Winding down

Well.

It’s been a fun few years, but now with a certificate in hand, there’s not much more to say of What Greg Learned.

Naturally I keep learning. Recently I’ve learned how little impact a new degree feels like on a resume, up against a long stint in an academic IT support position. I’ve learned a lot of HTML 5. I’ve learned that knowing a little Japanese is cool, but doesn’t really do much good because people can’t really speak to you in “a little Japanese”. I’ve learned that the one thing I figured an iPad might be handy for, as a very expensive e-reader, turns out not to be very good either because the thing’s a bad size/weight for that and gets all smudgy. In my hands, anyway.

But… I don’t really want to try to keep up a blog to keep track of all that. The content, especially my silly little podcasts, will stay up for a year or so more, according to WordPress. Then they’ll disappear and that’s probably about ten months longer than there’s any justification for. But I don’t expect to write any more.

Hope you learned something too.

What Greg Learned – NO MORE CLASSES

Transcript after the break, as usual. I AM DONE with sitting in classes and, given the classes this term in particular, couldn’t be happier. Hear me wax poetic about United Technologies, grumble about prisoners and their dilemmas, and more.

What Greg is Learning

Well, the game is on instead of a final. My goal is a big fat “I told you so” to all my teammates as my team cruises to victory, but I’m concerned for all the same reasons that I didn’t want a game in the first place – business games are arbitrary little models. Often they’re designed to demonstrate to students how easy it is for a business, a supply chain, or an industry to collapse. And they’re good for that. Hell, think of all the industry heads you kind of wish had more experience watching that happen in simulated environments.

As an assessment tool? Horrific. And (*cracking knuckles*) it’s time to show them why.

WGL… Three from the end

Bet you thought I forget about this! Well, maybe I did. But here’s a whole heapin’ serving of more of what Greg learned. Cloud computing’s up for a discussion, I vent my frustration over logical inconsistency, why games are better than classes… heck, it’s a potpourri of delicious Greg smells. Transcript after the break.

What Greg Learned… #4 to the end

I lose track of the numbers, but let’s be frank… they don’t matter. It’s the countdown to the end, and after this weekend that leaves 3!

What? I seem focused on the end, not on the now? Would a 22 minute podcast change your mind? A, um, partial transcript after the break.

WGL #31 – Not the best of weekends

Well, the truth is there’s not much to say this weekend that isn’t kinda cynical, grumpy, whiny, whatever, so I’m not gonna bother recording anything. If I had to give percentage estimations for whether the full term’s worth of classes would be a “very good” or better experience, right now I’d give numbers like: Strategic Management 70%, Computational Finance 70%, Enterprise Software 45%, R&D Management 5%. Yeah, that’s not a typo. I think most other terms I’d be hovering around the 70% line for most classes because I’m pretty cautious about my optimism at this point in the term.

But not cautious about pessimism. Last class of R&D was that bad. After five terms of being a student in this program, I know what’s going to work and what’s not. And whereas the rational thing to do would have been dropping and fleeing to Data Mining (you may recall that I originally was split on which of the two I should take), I’m not going anywhere. Flag is planted and I’m going to, if anything, be way too good a student for this class. One way to think of it is I refuse to let some confused old hack deprive me of the chance to learn.

Yeah, that’s a bit of manic in my grumpy mix. We’ll see if it lasts. But hopefully next week’s more worth talking about.

WGL #30 – The final term begins

The last term begins. Not that I’m counting, but 20 more class sessions (plus a final) to go! All about my initial take for this term after the break, for those who ain’t inclined to listen to me ramble in the audio version.

What Greg Learned 29- End of term 5!

Breathless excitement? Check. A little bit of ego? Check. Book recommendation? Check and check. The clock is ticking on Japan, but first we have a big weekend to reflect on to close out Term #5. Full transcript… uh, planned script… after the break.

What Greg Learned #28

Editorial note: I screw up my last sentence of Japanese. Gomen.

A Japanese man never says no! It’s a super extra-ooshi episode of everybody’s favorite reflection on business education. This was a pretty exciting weekend, hope you enjoy the podcast! My script after the break (I wasn’t too bad about it this time!)

What Greg Learned 27

The transcript means nothing! It’s total anarchy this week on What Greg Learned, as I treat my carefully-written script as a rough set of guidelines and fling preparation to the wind… well, ok, I guess I do that every week. The transcript (for what it’s worth) is after the break….