what Harvard taught me, what it can teach you
For those heading out to the Real World, the Annual Review is a time for both employer and employee to reflect, grow and learn from one another.
It’s a way to re-remember what the hell happened in mid-February and grow from your learning “opportunities.”
Because December is coming to a close, take some time to write an annual review for yourself.
Relax. Sleep for 12 hours a day. Become nocturnal. Get less than 10% of whatever you had planned actually done. Watch the achronological House marathon. Catch up on all two seasons of Chuck. Help the American /European /International economy.
Eat ginger bread cookies. Play in the snow? sand? foothills.
Ignore your post it notes.
Regular blog posts will be returning at the beginning of January.
I promise I’ll return with some crazy life / school / reading period hackery techniques.
I’m saying bu-bye to that design lab paper that I thought I’d have mostly written (thanks for taking my survey by the way), sooo that means you should too!
While I’m not the techiest of all, I’m astonished by how people treat their computers on campus. I hear horror stories of people dropping their computers, scarier stories of people sending their computers to get fixed, and sad stories of Justice papers getting lost.
If you aren’t sure what preemptive measures you should be taking with your computer, this post is for you. Read more…
After talking with other juniors who are relatively happy with their concentrations, I’ve slowly realized that there is one common trait:
You enjoy the work you’re supposed to do for your concentration
This should perhaps be a “duh,” but it can be fairly easy to ignore this preference when you’re juggling other concentrations based on say, future prosperity. I’m an econ major because I really enjoyed doing the problem sets in Ec 10 (and fancy that, Ec classes have a fair amount of problem sets). I am not a math concentrator because I absolutely dreaded each problem set. I am not a philosophy concentrator (despite really liking philosophy) because I couldn’t imagine myself writing philosophy papers for the rest of my time here.
My math concentrator friends generally really enjoy their math problem sets. My CPB friend really enjoyed orgo. My history concentrator friend would happily check out a 2 foot stack of books from the library whenever she had to write a paper.
Pay attention to your mood when you’re doing homework. If you’re happily reading about linguistics or happily writing papers about social norms, then you probably know already what would be a major that would make you happy.
It’s super easy to be interested in many, many subjects (and enjoy lectures on many of said subjects), but chances are, you probably actually enjoy doing the work in just a few of them.
That’s all folks!
Coming back from Thanksgiving break can be a bit of a shocker. Turkey break is a wonderful time to chill out, eat food, ignore homework etc. etc., but getting back onto campus can be painful especially if you’re facing a mountain of work.
Somehow, this is one of the few times, I’ve managed to come back from break without actually facing a mountain of midterms / papers / psets / blahblah. I’ve discovered, funny enough, that Harvard is a fantastic place to be when you’re not stressed out.
There are interesting people about, good conversations to be had, fun events to go to, lots of ways to amuse yourself. But when you’re stressed, Harvard just seems like a dreary place.
If Harvard is lame, it’s because you’re making it that way.
Perhaps you know already, but tomorrow is the Harvard-Yale game. If you have tickets, please go and cheer on your respective team.
As you may have noticed, my posting frequency has sort of slacked off (thank you CS 50). But, expect major site changes in the next week or so.
Until then, enjoy watching the game from the stadium “Dedicated to the Joy of Manly Contest.”
Sometimes you just aren’t interested in tri-colored rotini or chicken. Other times you just need a break from dining hall food, but don’t want to fork over the cash for grub.
Fortunately, college students — including Harvard ones — are very easy to persuade with the promise of free food.
If you’re smart, resourceful and just a little bit lucky, here are a few ways to keep you feasting like a king without using your boardplus.
My Economics professor made an interesting analogy last week, comparing time commitments to “time debt.” Harvard students have a tendency to “promise” time to other parties that will be collected at a future point in time in exchange for things like grades, money, fun, etc.
Unfortunately, we too suffer from time inconsistencies regarding our time use. We commit to too much now, but have to perhaps renege on our promises later. Time inconsistencies are generally used by economists to explain things like addiction to procrastination, but at the core of it all, is a self-control issue. Whereas some people cannot help but to pull out their credit card to buy that new pair of shoes, we cannot help but to say yes to an awesome opportunity that will only maybe just take 2 hours a week.
The funny thing about “time debt” — a promise to pay back time/effort at a future date — is that the interest compounds. Time commitments snow ball, people expect and demand more from you, and soon your 2 hour a week gig ends up 3 or 4 hours a week, during a week, of course, of midterms.
So what is this “time debt,” and why in the world is this a problem of many successful people?
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