Le Commencement

A new approach - brevity.

I switched books - gone is the pompous victorian narrator and enter the intense brooding underclass narrator (i just read White Tiger - a sort of Invisible Man for the Indian underclass) ... not really though.

The first week of Ms. Duncan's program had a not too dissimilar appearance to Peace Corps staging/stage (that last word is correctly pronounced with a french accent - staahhje - training for those non-rpcvs) - lots of flip charts and icebreakers or if not actual flip charts and icebreakers than flip chart icebreaker-esque activities. The most notable perhaps being a game in which a group is supposed to pretend that they have crashed in the artic and they only have time to remove a few items from the helicopter before it sinks. First, people rank the items in order of importance on their own and then they rank them as a group - its supposed to show that you gain by group work. Your money back if you can guess the first item on the list.*

Apparently this is a common businessy activity - for a take on a similar activity conducted at GM that reveals a lot about why they have recently become officially America's largest company (note the ownership apostrophe - and pronounce apostrophe with a french accent if you want to be particularly snotty - as I do) see here.

Another common business activity - teamwork. During the first day, the class was split up into 8 different groups - groups that will doggedly persist throughout the summer semester. Ms. Duncan joined group 8, AKA El Giochos**

Another common business activity - watching Dead Poets Society (as I recall the movie was good but imagine how interesting it would have been if it had been Dead Poet's Society - a sort of melange of zombies the fantastic four - but in verse!). Apparently, the movie is filled with various leadership styles that serve as a useful guiding point for discussion. Also on tap was some war movie that I forget the name of for the moment - as soon as I remember it, i'll edit the post and we'll pretend this memory lapse never happened.

Yet another common business activity - wall climbing and walking around blind folded. The third day took place on an island in the bay that has been appropriated for business bonding purposes. Some of the activities involve being led around by a partner blindfolded (apparently somewhat interminably or so a little birdy tells me) and the climbing of objects (presumably sans blindfold).

Little will be said of the blindfold (as little was seen) but as for the climbing, a petit digression is called for.

Yours truly is a big fan of climbing of objects and if I may brag a little there is a virtually uncountable list of objects that I have had the honor of mounting (mounds, hills, mountains, couches, chairs, countertops, shoulders, diving boards, stairs, elephants, walls, etc.). But Ms. Duncan is entirely unimpressed by such feats of vertical ascension. Now some people might take this as a metaphor - an example if you will that shows that Ms. Duncan is somewhat deficient in the finer points of ambition - i.e. she has no drive to get to the top so to speak. But this would be digging to deep to use another metrically measureable metaphor. I assure you, she is incredibly ambitious - as judged by her entering this program - she just cares little for physically being on top of objects, in particular tall objects. Again, this has nothing to do with any phobias - in fact, as long as I've known her I cannot recall any signs of any clear phobias*** - she is not scared of being on top of objects, rather she is completely indifferent and tall objects require even more time in the mounting, thus her indifference eventually manifests into disdain. Thus, when it came time for her to climb said businessy object with the encouragement of her peers Ms. Duncan went halfway up, declared herself satisfied with this accomplishment (this was almost certainly a lie - a little one, just to feign respect for an activity for which she cared not at all) and jumped off.**** Needless to say, her compatriots were somewhat confused by this behavior and Ms. Duncan did not deign to explain herself.

As for other activities, there was an introduction to case studies, several speakers, building of egg droppers (most passengers sadly did not make it) yada yada yada, and of course - for business schoolers are nothing if not vain - a professional photo shoot.

So much for the brevity.

Before we part dear reader*****, a note on businessy activities and gender for Ms. Duncan is nothing if not the most dedicated of feminists (or vain - see above). It is at least curious that the two movies that were shown had almost all male casts (an all boys school and the military) - to be fair they did show one speech by a female CEO (see - this is what women leaders are like!) - and that of the other prominent business activities, one involved physical activity (climbing of objects) and another involved camping knowledge (ranking of survival tools) and this is to say nothing of the multitude of sports metaphors utilized throughout the week. One wonders how the week would have gone if women ruled the roost.

All in all, an interesting, mostly useful if a little exhausting (8-5 days) introduction to the program.

More to come later on actual classes, living in Boston and the occurence of two days for the celebration of a personally important rotation of the earth around the sun.

*matches - duh. and since this website is free - you get nothing - wah ha ha

**taken from LGO and the hispanic 8 for those who don't want to take the time to think deeply about an existentially meaningless factoid ... one wonders if they call themselves the El Giochos, as in the the Giochos - similar to The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (the the angels angels of anaheim)

***although she still makes me kill all the insects (with apologies to Matt)

****she was attached by a rope to the top so don't get worried that she was injured in the jump

*****it appears that the pompous victorian novelist will persist for a little while