Tuesday, November 23, 2010

PC or MAC

short answer - PC

long answer - I bought a macbook pro for alterior motives. I wanted to get on the platform so that I could have something to dev I phone apps on. As a technologist, I recognize this an emerging part of the market. It's part of my job to be on top of these like this. Plus, as a guy that spends a lot of time on the computer, the hardware is first class.

As a student, though, going Mac has not been without its disadvantages. R behaves differently. You will need a special cord for the break out rooms to use the projector. Office works differently. Perhaps most maddeningly is office 2008 didn't handle formula symbols very well, which meant I had to use PC.


If you are looking to optimize your capability as a student, I say go PC. You won't need an amazing machine, only something you are comfortable with . Any CPU from the last 5 years will suffice.

My $.02

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Stats is hard

i'm just now finishing up week 1's homework assignment. Some things the prospective AMP student needs to know;

You've probably just finished up Risk. Stats will give you no quarter.
Do prepare for Stats. Our class appears to be "emerging to standard" to put it nicely. Professor Brown suggested, in response to our exasperation, to practice as we read through.
which brings me to my next point. Do read through first. It's clear those of us who have read and those of us who haven't.

You will want to fully absorb this course as the skills learned here are powerful. So is risk. I think maybe we over-did risk at the expense of Stats. That's the royal we.

R is very much like programming, or so it seems to those who don't program for a living. So if you aren't comfortable developing by google, you will need extra time to get comfortable with R. There is no escaping this.

Monday, November 15, 2010

Early Bird Penalty

I think it is fair to say that your success in AMP will in some part depend on your ability to make time to study. Each person in AMP will have a different personal schedule, but I think it is fair to say that with a full time job, a little boy who has his father's personality and various other commitments, i'm as stretched thin as anybody else in the program.

What I have discovered is that there is a bit of an early bird penalty. What happens is that the homework assignment is given to the cohort shortly after the class is over. Invariably, there will be things that are unclear about the assignment. As members of the cohort begin to ask questions of the TA or other members, items that are unclear are resolved. The first person to "pioneer" through the assignment does so without the benefit of someone else finding all the nebulous items and getting clarification from the TA. If things are unclear to enough people, the TA will send out an email clarifying the assignment. If you didn't have this information, you may spin your wheels in the wrong direction for some time, or sit there and scratch your head and try to figure out what you are missing. Thus, the early bird tax. Those that come through later have the benefit of those that go before.

On the other hand, those that do their homework late play a different game. There is only so much time for the material to sink and for the student to iterate over their work. So, we have a bit of a trade off. I tend to get a bit anxious if I don't have my homework squared away, so the early bird penalty is worth it to me, because at least I feel like I am putting in work towards learning.

Sometimes it makes sense, especially if the assignment builds upon itself, to only go so far and let things shake out.

If you are fortunate enough to have a job that will let you flex work, then this is the time to get in work. If things are still unclear about the assignment, put in work with your day job so that you can have more time to work on the assignment en masse.

Okay, my $.02 and unrefined. I need to get back to studying.

Monday, November 8, 2010

Still in recovery

That weekend took a lot out of me.

I also think its worth noting that we paid $42 to have our final printed at Kinko's, for what its worth.

Tonight I am finishing up the risk final, which is not supposed to be a formal analysis. I think the meat of our grade will come from the final project. I hope so, at any rate. I think the intent here is to get some sort of post paper analysis of your project.

I have yet to start on the next mini-mester's HW and I feel a bit behind already. Of course, in the shell game that is the dance of trying to find enough time to be productive at home, be there for your family and have this level of involvement at school required that I put in both time with my son this weekend and put in time at the office on Sunday.

All worth it, IMO.

Also, I got pulled over tonight for expired tags. From August. I was like, wait, its not August yet is it? Some things have I let "slide" because I have been a "little busy."

Saturday, November 6, 2010

tough 2 weeks

One of the objectives of writing this blog (perhaps a gradient?) is to be a sort of field guide to those that travel this path after I. To that end, this past 2 weeks was really, really tough. Aside from Halloween, it was mostly 6 AM to midnight work, take care of my son, school. No time to workout. No time for special people in your life. Just work, son, school, repeat.  Here's why-

Econ and Risk are both team oriented classes. Meaning, your grade is almost completely a team grade. Unless you do something really bad, your grade will be just like yours of your team members. Thus, we have a game theory situation. Each member of the cohort will act in his or her own best interest. That can make things a little complicated. A couple of words of advice -

Risk will likely dominate Econ demands. 

If you want to have different teams for both, which isn't a bad idea, you may want to make sure that the teams are completely heterogeneous. Meaning, if you are the only odd man out on each team, then your incentives won't align with others. Perhaps your risk team will finish early, but your econ team is still working on their risk. Or vice versa. So you can see the implicit advantage of having homogeneous teams for each as far as grades go. 

however -

I try to consider why the faculty makes things like they are. The faculty are smarter than you are. I intentionally do not qualify that statement. They are all really. are. smarter. than. you. I do believe that they do things with careful consideration and with an overall plan. 

Being on diverse teams is a way to enrich your learning experience. That does not mean, however, that you will get a better grade, necessarily. I do believe that you will retain more. You will also work more for it.

Thankfully, I was with 2 very strong teams, IMO. So, we really didn't have much issue with proper incentivation.

The workload is ridiculous these 2 weeks. Homework, plus final projects, plus a  Risk final, which is still due, which I should start soon. maybe tomorrow.

My advice is to do the following:

Have the attitude that you are working on your Risk final from the beginning. That way, you will have a consistent voice and flow to your risk final project. Otherwise, you will have a very, very long 2 weeks. You all may thank me later.

Start the econ final early, when they give it to you. That is, after all, why they give it to you early.

Other than that... this is just... part of it. I am not upset or resentful in the least at the amount of work I went through to get to where I am now. The effort it takes to get through this program is part of the reason why this program is worth so much. Not everybody can do this.

For those of you facing this down after my AMP class.... good luck.


Friday, November 5, 2010

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

gChat statuses today of AMP cohort

Death by Lagrangian.
I need a vacation.
Can school kick me any harder.
Get the power.
[name redacted] 1, Econ 0
Stomp, Clap, Stomp Stomp, Clap.


And some of these were edited for polite company.