何事を始めるにも遅すぎることはない

Yaleのコンピューターサイエンス学部で、いまさら、Javaのプログラミングの授業を取っている。でもそれで良いんです。18、19、下手するとそれより若い学生に混じって、30歳のおじさんが必死になったって、それがやりたいことならいいんです。

さはさりながら、

HTMLとかCSSである程度プログラミングに離れてるかなー、とか、オンラインでPythonやったし、ほどよくこなせるかなーとか、勘違いをしていた。毎週毎週でる宿題をこなすのに、平気で10時間かかるし、ひどいやつに至っては30時間もかかった（これは春休み明けでほぼ忘れてしまうという状況の中、非常に複雑で難しいプログラムの宿題が出たせいでもある）。

まぁやりながら、あまり自分には適性がないことがよくわかった笑　それでも、うんうん唸りながら書いたコードが機能したときの嬉しさたるや。そのために朝までやるのも特に苦じゃない気がする。ひとまず、Javaをきちんとやって、それから学びたいPythonをコツコツやっていこうかなと思い始めた。子供に教えられるくらいまでにはなりたいな。

残り35日

MBAも終わりに近づいてくると、かなり落ち着いてくる。時間の使い方が緩くなってくるような気がするし、一方で、残り時間が限られているから、ということで、密な時間の使い方もできるような気がする。学業については前者になっていて、経験だったりネットワーキングだったりは後者に傾いていると実感。

卒業式は5月23日(月)。Yale は壮大な卒業式と聞くのでどんなものなのか少し楽しみ。この時期、卒業式の家族がNHに入るため、周辺のホテルはどこも一杯になる。ついには、NYに宿泊して、Metro Northで駆けつけるなんてことも普通。

そういえば、NYUの卒業式が5月20日(金)、Columbiaはわからないけどいずれにしてもその周辺。NYの宿泊料金が異常につり上がっている理由がよく理解できた。

ひとまず、Neuroscienceの授業をこなして、熊本地震のための募金活動について、学校と話してこよ。日本食のフードトラック、協力してくれると良いんだけどなぁ。

2年目の秋学期Week 3終了、Week4へ

口々に、クラスメート、その配偶者達は、あっという間と言っている。自分も例外に漏れず、そんな話をしている。1年目との違いは、やりたいことが多すぎる点。

メモ程度に

今日の授業、とにかく面白かった。ハーバードでも有名なケースで、その本人を呼んでインタビュー形式で授業が進んでいったけど、こんなに面白かったのは久しぶり。ありがたや。Entrepreneur and New VenturesのGreg、やるわ。　

雪・雪・雪・･･･雪

雪。個人的な感覚だと大雪。いやー吹雪く。

さて、今日もまたNPO会計とManaging Strategic Networksの授業。これは月水である授業で、なぜだかブログを書くのがそういう日になっている。

上記二つは選択科目で、それ以外にも選択科目としてInternet Marketingの授業とコア科目のEmployee（月水）、Operation Engine（火木）とMacro Economy（火木）を履修している。

EmployeeではSASについて取りあげ、事前Readingのほかにこのビデオも見るようにとのことで指示があったわけだけど、興味深くできた。非常に充実した福利厚生で、自分も働きたい！と思うほどの充実振り。いまでこそ、SASのようなことをしている企業は増えているけど、当時では画期的だろうなぁ。

明日にでも、また今日のManaging Strategic Networksの授業のおさらいでもしようかな。木曜日に控える日本に関するプレゼンの準備でとてつもなく時間が･･･

みんな楽しみにしているから頑張ろ－。

アメリカらしからぬ複雑なNPO会計とアメリカらしい人脈論

本が殆ど読めていないな。日本語の本をブラウジングとかスキミングするのは問題ないけど英語だとまだ難しい。頭になかなか入ってこない。

さて、雪休みから明けた今日はまたもNPO会計とManaging Strategic Networksの授業（月・水）。NPO会計は、日本と異なりかなり詳しく計上していて、本当に厳密。リソースがかなり限られているNPOに対して、あれだけの複雑な会計水準を求めることに違和感を覚える。で、どれくらい細かい基準なのか。

Spring1 Week4 は雪からのスタート、授業はおもしろい

もう大雪。ということで明日はイェール大学全体がお休み。こんなこと久しぶりすぎる。

さて、今日は雪がしんしんと降る中、通常通りの授業。Nonprofit Accountingは日米の違いがよくわかって面白い。Managing Strategic Networksも発展がめざましい分野のようで、新しいことが次々に出てくるから興味深い。なにより、日本とのネットワークの仕方の違いがありありとわかるのがいい。

ひとまず、今日は、Managing Strategic Networksのちょっとクラスの内容をまとめてみようと思う。

Spring 1 Week 1 終了

Spring 1は全部で6週間。そのうちの第一週が終了。長かった…子供が熱を出したことですこしスケジュールが不規則になって大変だったな－。これからどんどんと寒くなるし、男の子は風邪引きやすいと言うから、不即の事態に備えてバッファを用意しておかないと。

さて、選択科目はやはり面白い。

Spring 1 初日の出だしはいい

Spring 1、授業初日。今日のNPO会計と戦略的人脈管理に関する選択科目は面白かった。残念なのは、YaleはNPOの分野でとても強いのだけど、NPOへの生徒の関心が低下しているように映る点（NPO会計の生徒数があまりに少なくてびっくり）。キャリアとして追求しなくても、支援も視野に入れて知っててもいいんじゃなかろうかと。既にSpring 2の選択科目が楽しみだし、Fall 1になれば入学理由にもなったSharon M Oster教授の授業もある。わくわくするなぁ。早く、コア終わって欲しい。そして、冬も早く終わって。寒い。

なお、YaleのMBAの授業は2つの点ユニーク。

Review of the XX+1 Day

Somehow, I survived today but I have lots of assignment and exams this week. Also I am going to New York on Friday to see an evangelist at his apartment. I need to prioritize things but cannot cut the final essays. Good opportunity for me to improve my efficiency. Hum, want to tease my son...

Review of XXth Day

Today I did not go to school because I got sick. Somehow I could not walk straight by myself, so decided not to go. I need to go to Yale Health to have a medical check or something.

Review of the 32nd Day

My schedule is fully packed now. As I cannot increase the working time any longer, I need to improve the efficiency of my current time schedule. How? I have some ideas but before jumping into the solution, i need to analyze my situation and need to answer some questions such as how have i spent my time? how is the structure of my time spent in a week and so on.....

Review of the 29th Day

Mixed days but I can say I have been bad at managing my time. I think I need to sleep to be more efficient because I am not the type of people who can work a lot without much sleep. Anyway, I skipped two days and also have something that I want to write about in my mind so quick note on it. I will write about Timothy Franz Geithner, bed frame and failure sometime soon!!

Review of the 26th Day

I have developed some ideas for my business but need to have more ideas. I need the characteristics of good ideas and sort my current ideas into some categories. Anyway, I need to go through the readings for tomorrow. I will skip the today's online video today so, will put a video that I watched during the class. 

Drew Dudley: Everyday leadership

http://www.ted.com/playlists/140/how_leaders_inspire

Review of the 23rd Day

Basically, there is no class on Fridays but for the first couple of months, we have lecture on career hunting- how to create a strong resume, how to give good impression in the interview, how to improve a small talk etc...

Frankly, I am not into these types of lectures firstly not only because some of the lectures are obvious, but because I do not find a job here. It does not seem to me that those know-hows are substantial and genuine. However I need to and should learn something from them. So next Friday, I will write the findings during the lecture in this blog.


Today's Seminar: Try something new for 30 days (TED)
http://www.ted.com/playlists/81/ted_in_3_minutes

Review of the 22nd Day

Technically the week is over. We do not have classes tomorrow. Things is getting better day by day and I feel myself becoming more open.

Well today I had three classes, statistics, leadership and problem framing. in the problem framing class, the professor referred to anchoring effect as well as reference point. Both of them are familiar to me in the book "Thinking Fast and Slow."So it was not that new to me but still the lecture was helpful encouraging me to think how I can make good decisions going forward. On the separate note, I found "Great job!! in the assignment I had submitted to the professor before. It made me feel nice.

In the leadership class, the professor unexpectedly recommend us to have meditation on daily basis even for a very short time. Since I know the effect of meditation, I sometimes did it but what I did not imagine was that she showed a short video on it and that we actually did a short meditation in the class. I now feel like doing meditation again as I used to do.

One minutes meditation

Today's Seminar
Less is More: How to Use Simple Rules for Better Results

1. Strategy over time
1. real-time
2. short-term
3. long-term

This is about the method for decision making in real-time. Agenda and simple comments for it.

1. How do you make a fast decision
1. Limit participation
2. cut back on analysis and look at fewer alternatives
2. But
1. how decision makers overcome anxiety?
2. how do decision makers make smart decisions?
3. Making fast decision
1. Speed myths
1. less information
2. fewer experts
3. limit analysis
2. Best practice
1. successful fast decision makers use more not less, information organizations
2. but that real-time information focused on internal operations and external makers
3. Why?
1. speeds issue identification
1. see the timely information "what happening right now"
2. builds intuition
1. like playing a video game
3. improves teamwork necessary to act quickly
1. team role
4. multiple alternatives
1. Speed myths
1. avoid lots of alternatives
2. quickly pick an alternative analyze it and go
2. Best practice
1. successful fast decision makers consider more, not fewer, alternatives
2. those alternatives are considered simultaneously, not sequentially
1. like a car shopping. you can compare!
3. Why?
1. alternatives are hard to analyze in isolation
2. reduces escalation of commitment to any one alternative
1. you can avoid polarization
3. creates a fallback position
1. you can quickly shift to another choice
5. Two-Tier Advice
1. Speed myths
1. centralized power
2. limit participation
2. Best practice
1. seek counsel widely
2. but have one or two experienced "counselors"
1. older, experienced
2. 10 to 20 years older than the team
3. Why?
1. get a broad range of ideas
2. counselors are particularly quick, high quality and trustworthy
1. trust the idea
3. counselors provide confidence- not their first rodeo
6. Consensus w/ qualification
1. Speed myths
1. reduce conflict
2. don't worry about needing to resolve conflict. just decide
2. Best practice
1. try for consensus
2. but if consensus doesn't happen, then have a way to make the call
3. Why?
1. copes directly with the conflict inherent in most important decisions
2. it avoids waiting for outside events to force a decision
1. slow decision makers wait for the deadline to come
2. on the contrary, you should expedite the process
3. it's popular
7. Decision Integration
1. Speed myths
1. start with a blank slate
2. take decisions one at a time
2. Best practice
1. integrate current decision with past and future ones
2. tie into tactics like budgets
3. have a worst case backup
3. Why?
1. speeds analysis of alternatives
1. start to see strength and weakness on a focal point
2. creates concrete understanding of the decision
3. builds a sense of competence and control that the decision will be successful
8. why is this process fast
1. accelerates thinking- cognitive
2. keeps team satisfied- political
3. creates confidence to act- emotional
9. Why does speed matter?
1. more learning with more decisions
2. capture opportunities sooner, faster and better than rivals
3. you have to keep up with the train

Review of the 20th Day

It was very tough today. Since I was too sleepy, I barely keep my eyes open during the classes although I thought them very interesting!!

Anyway, at last, I have gotten back to normal track! Finished my assignment and all I will do is to sleep. Well I must read the text for the class but I chose not to because it won't come to my brain. Due to the chronic sleeplessness, my brain is not working now and my priority is to recover its function. I will get up early tomorrow, do some exercise and do some readings before class. I think I can manage my time!!

Review of the 17th Day

I unconsciously fell asleep last night. it is very fulfilling to take care of my new born son and prepare for the classes but at the same time time and energy consuming. Need to figure out how to manage.

Since there less that 90 weeks left, I must be strategic in using my time. I know what I want to know but am not sure exactly how much free time I have. Also I should asses how much time it will take to do what I want to do for the next 90 weeks.

Review of the 15th Day

I have been tied up recently. I will get my schedule back to normal so that I can better prepare for the class. I have read any of the prereadings this week. It cannot be helped so will survive tomorrow. One day to go!!

Note:

- Great gifts from my awesome team mates

- Nice present from a cake shop in from of our apartment

Review of the 14th Day

I need to sleep before 3:00 am Think this week is extra tough. One more assignment!!!!! Actually
I learned interesting things in today's classes so will write down the key words to remember. Will get back to here and elaborate more on them, perhaps.

average decision making
average forecast vs professional estimate