach anything on how to present. The answer was more or less: "Oh, here in Sloan, we do not teach presentation, because in the normal workplace you have to present anyway". I could not but wonder why they are teaching finance or marketing, or anything for that matter.

Alun perin julkaistu kuukausikoosteessa "Blogs April 2005".