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May 29, 2007

Do Schools Kill Creativity?

An excellent talk on the educational system and the need for creativity by Sir Ken Robinson.

By way of HorsePigCow.

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Posted at 3:46 AM
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May 28, 2007

Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3...

Just a post to see if I can post...

Looks like Blogger's having some technical difficulties.

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Posted at 1:10 PM
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May 24, 2007

Practicing Pith

So scholarship essays are more or less written.

There's a little bit more tweaking to be done, making sure that sentences flow, checking word choice and grammar. Submission happens sometime tonight.

I found I actually enjoyed writing the scholarship essays. There was initial dread - "You know, I really don't know why you should give me the award..." I addressed the dread with great procrastination. When I finally got into gear and started writing, though, reminders of why I chose to do the MBA and attend London Business School in the first place popped up. Things haven't been ideal in the past little bit and the essays gave me a chance to refocus and get excited about something again.

It's surprising to me, but I'm really looking forward to tackling the essay for the scholarship due next month. Never thought I'd look forward to writing. Weird. Regardless, the focus of the next essay is to write about a major challenge faced by an industry with which I have familiarity. There are so many interesting possibilities for Pharma that I really don't know where to begin.

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Posted at 1:34 PM
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May 19, 2007

Motivation

Trying to focus while working on these LBS scholarship essays has been difficult at best. It's a balmy 23ºC outside in Toronto and all the words in my head really want to do is go outside and sit on a patio with a cold beer.

The only thing keeping me in my seat right now is a single thought:

These one thousand words could be worth over $45 000.

...

Hasn't really stopped me from checking my e-mail, snacking and enjoying a beer inside though...

edit: One year's tuition is ~$45k not $90k. About half as much but still over $4500 per word. Nothing to turn your nose up at.

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Posted at 5:50 PM
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May 11, 2007

On the Radio this Morning

In contrast to what I think about Toronto proposing taxing residential garbage pickup, a 30¢ coffee cup tax doesn't make a lick of sense to me if the intent is to save the environment. If we're talking cash grab, then kudos, Toronto.

People are willing to pay upwards of $3 a day for a cup of coffee. Adding an extra 30¢ isn't going to make people rethink the convenience of a disposable cup.

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Posted at 12:51 PM
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May 06, 2007

Toronto LBS Meetup 3

Another strong showing on Friday night by Toronto London Business School admits.

Big thanks to the Crazy German for organizing and everyone else for getting out.

The Toronto admits are a great mix of personalities and diverse backgrounds. Someone commented (and I agree) that there are fewer finance admits in our group than would be expected. Most people around the table were from industry - nearly half of us were engineers. I wonder what the trend looks like with the rest of the Admits?

The Savoy turned out to be a reasonable choice. Truth be told though we were keeping the restaurant lively. Strange for a Friday night. My guess would be that the place attracts more of the theater crowd. Savoy is probably better as a secluded place for a more intimate dinner. Didn't matter to us though. My filet mignon was superb. Conversations flowed like the beer; There was a lot of information sharing and good natured ribbing. In reality, we're all still pretty much strangers to one another. Doesn't feel anything like it though - you'd think we were old friends if you heard any of our conversations. After a few hours at the restaurant, we had had our fill and decided to move elsewhere.

To shield ourselves from the pending disappointment of the Raptors, we decided to hide out at the Fifth. Our group didn't have enough members of the fairer sex to make it worthwhile for the club, which would have meant waiting for an hour. Luckily, the bouncer did happen to recognize our good friend Sir Robert Borden. With his street cred, we skipped the line. I had a pretty relaxed time there. Company was good, music was good, drinks (up until midnight) were good. We were all relatively tame but I can see potential for gong shows when we're out in London.

Those left of us at around 2 ended the night with a walk to Burrito Boyz. Arrival was quickly followed by the stark realization that we no longer have University metabolisms and after a night of drinking another 3000 calories weren't going to do anyone any good. We called it a night and went our separate ways. I'm looking forward to our next get together.

On a totally related note - If anyone in London Business School admissions is reading this, I'd really appreciate if we capped the number of MBA2009 students to between 318 to 324. There are pints for the Adcom if it helps push decisions in my favor in any way.

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Posted at 9:39 PM
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May 04, 2007

No Matter What Anyone Else Says...

Wincent <3 Spider-man

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Posted at 8:08 AM
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May 03, 2007

LBS Podcast

For all the business podcast subscribers out there, London Business School has its own podcast!

It's accessible at: http://www.london.edu/podcast/podcast.xml

The content provided so far is interesting, which is to be expected. The production value will probably go up as the school gets more comfortable with the format and the technology.

Do check it out.

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Posted at 2:08 PM
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May 01, 2007

Itinerary

Solid rest of the week coming up.

Wednesday - Dinner at Carnaval Brazilian Grill for work
Thursday - Watching Spider-man 3 (midnight showing - a tradition)
Friday - Hanging with LBS Toronto folks
Saturday - Dinner and drinks with friends

All I have to do now is get through some LBS scholarship essays tomorrow night...

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Posted at 6:58 AM
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