Kapeesh Saraf

My courses this quarter have introduced me to 2 beautiful ways of thinking about problems. The first, called design thinking bootcamp is all about applying “design thinking” to problem solving. Design thinking, or user centered design, is a process created and perfected by the design community at Stanford and IDEO, a legendary design consulting firm that started out of Stanford. The essence of design thinking is that all thought and actions must stem from the needs and insights learnt from one’s users. Throughout the quarter, I’ve been amazed at how much I have learnt by just interacting with users and having “empathy” for their needs. No class has ever thrown me out of my comfort zone as much as this class. The entire philosophy of “bias towards action”, “fast and cheap prototypes” and failing fast and often have often overwhelmed me, but have given me confidence in my ability to identify the real problems and use the process to solve the problem.

Decision analysis, on the other hand, is about making the best decision given whatever information one has available. The class is taught by Ron Howard, who invented the  field four decades ago. Some belittle it as a mere jargonization of logic. But people often don’t use logic in decision making and base decisions on emotion. By providing a formal structure and language to think about any decision or uncertainty one is faced with, DA gives one an opportunity to make a well reasoned decision rather than merely an instinctive one (instinct is good, but not every time).

While DA in the academic form is a probabilistic tool people study for use in strategic consulting, I am attracted to it for its applicability to everyday thinking. Internalizing a thought process in 8 weeks though, is daunting. And therein lies the test of the student.

Surfing around the web, or the blogosphere in particular, one is likely to find mixed opinion about Stanford University. For one year, I’ve been obsessed with the idea of living and studying there, so I’m more on the side of Stanford’s admirers than the cynics.

My Google Alert for Stanford threw up the following gem of a blog post today, written by a Stanford GSB student from an ethnic minority. I found it as insightful as it was touching. An excerpt,

“Because of this place, I will graduate with a changed mind, a changed perspective and a changed heart. I will take that into my workplace, into my relationships and into my community. Because of my fellow classmates and those who came to Stanford before us, I can change the world around me. I used to think the GSB motto, “Change Lives, Change Organizations, Change the World,” was lofty at best and unattainable at worst.

I was wrong. “

Read the whole text here.

If all goes as planned, then come September 2008, I will begin studies at Stanford University towards pursuing an MS Degree in Management Science & Engineering. Studying at Stanford and living in California and the Silicon Valley have been on my list of “Things to do before I die” for a few years. Naturally, I am quite excited and look forward to the experience.

Stanford is a great brand name and an education there (or any other place of repute) is an insurance policy of sorts. There is a tendency among students at prestigious schools – IITs, IIMs, Harvard, MIT & Stanford among others- to use the brand name as a crutch; using the institute brand and the fact that they made it through the punishing admissions routine as a substitute for real academic rigour and achievement. In only 2 weeks, I have myself been tempted to do this on a few occasions. This however owes itself mostly to the euphoria of making the cut. I hope I’m able to enhance my abilities and skill-sets at Stanford rather than turn into a cripple needing permanent support from a crutch.

I have also been worrying myself silly over the tremendous cost of a Stanford education without financial aid. The 2 years will be spent in near penury. I will soon be joining the ranks of the PIGS* -Poor Indian Graduate Students