A note on the (New) Attention Wiki

If you still follow me you know that a while ago I talked here about one of my research projects (Attention Wiki) [Link to that Post]. I recently found out that Mohammad Keyhani (Attention Wiki’s Co-founder) has deleted my account and changed my role from co-founder to contributor in early stages…

[The rest of this post is transfered here.]

Applications Roundup

Two more rejection letters today. From UCLA and University of Minnesota. Painful! Minnesota and UCLA were both very desired schools. This decreases my chances of being admitted even more.

To give you an update, so far I am rejected from these Business Schools (all PhD programs):

1. London Business School in Londo, UK.
2. INSEAD in France.
3. Texas A&M in College park, Texas
4. University of Souther Florida in Tampa, Florid.
5. University of Washington in Seattle, Washington
6. UCLA in Los Angeles, California.
7. University of Minnesota in Twin cities, Minnesota

Keeping fingers crossed? well, No! simply keeping my hopes high and working on Plan B.

This weblog is not completely abandoned!

It’s the end of Persian year of 1386 and it’s time for the traditional house-cleaning for Nowruz. House cleaning (In Farsi Khane-Tekani) involves cleaning the house and also closing all the open loops in ones life; finishing unfinished projects and doing things left undone, Hence I am writing this post at the end of which I’ll present a purpose and plan for this blog.

But before I get to that for let me update you on what happened in the recent episode of my life so you know where I’m standing and why I want to end this blog as it is and re-open it as the new form that I intend:

If you know me personally you probably know that I was applying for a number of PhD programs. You may also know that I have been  rejected from some of my most desired schools. Applications was a sad experience for me as I found out that many of my most beloved scientists had very recently passed away (like Erin Anderson and Anatol Rapaport and please don’t ask for the complete list as I can’t get through it).

Recieving rejections from these schools was certainly a happy ending for this happy process.  Paying an application fee of, often, 150$ and then wishfully waiting for a positive answer and then receiving a  nice letter that tells you “you’re not actually that good” is probably the worst kind of torture.  A kind of torture that, by the way, I am currently going through.

All of this -as good as it may sound- made me realize important things about my life and what I want to do with it. If you like the term, I had an epiphany in the middle of all the fun. A lot of this comes from a friend of mine who got accepted to a program and started to act totally different as if he’s more important or more human than I am. He changed behavior! Not saying hello and not saying goodbyes. It was interesting since we did many research projects together and also shared many of the schools we applied to.

The epiphany was not, niether not-to-be-arrogant nor be-happy-regardless-of-what-happens. These were obvious. What I found out was out whole system of social advancement is based upon rules that have nothing with the personality advancement of individuals. In other words you need not be a good person or and understanding one in order to get to high places, be it presidency; be it  a PhD program. Hitler and my old friend are compelling evidence on this.

This observation made me decide to change my attitude towards life and take development of personality as seriously as professional and academic life ( a fading dream these days), never to change into either Hitler or my old friend.

What did all this have to do with my house-cleaning? well nothing actually. Please bare that as a part of my bloggery-narcissistic personality type. And I also had to take all of that pain off my chest.

About the blog, I think you (the 5 or 6 people who visit this humble corner of the blogsphere) should decide. After all you are the customer and as the only (and only)  teaching of marketing says you are right, whatever that may mean.

I think it would be appropriate if I present to you an insider view of Iran. True enough to give you a better perspective, and careful enough not get me killed or sent to Evin prison. I will also talk about my Academic interests and try to present a background talk on what I am doing in that area (as I have no other place to say those things).

Hope that works out for everyone…

Teaching Graduates

A few days ago, I had my first experience teaching a class of graduate students. It was a turning point in my life in the way that I thought ” this is what I enjoy to do”. I am not sure for how long I will enjoy it but, the experience was so wonderful and the feedback so strong that I felt the impact on my personality almost immediately. Teaching has always been a boring exercise to me. Before this I had taught English as a second language and many undergraduate courses, but working with graduates is a differenet, fulfilling and wonderful experience.

… So I will be a teacher!

New Cat: Miss Gilberth

There are four cats in the faculty of management that I know of. This one is my favorite.

She usually comes to me when I call her and is always very friendly – a very rare phenomena with cats- . I wanted to name a cat after a management guru ever since I’ve read a book about “artificial intelligence” where every example was about a cat named “Minsky” which refers to “Marvin Minsky” who is one of the founding fathers of Artificial Intelligence. It was very cool because the examples in the book would go like:

Minsky is a cat; therefore Minsky has four legs.

The logic would go like this:

If Cat(Minsky)=true Then put Legs(Minsky)=4

I don’t know about you but I find that amusing. Yes! that’s how geeky I am sometimes.

I really wanted to name it “Mintzberg” but -and accidentally not that I touched anything- found out it was not a “He”. Plus, Henry Mintzberg teaches at McGill and I’m applying to McGill and things could get very very ugly.

So, I had only two options left. Mary Parker Follett and Lillian Gilbreth. I am very fond of Follet. I have a complete set of her works in my library and actually feel some sympathy for her since she was never appreciated when she was alive. Her Ideas are 16 generations ahead of her time (now we are in generation eight.)

I decided to name her Mary Follet but for some reason she didn’t look like a Mary. I don’t know about you but I hear Mary; I go for Jesus. If Mr. Jesus hears I named a black cat the same as her mother he is going to be pissed and he is friendlier with God than I am. I even though of naming it God but it would create much confusion.

So, Say hello to “Lillian Moller Gilbert II”.

Gaming the Gas Shortage

There are a lot going on in the country. Gas stations are set in fire. Chain retail stores are being rubbed some worth of 6 million dollars. I try to forget that and search for new ways of gaming. Actually I am looking very desperately for an efficient software to manage my e-books collection yet no luck. This I found on the side. you can actually use your web cam to burst some bubbles. I am not really proud of what I’m doing here. Actually it’s very humiliating that the second largest oil reserve in the world is facing a gas shortage. what the hell, whatch some bubble bursting.

Google gives you about six million of games like this so I guess it’s been going on for a while. The concept is very innovative and makes me think that something like minority report isn’t really that far off. What’s the use though in Iran. A government can, very effectively, make a rich country poor.

P.S. I’ll update you guys on my life and who I am and all the other things so stay tuned. I don’t monitor web site traffic so I’ll Assume there are a lot of you guys. even millions. it’s good to be optimistic.