Analytics 2009

Analytics 2009 is over and school is about to start. I wanted to write a little about my experience thus far as things ramp up and the school year begins.

Analytics is a program for HBS students who don't come from a business background. More specifically, it is required for those without a business background, and a few with a business background find their way in there as well. We had four sections of about 60 students each, so that represents about 25% of the class.

For those with little to no business background, Analytics proved to be a very steep learning curve and extremely time consuming. I found myself working or in class about 15 hours a day to keep up with all the new concepts. Analytics is case based, but the cases are much more nuts and bolts and more quantitative than the normal school year balance. It forces students to apply financial, accounting, and quantitative methods towards different business models. The only reason students like me had to spend so much time on the cases is because I would have to stop nearly every paragraph to look up a term or a concept and learn what it even meant.

For students like myself, which I think is the majority of the Analytics student body, the leap in knowledge between one day to the next was greater than the amount of information that a person can absorb in 24 hours. Meaning, the volume of information that can be potentially absorbed each day is greater than what one could learn even if he studied for 24 hours straight. This means I only absorbed 80-90% of the details that the cases called for in order to reach a full command of the material. And I found this to be absolutely exhilarating! It is the first time - possibly ever for me - in which I didn't have time to learn 100% of the material put in front of me. I think this is great because if you are able to learn 100% of the material, you are by definition not learning to your capacity. For two weeks, I was learning to my capacity. To learn as much as I can, and to stretch my abilities to my max is what I always seek, so I found the whole process to be extremely rewarding. I was perfectly content to really gain a solid understanding of only 80% or 90% of the material, knowing that my efficiency will grow exponentially as I quickly catch up on the terminology and basic business terms and concepts.

Most students also thrived in this environment, and enjoyed the academic and social environment. Some students though, particularly those have always been able to find "the solution" to every problem - had some challenges. Since they weren't able to keep up with every class, it proved overwhelmingly stressful because that was a new experience for them. It was the first time perhaps they were pushed beyond their limits because of the disparity of their backgrounds and the completely new topics put in front of them.

The key takeaway for them was not how to learn more efficiently so that they could attain 100% mastery, but rather, that sometimes one can't cover everything, and that he must prioritize. Coming from a military background, this was hardly a new concept, but I think that may be one of the most important lessons Analytics can offer some students. You don't have to master every topic, cover every concept, solve every problem... it's much more important to prioritize, pick and choose your battles, and manage your time as best you can. You have to let the unimportant things go. For many prevailing perfectionist personalities here, the latter lesson is a bitter one to swallow.

Now it's time for the real school year to start. There is a definite sense of excitement among the students here in Cambridge!