This morning, a dear friend took Peanut to playgroup with her son. She's done this a fairly regularly for us and we both enjoy it tremendously. I usually try to be a good PhD candidate and spend the time working on research and writing. Today, I didn't. Instead, I went to my favorite cafe and had a hot cocoa and some reading time. Then I went for a wander in the bookstore. Didn't buy anything, of course. I rarely do. But it was healing. The cold doesn't get to me, but sunless days do. This mama has been in need of some rejuvenation lately and my decadent (what - time to do whatever I want? NO!) morning helped a lot. So I feel a bit bad about not making better use of my time. But I also feel better. Things are actually getting done today and that hasn't been the case for a while.
Now, about making the sun shine again....
Showing posts with label research. Show all posts
Showing posts with label research. Show all posts
25 January 2011
12 November 2010
Reading Notes: Ahead of the Curve
My notes on Ahead of the Curve by Philip Delves Broughton. I read this as light reading for my PhD work, but think it would be very interesting for a much wider audience.
This book was a tremendous pleasure to read. I had not anticipated how engaging Philip Delves Broughton's tale of life as a Harvard MBA student would be. Broughton, former Paris bureau chief for the London Daily Telegraph who quit his job to attend Harvard Business School, is a gifted writer with a thoughtful and entertaining story to tell.
What makes this an interesting memoir is the fact that Broughton traces the arc of his feelings about attending an MBA program at all. His ambivalence about the program and his participation in it never fully dissipates. Broughton is troubled by his own interest in the MBA program and distrubed by the lack of self-reflection he finds in many fellow students. He describes himself as a capitalist but is not prepared to stop being critical of the extreme ideology that the MBA program and especially the financial world seem to encourage with regards to importance of money-making. He takes particular offense to any suggestion that business is the most important institution in society and wonders frequently why social and political issues aren't given more attention throughout the program and by his fellow students.
Ultimately, and really not surprisingly, Broughton finds his own path and career aided by but not determined by his MBA experience. His original goal was to be able to live happily with his wife and two sons as well as be able to work independently. In other words, he wanted to be his own boss and still have a pesonal life.
For me, this book is interesting on many levels. Academically, I find it a rich resource for information about the Harvard MBA program as well as the influence of business schools on society. Personally, it's an inspirational story about how a person maintains their individuality in a situation where conformity is expected. One of the most valuable lessons here is that your resumé doesn't determine who you are, either professionally or personally. The thing that really matters is having the courage of your convictions and the willingness to go where they take you, no matter what anyone else thinks is “right.”
This book was a tremendous pleasure to read. I had not anticipated how engaging Philip Delves Broughton's tale of life as a Harvard MBA student would be. Broughton, former Paris bureau chief for the London Daily Telegraph who quit his job to attend Harvard Business School, is a gifted writer with a thoughtful and entertaining story to tell.
What makes this an interesting memoir is the fact that Broughton traces the arc of his feelings about attending an MBA program at all. His ambivalence about the program and his participation in it never fully dissipates. Broughton is troubled by his own interest in the MBA program and distrubed by the lack of self-reflection he finds in many fellow students. He describes himself as a capitalist but is not prepared to stop being critical of the extreme ideology that the MBA program and especially the financial world seem to encourage with regards to importance of money-making. He takes particular offense to any suggestion that business is the most important institution in society and wonders frequently why social and political issues aren't given more attention throughout the program and by his fellow students.
Ultimately, and really not surprisingly, Broughton finds his own path and career aided by but not determined by his MBA experience. His original goal was to be able to live happily with his wife and two sons as well as be able to work independently. In other words, he wanted to be his own boss and still have a pesonal life.
For me, this book is interesting on many levels. Academically, I find it a rich resource for information about the Harvard MBA program as well as the influence of business schools on society. Personally, it's an inspirational story about how a person maintains their individuality in a situation where conformity is expected. One of the most valuable lessons here is that your resumé doesn't determine who you are, either professionally or personally. The thing that really matters is having the courage of your convictions and the willingness to go where they take you, no matter what anyone else thinks is “right.”
20 May 2009
Annotation Tool
A few weeks ago, colleague told me about a new note-taking tool. Annotation Tool allows for collaborative note taking of .pdf documents on-line. Instructors can post .pdf documents on-line and then students (or others) can highlight sections of the text and add their comments. It's an easy to use, intuitive website and pretty, too. Sounds to me like a great teaching tool and also a neat tool for seminars or group work where everyone is reading the same texts.
I spend a lot of time thinking about taking notes and reading about taking notes. It's fantastic procrastination. For my work and research, I do a whole lot of reading. Let me rephrase that, I am supposed to do a whole lot of reading. It can be rather overwhelming, though. There are more bookshelves in our house than any other type of furniture - maybe even chairs. Wait a minute, now I'm mentally counting... There are five chairs (not counting folding) and seven bookshelves. Wow, I was right.
One of my biggest challenges with all this reading, though, is note taking. Where do I take notes, how do I take notes, and, most importantly, how to I take notes that will be useful in the future. In order for notes to be useful, I have to be able to find them, read them, and find the text (especially citations) that they refer to. Taking notes on the page seems to make the most sense. But there's a rub. There's always a rub. I try to keep most of my pages legible so that they can be photocopied for teaching or sharing if necessary. Taking notes digitally also seems logical, but it's a mess. Then I have to have a computer around when I'm reading. Furthermore, I'm tied to one computer or stuck with trying to remember whether the most recent file is on my memory stick or on the hard drive. On-line note taking with google docs is helping that, but then there's the internet thing.
There are a lot of potential solutions for me and I have the piles of notebooks (all sizes) and binders to prove it. Maybe the Annotation Tool will help me save a couple trees and embrace a little more technology, too!
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