Coffee Mania
A flatmate who used to work at Starbucks introduced me to the world of coffee. It has since been a part of my daily schedule (I limit my consumption to two cups a day, and usually have green tea in the evening as substitute). Ethiopian blend is my favourite so far, and I plan to sample more beans from different areas by the end of the break.
Job Hunting
Continue tussling with the ‘gruelling and soul-destroying’ market to land a job in management/economic consulting. The track record so far is pretty depressing: lots of rejections, a couple of unsuccessful interviews. Recently received interview invitations from two top companies (Gosh! time to prove myself). I plan to post a detailed entry after the process is over. It’d be interesting to see how my application statistics evolves (it’s already pretty impressive now).
Body Rhythm and Productivity
There would probably be lots of activities and distractions during Christmas and New Year, thus provide my other-self with lots of excuses not to work (even my rational self would probably want to do something different as well). Knowing this, I figure I should use my time as best as possible now (ideally should do it always). With a few experiments, it seems like I’ve discovered my body rhythm and hence a more productive way to use my time. So far it has worked pretty well for me. I’ve reviewed econometric coursework and working on Macro now.
Here’s how a typical day looks like:
7:00 Wake up, study for an hour
8:30 Breakfast, coffee, check mail, RSS feeds
9:30 Continue studying coursework
12:00 Take a 30 minutes nap, lunch, and stretch
2:00 Work on maths, problem sets, or past exams
6:00 Dinner, online
8:00 Business reading, interview & case preparation
10:00 Extracurricular reading, miscellaneous impulses, reflections
1:00 Bedtime
*The schedule (especially the nap) tends to shift around a bit, depending on how I feel.
Extracurricular reading lists:
Knowledge and the Wealth of Nation—David Warsh
Unended Quest—Helmut Kohl & Karl Popper
Lateral Thinking—Edward de Bono
Inside The Economist’s Mind—Paul Samuelson & William Barnett
Exit, Voce, and Loyalty—Albert Hirschman
Life of Schopenhauer—William Wallace
The Philosophy of Schopenhauer—Dale Jacquette
Finished the first two, now reading the next three items, and hope I could finish the rest before school begins. For Schopenhauer, I mainly want to see his views on art and music.
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