Bittersweet Goodbyes

Goodbyes are never easy. Especially not when you're doing it over multiple days. And now, on my last night in Cambridge, MA, I'm sitting here reflecting on it all. Definitively sad, but not remorseful of the decision I've made.

After a lot of thought, reflection, and discussions, I've decided to take a leave of absence from MIT Sloan. Making this decision definitely ranks up there in terms of difficult decisions I've had to make. While it was a tough dilemma, I was fortunate that the two paths I had to choose from were both excellent options.

I feel blessed to have had the chance these past few days to spend time with friends new and old. To have gotten a glimpse of what life as a second year Sloanie would've been like. And especially to be reminded of how amazing a group of people my classmates are.

What I'll miss most are the 25-50 pick-up basketball games I would've played at the Z-center, the dozen or more c-functions, mingling in e51's lobby, burgers at Miracle of Science, nights at the BHP, and random meals and outings. What I'll miss most are the people.

Year 1: Done!

It's amazing how different life can feel depending on your environment, objectives, and circumstances. I just wrapped up my first year of business school. Nine very fulfilling months that went by in a flash.

It's been such a whirlwind that I couldn't remember my initial impressions and expectations. (Fortunately, I can just go back and read old blog entires.) I'm happy to say that—though it took me a while—i have figured out where i want to concentrate my energy in the year i have remaining.

Before i reflect on my second semester, there are a couple recent events i want to mention:

Sloan Follies
The annual Sloan Follies (held last Thursday) was a ton of fun. I was really surprised and impressed at the quality of the production the organizers put on, and also the many talents of my classmates. Some videos should be up on YouTube now or shortly (will hopefully come back and insert links later).

Entrepreneurship & Innovation Year-End Reception
I'm really happy that Abhinav, Sandy and I got to plan a year-end reception and send off for the inaugural E&I class. It was a bit last-minute and stressful, but well worth it. While listening to some of the graduating students speak about their own startups that they're working on after school, i suddenly realized a big reason i'm happy to be at Sloan and a part of E&I. Many of my classmates plan to go out and change the world—whether in clean energy, social entrepreneurship, helping developing nations, or in tech entrepreneurship—all of which is really quite inspiring. Some are going for it right away with their own startups, but i'm sure many others will eventually have large impacts on people's lives.

Sloan Olympics
The Sloan Olympics were a lot of fun and a great chance to re-bond with my fellow Pacificans. Dan Morash, Steve Rullison, Lauren Hunt, and i won the medley relay (despite having me on the team). There were also a lot of fun field events to watch and participate in. The BBQ afterward wasn't bad either.

AdMIT Weekend (Round 2)
I didn't get to help out with the Round 1 AdMIT weekend so was happy i got a chance to lend a hand the second time round. It was bizarre to think how i was in the shoes of the admits just a year ago. I really enjoyed seeing the energy and enthusiasm, and especially enjoyed observing people who arrived uncertain about which school to choose, leaving convinced and committed to attending Sloan. The awesome Southeast Asian C-Function and Net Impact house party featuring the Rolling Sloans probably didn't hurt.


Onward to a brief semester recap and reflection:

Classes
I realize i never touched on the classes i took this semester. They were:

• 15.012 - Macro and International Economics (H1)
• 15.025 - Game Theory
• 15.351 - Managing Innovation & Entrepreneurship
• 15.390 - New Enterprises
• 15.847 - Consumer Behavior (H2)
• 15.900 - Strategic Management
  

My favorite class of the semester was by far Game Theory. Prof. McAdams was an excellent teacher and was fully committed in his delivery and presentation (leading on occasion to him being slightly melodramatic, which was still appreciated).

Macro/Int'l Econ was useful for gaining a better understanding of monetary and fiscal policy, as well as efforts in international aid to developing countries and the many challenges involved there.

Prof. Frederick was extremely enthusiastic while teaching Consumer Behavior, and it was interesting learning more about the irrationality of consumers and how some of the simplest variations can affect the way people perceive things.

My other three classes—Managing I&E, New Enterprises, and Strategic Management—gave me practice in analyzing industries and companies (with emphasis on my interest in tech), both big and small, and gave me a solid foundation to approach strategic decision making.

Sloanies
I'm happy that in the past four months, i've gotten to know many of my classmates better. A sizable chunk of my class will be in the Bay Area this summer, so i look forward to some summer Sloanie fun. And i look forward to our 2nd year together, though it's sad that the 2nd years (class of '08) are graduating and we won't be seeing them around regularly.

Now i just need to wrap up some loose ends and pack/move before i jet off to Cali and start my summer internship at FriendFeed!

Facebook chat first impression

I had heard about Facebook launching a chat feature but didn't realize it was coming out already. While I've barely begun to use it, I thought I'd note down a few impressions.

The design is decently clean and having pop-up Notifications seems like a great idea (though I haven't seen it in action yet). FB copied Google Talk's simple and no-maintenance buddy list. (Though I was just thinking last night how I want more influence over the order of my contacts on Gtalk—at least a way to label people with a priority tag to sort on).

Right now I don't appreciate FB chat's omnipresence. It feels like a mini-Windows Taskbar, which compresses my already limited screen real-estate on my 12" X61. It'd be nice if I could minimize it without signing-off or popping-out the chat window. Even while minimized, I feel like it sticks out too much. It'd be nice to have it in a fixed place that doesn't interrupt the flow of the page while offline.

By nature, chatting is far more intrusive than emails or wall posts (expectations of immediate vs delayed response times), and I'd like to have control over which of my FB contacts can IM me. This could be a big issue considering the small marginal benefits of having access to certain people you might not already have on your other IM programs compared to the downsides. An invisibility or block feature would solve this.

I also wonder how this will play out with my classmates. It could be greatly beneficial since I still don't have the emails/screennames/phone #s of all the classmates I talk to regularly.

Perhaps there would also be the unintended benefit of having someone monitor how much time you spend on FB—"Stop wasting time on Facebook and send me your part of the assignment!"

Brett Favre—riding off into the sunset

I just finished watching Brett Favre's Retirement Press Conference at Packers.com. Before watching it I was quite depressed and hadn't made peace with the fact that Brett announced his retirement, but after watching I was able to find some level of closure.

Brett mentioned a few times how he doesn't like speaking in front of people and isn't a very vocal person. In spite of this, he was very well-spoken and has the rare ability to combine eloquence with his casual and down-to-earth attitude. There are so many things he said in the press conference that I'd love to quote, so many stories about the tragedies Brett's faced and the strength he's shown in persevering despite them I'd love to share. But I will share just one thing I respect so much about him and that's his character. I am in complete admiration of his honesty, humility and ability to accept and handle the circumstances of life. In so many ways and to so many people, he has been a real life hero—someone who's made the world around him a better place. So while I'm sad that I'll never have the chance to watch him play live, won't be able to have him on my Madden '09 team, and that he won't be leading the Packers to a Superbowl win next year, he seems to have thought this through more thoroughly than any of us possibly could. And he's decided that this is the right path for him—so how can anyone argue?

The video is long (66:46), but for a Packers fan, every moment was golden. And as the video drew to a close I found myself feeling the same feelings of sadness, and for the same reason. Knowing that the opportunity to watch the energy and genuineness of Brett Favre was coming to an end.

Events around February 28, 2008

So i found out yesterday that i share a birthday with Paul Krugman. The slight relevance beyond birth date is that I've been hearing about him a bit in my macro econ class, he obtained his PhD at MIT and used to teach here, and my buddy Chris has shared some of his columns with me from time to time at NYTimes.com.

A nice birthday treat was getting to hear Clay Christensen speak. He's an HBS professor, and author of The Innovator's Dilemma, which I read just last year (and loved). In particular, he had a very interesting segment talking about a way to look at products. For the product, what job is it that I'm hiring it to do? That can help drive your decisions and get to the root of what consumers really are looking for.

On Wednesday I went to a session where I got to hear Tim Westergren speak. Tim is the founder of Pandora and is currently its Chief Strategy Officer. He had a great story to tell about his experiences (and big challenges) and what led him to make Pandora. I just signed up at Pandora and it's come a long way and looks and feels completely different than the early version I tried back in 2005.


Being tired from lots of traveling and readjusting to school, as well as having been fighting off a cold for the past week, I didn't really want to do anything for my b-day. But a couple good friends caught wind of this and so I ended up going out to a low-key dinner and then drinks afterward. It was about all the energy I had since I woke up this morning feeling a bit more sick. Alas, I had a good time, and hopefully I can be fully recovered by the end of the weekend. Many thanks to all who found their way out last night to spend time with me on my b-day, and to those (all over the world) who remembered and offered warm b-day wishes! :D

On being the FriendFeed intern

I'm not one to be very star-struck by celebrities, but when I first started interning at FriendFeed I definitely felt in awe of the people I was around. For a bit of context, back when Google Search first came out, I was certainly impressed—search that really works! But it wasn't until I started using Gmail in 2004 that I really became a fan of Google. It was the most innovative piece of consumer software that I had ever encountered. The release of Google Maps in '05 reinforced my love for Google products.

And there I was, as a FriendFeed intern, sitting amongst the people that made these products happen:

• Paul Buchheit created Gmail, Sanjeev Singh joined him in developing it, and Kevin Fox designed the UI. Ana Yang did marketing for Gmail (which I later realized was the reason speaking with her seemed so familiar, as I had read all the Gmail marketing material thoroughly...).


• Bret Taylor and Jim Norris launched Google Maps, where Bret was the product manager (and also did development work), and Jim a software engineer.

Needless to say, it was very inspiring to work with such a high-caliber team. I learned so much simply from observing and discussing approaches to product improvements and features with the team. With my interests in product management and user experience, I was particularly thankful to have a chance to learn from Bret and Kevin.

I naturally expected the team to be comprised of very smart individuals, but was pleasantly surprised to find that they were also incredibly well-rounded and fun individuals. On top of it all, they were very down-to-earth and friendly. It felt like being a part of a second family.

I missed them so much that a week after returning to school I flew back to California and joined them in Lake Tahoe for the first annual FriendFeed ski trip.

As impressive as what they've done in a few short months may be, I'm sure the best is yet to come. And, they're officially launching! So go check out FriendFeed before all the good user nicknames are taken. ;)

How I spent the rest of my winter vacation

Having been very busy with an unimaginably wide-range of things the past few weeks, I haven't yet written about how I spent a large chunk of my first real winter break in four years (taking vacation days while working isn't really a "winter break").

One of the great things about being a student at MIT is IAP (Independent Activities Period) during January, which"has provided members of the MIT community with a unique opportunity to organize, sponsor and participate in a wide variety of activities, including how-to sessions, forums, athletic endeavors, lecture series, films, tours, recitals and contests." Alternatively, it offers students an opportunity to take an extended winter break to travel, prepare and interview for summer internships, or partake in a month-long intern/externship.

With my interest in either starting or joining a high tech startup in the near future, I thought IAP would be a great time to spend a few weeks and get experience working at a startup. In thinking about what kind of startup to choose, I followed my belief that the most important thing about a startup is a great team (yes there are successful entrepreneurial efforts from great product ideas or just great luck, but if I had to place bets, I'd go with a great team).

I asked my good friend Jini for any recommendations she may have for startups with great teams and she responded by telling me about a startup whose four co-founders are the ex-Googlers who were responsible for creating Gmail and Google Maps—which are, in my opinion, hands down the most innovative and useful products to have been home-grown at Google, aside from Search. Jini made an introduction for me to one of the co-founders, Paul. Paul was employee #23 at Google and was responsible for Gmail, Google's famous "Don't be evil" motto, and the first AdSense prototype. Fortunately he and the rest of the co-founders agreed to let me in their doors, and in my next post I'll talk about the extremely good fortune I had of interning at a young startup called FriendFeed.

Aside from the internship, I also was in Vegas for a weekend with classmates, flew on five consecutive weekends, with the past four weekends being trips between Boston and San Francisco (both ways the past two weekends, so six coast-to-coast flights in total) for interviews. The last of which is this Monday (and finally a non-redeye from SF to Boston!). All in all, this has resulted in me being quite confused as to which coast and time-zone I'm on.