Adaptibility & Comparitus
One of the curses of being fairly adaptable is over sensitivity to your surroundings. I'm a firm believer that only through understanding one's surroundings can one really adapt to them. Great as that is in theory, I'm starting to realise some shortcomings to this approach. I guess this is one of the 'left field' advantages of taking a year out and not working - you get time for all sorts of curious thoughts to pop into your head.
But I hear you ask impatiently - shortcomings? Well yeah. I've coined the term 'comparitus' - OK, so it's not brilliant. It's the process of constantly comparing. And believe me, when you do an MBA, there's so many things to compare. What classes are you taking? What grade did you get in X? How long did your group take to do Y? How many interviews have you got? Are you busy with dinner tonight?
The things is, I'm coming to the conclusion that this is a pretty efficient way to get oneself depressed. You can never know everything about the 400 other people doing an MBA. And so you sample. And then extrapolate. And guess what - when you sample, there's selective sampling bias built in. So when you ask someone and they tell you that they have 3 interviews already, you feel like everyone else must have at least 5 and you having none is a sign from a higher power that you're really not that good. Or at least that's how it is if you're going through an insecure patch like myself.
Which brings me back to the whole adaptability thing. I had to write an essay on "Adapting to a truly foreign culture" for my favourite class of the year so far - "Psychological Issues in Management". My main point there was that there's a conflict between self and the interface between your surroundings. If you spend all your time adapting, your self kind of disappears under a layer of glue moulded to your surroundings. So I guess what I'm expressing in a fairly voluminous manner is that I've decided to try and adapt a bit less and be myself a bit more. I think that's quite a challenge - Psychology professor is adamant people never change, and he's someone I'm inclined to take seriously. But I like projects. At least interesting ones.
CQW: Did you get BCG interview?
But I hear you ask impatiently - shortcomings? Well yeah. I've coined the term 'comparitus' - OK, so it's not brilliant. It's the process of constantly comparing. And believe me, when you do an MBA, there's so many things to compare. What classes are you taking? What grade did you get in X? How long did your group take to do Y? How many interviews have you got? Are you busy with dinner tonight?
The things is, I'm coming to the conclusion that this is a pretty efficient way to get oneself depressed. You can never know everything about the 400 other people doing an MBA. And so you sample. And then extrapolate. And guess what - when you sample, there's selective sampling bias built in. So when you ask someone and they tell you that they have 3 interviews already, you feel like everyone else must have at least 5 and you having none is a sign from a higher power that you're really not that good. Or at least that's how it is if you're going through an insecure patch like myself.
Which brings me back to the whole adaptability thing. I had to write an essay on "Adapting to a truly foreign culture" for my favourite class of the year so far - "Psychological Issues in Management". My main point there was that there's a conflict between self and the interface between your surroundings. If you spend all your time adapting, your self kind of disappears under a layer of glue moulded to your surroundings. So I guess what I'm expressing in a fairly voluminous manner is that I've decided to try and adapt a bit less and be myself a bit more. I think that's quite a challenge - Psychology professor is adamant people never change, and he's someone I'm inclined to take seriously. But I like projects. At least interesting ones.
CQW: Did you get BCG interview?
posted by The Apprentice at 4:38 PM
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"Tell me the landscape in which you live, and I will tell you who you are."
-Jose Ortega y Gassett
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