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.