OwenBloggers: Isaac - MBA '08

Switch. Part deux.

So yesterday in Strategic Management our discussion centered around a case reading on Apple Computers.  Given my recent conversion to the "light side" (several readers pointed out that M$FT in fact the dark side), i was ecstatic to share my recent conversion and how it changed the way i look at computers.

Sadly, many of my classmates came up to me after the class and wanted to explore my reasoning as to why i left the confines of the kingdom of Gates for the open fields of my new Jobsian paradise.  Most were exactly as misinformed as i once was; they mostly felt Microsoft was the only type of OS you could use in B-school, and that there were severe limitations to a Mac.  So how does a Mac work in the business world? 

1- Office.  Office is the premier productivity suite--- it is the gold standard.  Microsoft's biggest cash-cow has a Mac sibling, but it isn't nearly as robust as the Windows version, right?  That is oh so very incorrect.  The Mac version of Office is actually BETTER than the windows version.  Editing tools float around in one convenient box, and you can place them anywhere on the page to fit your liking.  The basic controls that are hidden by default in the Windows version are out in front on the Mac version.  Excel rocks.  Excel is sooo much better on Mac.  Formulas are easier to create (not that contrived formula lookup page) and because of the different screen layout you can see more of the workbook.  Even Powerpoint has a better interface. Oh, and did i mention Pages and Keynote (the Word and Powerpoint Mac packages) are about 100 times easier to use than the MSFT variants?  Last night i created a one-page layout with graphics and text that would have taken at least an hour in word; in Pages--- 10 minutes.  Keynote has features like "Export to Flash" or "Export to Powerpoint" that makes interoperability with any system a cinch.  You don't even need Powerpoint--- just send someone the flash version and it loads in their browser.  And just to dissuade any notions that Mac files don't work with PC's, that was true a few years ago, but today Mac handles and shares with PC's transparently. 

2- Outlook.  I haven't set up Parallels yet (to run windows on a Mac), but yes, Mac Mail is limited compared to Outlook.  This is the Achilles heel of Mac.  Owen has a webmail variant that is everything i need from exchange (calendar/mail/folders), but i still wish the Mac version included the scheduling components from Exchange.  If they could get Calendar and Mail working in concert with Exchange, that would remove any barrier to entry as i see it.

3- Everything else. Web browsing (same or better)... Document creation (much better), photos (no comparison),  interacting with Windows machines is a breeze, and all the little necessities of life are much improved (networking, chat, etc).

Overall, there are some Windows only programs that i wish were on Mac (Outlook mainly) but the lack of these applications is nothing compared to the benefits Mac brings in the simple things like stability and ease of use.  For all of you out there planning on attending Owen next year, the IBM laptop program is a great gig, but if i had it all to do over again... Macbook Pro.  No question.

My wife pointed out that just because i bought a Mac, I'm not automatically cool.  I tend to think i was never and will never be cool, but i do now understand that there is a better way...  I was blind, and now i see.

Switch.

Well, I never thought I'd see this day come.  I have officially renounced my Windows ways and joined the dark side.   Last night I picked up a 24" Apple iMac.  I've spent about 6 hours with it--- and I'm in love. I haven't had this much fun with a PC... well, ever, really. 

I bought my wife a MacBook this summer.  I toyed around with it and thought it was pretty neat, but I didn't see myself getting one.  I had a trust IBM laptop for B-school and a not-so-new but very powerful Gateway PC at home.  So why did I switch?

My desktop at home had been giving me fits.  I've reformatted three or four times, installed massive hard drives and a 2.8ghz CPU, and I've added enough ram now I've got about 2GB, but it still never really impressed me.  Win XP is, to me, just Win 98 with better graphics.  It crashes and hangs up all the time and I was just tired of it.

My first step was to download the Vista Beta.  I thought surely Vista would breathe new life into my struggling system and keep it afloat for another 18 months or so.  Before you download Vista you can run a Microsoft Analyzer that basically sees how "prepared" your PC is for it's new OS.  So, being the good boy, I downloaded it and ran the test.  It came back and told me my system was a "1" on a scale from "1" to "5", with "5" being the best.  1... 1????  what!!! you've got to be joking.  It's almost as powerful as a PC as you can buy today, and M$FT is telling me it can barely even run the shell???  I was livid.

So I'm pretty peeved, but I figured, heck, I bet M$FT is just being cautious.  I went ahead with the Vista install.  Long story short, Vista sucks.  I mean, it's a "better looking" XP and has some new features, but it is unbelievably complex and confusing.  I spent about 30 minutes with it and decided Microsoft has given birth to the most bloated OS in history.  It took about 10 minutes just to configure my wireless network. I received error messages every time I tried to do something, menu transitions took forever, and I felt like the whole process was about 10 times as complex as it needed to be.  That was it.  No more Microsoft for me. 

I picked up a 24" iMac and brought it home.  After carefully chucking my PC in the closet, I set up the iMac.  By set up, I mean I plugged in the POWER, the MOUSE, and the KEYBOARD.  that's it folks... 3 cords.  3. 

Power on? check.  Booting up... holy cow.  Gorgeous.  The "setup" screens that ask you your language and such are more visually appealing than the whole Vista OS.  I'm impressed. 

So 5 minutes after plugging the last cord in I'm presented with what must be the most stunning desktop background ever.  I stare at the background... how many times have you done that on your PC?  I was mesmerized.  Ok, now what?  um... set up the network?  nope--- it found my network and it's already on it.  Woah.

Ok, let's install my printer.  Wait... it is installed.  Huh.  No drivers?  No "FOUND NEW HARDWARE" wizard?  nope.  it just works.  Ok, so I've got a printer going, I'm on the Internet, and I'm customizing the system in less than 10 minutes... My Windows Vista box would have still been booting up.  And... holy hell it's fast.  I mean sometimes I think the mouse is picking up electrical impulses from my brain before I even move the mouse.

Folks, I could drone on and on about the experience for hours, but here's what I'll leave you with. 

I'm sorry. I'm sorry for all the times I snickered when my colleagues (and my wife) wanted a Mac.  I was the fool--- Windows is a dead OS.  It is so bloated and difficult I shudder at having to use it on my Laptop.  I'm sorry I didn't do this sooner.  This is how your computer is supposed to work, and Windows is looking more and more like the platform of yesterday.

Dinner: a required part of the MBA learning experience

So I always knew your education extends outside the classroom, but I never stopped to think how far it would go.

So I grew up in middle America, small town, public high-school, the whole nine yards.  Growing up I new maybe a dozen people who weren't your corn-bread, apple pie white people types.  My family was very progressive and always fostered experiences that put me outside my "cultural comfort zone", but being around people from different backgrounds was still an uncommon event.  

As I got older and moved off to college, my world opened up to different cultures; I now knew and interacted with individuals from all over the globe, but these people were mere acquaintances, not really close friends.  You learn about these different cultures, but you don't really get to know the people and how their backgrounds shape who they are and how they approach life. 

Fast forward to business school and now the tables have turned. I'm immersed in other cultures, Asian, European, Indian, Latin.  Everywhere I go, every group I'm in, I get to spend tremendous amounts of time with people whose lives have been so different from mine a times it seems we're from different planets.  You learn so much seeing how others approach problems, how they phrase answers, how they resolve conflicts.  You begin to realize that you've viewed life through this cultural lens, and, lo and behold, there are better ways of looking at things.  There are better ways at approaching problems.  For those of us who can see these differences and learn from them, you start to realize there's a lot more out there that you just don't know. 

What brought this all into perspective for me was a dinner we had at my house last weekend. My wife and I had over 4 of our closest friends; we ate, we told stories, we had a great time.  About halfway through the night I'm sitting there and I realize in our group of 6 we have 4 different nationalities and several different religions.  Yet, we're sitting around a table that must look like something from a UN meeting, and we're talking about the same issues, laughing at the same jokes. I had more in common with these 6 people than I have in common with friends of mine from back home.  You realize for all our differences, we're basically the same people, but, we have so much to learn from each other.  

The first book we all read for Owen was "The world is Flat" by Thomas Friedman.  Yes, Thomas, it is very, very, flat, and through it's flattening you can now see that what you thought you knew before is but a sliver of the world we live in now. 

Psst... Check out the new kid...

OwenBloggers recently introduced a new writer, Serdar, to the Owenbloggers family.  Serdar is an admitted Owen applicant and he'll be joining the class of 2009 in the fall of this coming year. 

Check out Serdar's page, and leave him a comment welcoming him to the team!

Question of the week: Reader Supported

Our Editor-In-Chief, Sam, asked his readers to pose some questions about Owen, and he'd respond to them.  I'm also going to answer these questions from my point of view.  If anyone has other questions they'd like to ask, email them to Owenbloggers@gmail.com, or leave them in the COMMENTS section below each post and they'll be answered within 24 hours.

· Can an Owen student survive without a car?

Yes.  Absolutely.  Many students, something along the lines of 20%, don't have a car at Owen (or, don't need one).  Vanderbilt located basically downtown Nashville, a city of about 1.5 million people.  First, there are abundant housing options around campus, and all of them are tailored to student living.  Second, there are dozens of grocery stores and retailers within just a few miles; Green Hills Mall (very trendy) is just 5 minutes away.  Even if you don't have a car, a fellow student could take you there when you're in desperate need of a shoehorn or plunger or something.  Third, Nashville has a pretty descent public transportation system and taxis are everywhere... I personally bought a house about 15 minutes outside town, so I couldn't survive without a car, but I know many people who do.

· Is it realistic to find reasonably-priced housing within walking distance to Owen?

You bet.  I was an undergrad at Vanderbilt some years ago (making me officially a "double-dore"), and so I've got a pretty good idea of the off campus accommodations.  You can find anything from around $500/month on up to $3000/month; this is a metropolitan area, so prices aren't rock bottom, but you can find housing at about any price point.  Finding a walking-distance apartment is no problem at all.

· Have you ever seen a professor do a keg stand at the Thursday night shindigs?

No.  But I would definitely pay to see a professor perform said act. 

5 things no-one knows about Owen

I've spent the last few days trying to think of 5 things no-one knows about Owen. Coming up with a list of things people don't know is harder than it seems, but I think I've found a few interesting points.

 

1. As far as B-schools go, Owen is considered smaller than average in terms of class size.  Even though we're don't have a massive student body, I'm still getting to know people in my own class, and only know about half the 2nd years.  Life is so busy and your class times are so randomly scattered throughout the day that you never get the chance to meet "everyone"; we're never all in one place at the same time.  It's still intriguing to show up to the first day of class and see new faces.  Keeps things interesting. 
2. The 8:10 cafe is a lifesaver, and although it doesn't have a menu like the Law School cafe, I'll take it over the competition next door any day for one reason--- taxes.  The geniuses next door don't add in taxes to the prices so you have to sit there and manually calculate the full price--- that blows my fragile little mind.  That's what's nice about 8:10; even though the prices are higher, it's all about convenience.  No business school cafe could ever allow such a customer service oversight, but did I really expect attorneys to make anything easy? 
3. Up until this MOD I spent a good portion of my life chasing down a parking spot that was close enough to Owen that I didn't have to worry about packing for the hike; sometimes it felt like I needed to bring 2 liters of water,  some sort of fire-starting device, a mirror for signaling, and of course, a letter to my friends and family that I could leave behind detailing my route and supplies in case I got lost. Then the gods of MOD III showed up and gave me all 8AM classes; result?  Parking is a cinch.  Show up before 7:45, and you can pretty much park within 100 yards of Owen.  If nothing else, having early classes is worth the time and frustration I save hunting down a parking space.  Sometimes I do miss the thrill of the hunt though; I was a parking-lot predator, like something out of the African plains- like a lion patiently stalking it's prey: a young gazelle separated from the herd.   
4. Dean Bradford is a great amateur photographer.    check out www.deanbradford.com; some of his shots are very nicely done.
5. Walker Library is great and all, but around finals, it's a joke trying to get a study room anywhere,  It's easier to get Rolling Stones tickets than a room reservation.  So my secret?  The rest of Vanderbilt campus.  There are dozens of lecture halls and study rooms that go 90% unused during our finals; they're quiet, comfy, and getting outside Owen helps me focus more on studying.  I'm not going to give up my cherished secret spots, but there are plenty out there if you look carefully.

What it smells like when rubber hits the road...

The burnt rubber smell all us 1st years are catching a whiff of is our learning experience shifting into gear and pulling onto the track for the first time.  There is a dramatic shift between 2nd and 3rd MODS as far as the curriculum goes; we're leaving the world dominated by books and classpacks and moving into a whole new environment.  In both my marketing classes (product/brand and qualitative research), we have local companies coming into the classroom and presenting a real-life business problem; student teams are then tasked with not only coming up with a solution, but actually presenting that solution back to the company for possible implementation.  I thought I'd have maybe 2-3 experiences like this over the two years of B-school, but now I'm facing 4 such projects in the next few weeks.  We'll see if I've actually learned anything... I'm excited and nervous at the same time.  Can I take the frameworks and tools and actually use them when I counts?  We'll soon see.

The Stress-O-Meter

One of the first things I always asked 2nd years or Alumni was "how bad does it get" or, in other words, what will my first 2 MODS look like?  Will it get harder, then easier?  Will MOD I be more work than MOD II?  Is there ever a break?  I'd heard horror stories about the workload and time commitments (they were 95% true), but I never had someone sit me down and walk me through the first 2 MODS. 

So I decided to make a cheat-sheet for all of you that are interested.  This graph attempts to depict what it's going to be like, at least from my perspective.  My colleagues will argue and want to redraw the thing; let them--- this is purely from my vantage point.  I can only hope MOD III and beyond are more linear and homoscedastic, but we'll see...

MOD III Begins

First day back at Owen; such a different feeling coming back for the first day of MOD III than it was to start the first day of class just 6 months ago.  The anxiety and uncertainty are all gone... it all feels so easy now.  Not to say it will be "easy"; I just walked out of Cooil's business forecasting class and it appears we covered all of MOD I stats in about 45 minutes; if we move this quickly for the rest of the time I'll quickly be overwhelmed.

Marketing camp was one of the best experiences I've had so far.  I was reluctant about coming back 3 days early for the sessions, but in hindsight I would have come back a week early.  The mock interviews Friday really capped off the experience; I think my interviewing skills increased 50% just through 2 one-hour sessions.  If you're planning on coming to Owen in the next few years, do yourself a favor and plan on attending Marketing camp; you'll be glad you did.

We've been receiving a lot of emails from Round-1 admitted students; I was a Round-1 admit and I can barely remember what it was like back then--- my whole world has changed in the last year.  It would be fun to go back and do it all over again, but the thought of MOD II finals is a memory I'm trying desperately to expunge from my memory bank.  I ended up doing (better than I ever expected) in all my classes but I'd resolved myself to either retaking a class or failing out of school entirely.  Luckily, neither occurred. 

Back in the real world

Well, I've been out for about a month now and there are some things I've learned.

1.  Internet is not a want it's a need.  At my parents house, they don't have highspeed Internet.  I felt cut off from the world, I felt I could barely communicate. I now know what life was like back in the 1950's.  It's scary how much I depend on my PC.

2.  I have learned more in 6 months than I learned in 4 years of college.  I look at the world a little differently than I did just a few months ago.

3.  Family is important; at B-school, it's often a single-minded focus on careers and education and success.  Being able to spend time with friends and family is worth a lot more than that raise or end-of-year bonus for spending more time at the office.  I hope I never lose sight of that.

Enough rambling; off to Marketing camp...  John Hamilton has put on a hell of a program this year, I'll fill you all in later.  For those coming to Owen next year, even if you don't concentrate in Marketing, DO NOT MISS THIS EVENT.