Money

Just got a paycheck for the first time since February. Well, if you don't count unemployment benefits. Thank you Federal Government.

The big game is tomorrow. I admit I'm a bit nervous of a quick goal by the Algerians. It should be clear what Bradley's strongest lineup is (with Edu in the middle), so now we just have to execute.

I sat in on a Superintendent's cabinet meeting today. Only the superintendent was late on account of the Mexico-Uruguay soccer game. Does this mean I can watch the US-Algeria game with no consequences tomorrow? Regardless of what I'll do tomorrow, there's a leadership discussion that could happen around today's events.

Balsamic vinegar

I went to a dinner tonight where we had to make a dish that had balsamic vinegar in it. I made a cabbage something. Observations from the night...

Differences between SF and DC and other cities. Y0u can identify the cities by what their excesses are. NYC=money. DC=power. SF=creativity. I buy this categorization, but only to a certain extent. There are all types in all places. I did have a couple conversations tonight about what types of people fit where, and what's normal to those people. I've never really considered what effect my background (growing up in the deep south) had on me, but I'm sure it's had some effect on my perceptions of difference, and my judgments. For example, tonight I took notice of everyone's visual appearance. In Alabama, these people would not fit in (or at the very least be mainstream). Here, the weirdos and iconoclasts are more of the norm. I admit, I'm partially in awe of this diversity, but part of me thinks "are these my people?" It is cool, though, to consider the diversity of tonight's crowd: totally euro french guy with long hair who is starting an online platform for anyone who wants to create a virtual school, info database guy who I had a "conversation" with for an hour and literally didn't say a word, the host for the night who, after dinner, gave a dramatic reading of a William Wordsworth poem for everyone from his iPhone while standing on a chair, the blogger, the biochem PhD student, the Norwegian guy, etc. Then me. As interesting as these people are, I'll put my story up against any of theirs.

Other observations:

• Because I live in SF, apparently I need to get a quarter-length peacoat thing. It's what everyone wears.
• Everyone here seems to be "starting something." Its really remarkable how these people all have taken their (seemingly) original ideas and "started something." I can't tell how much of this is BS, though.
• Meeting people at a party, and then saying goodbye forever is an awkward position to be in. Tonight at the dinner, I liked a few of the people I talked to and could easily
• The database guy asked everyone who he met, "what are you passionate about?" But he asked it in a non-pretentious way. I liked that.

Mustache Town

San Francisco is a mustache town, indeed.

Here are some pictures of the Mexico-South Africa game (with Mexicans), the US-England game (with friends from Fuqua and new SF friends), and the Mexico-France game.

My fellowship thus far

I'm four days into my fellowship with Education Pioneers, and it's going well so far. On Monday we had our first of six workshops, where all 45 of the Bay Area fellows get together for a day full of training on education issues, guest speakers, and networking with each other.

By and large, my cohort is talented, driven, and are genuinely nice and interesting people. The cohort is intentionally diverse, and I can already tell that I'm going to learn a lot from those with education and policy backgrounds. The most obvious characteristic that distinguishes this group is a sense of mission. I applied to Ed Pioneers because I wanted to be part of something greater than myself. I had a notion that work would be more intrinsically satisfying if I believed in the merit of results. At CEB, I admittedly became disconnected from the mission of the organization. I worked hard because of high personal standards and because I respected my colleagues and didn't want to let them down, but I did not feel driven by a bigger purpose. At SFUSD this summer, I hope I will feel connected to a bigger purpose.

What I did not anticipate happening this summer was that the people around me (i.e. my cohort and coworkers) would be as supportive as they have been thus far. What I mean by that is that we're all working toward the same mission. Especially in business school, it is sometimes difficult to buck the trend and search for nonprofit/do-gooder internships. At Fuqua, I'm very lucky to be around people who at the very least respect my motivations to go into public service. This summer I believe I'll feel even more supported - to have a cohort of 45 people who "get it" is massively important, and makes it "ok" that I've chosen this path.

Side story: I remember talking to a University of Chicago (business school) alumni who had been in the Peace Corps. In the first week of school, he told one of his classmates of his Peace Corps past, and the classmate deadpanned, "why would you do Peace Corps? What's your return on investment?" Hard as it is to believe this story, I heard the exact same thing happened to another student considering Chicago. Needless to say, I'm very glad I didn't end up at Chicago.

Another side story: I was talking with a Harvard Business School graduate who works in the social sector, and he said that after graduation a lot of his HBS "friends" showed their true colors. Essentially, some became assholes. During school they played the game of being nice, but after graduation their true colors sprang forth. I believe that HBS is a bit more well-rounded that U of Chicago, but again - I'm glad I don't go there. Dealing with those types simply isn't worth my time.

I've been working at the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) for three days now. I ride by bike to work (about 8 minutes). It must be said - the weather here makes a difference. Basically I don't sweat when I walk outside. During lunch today I walked over to a square in front of City Hall (2 blocks away), where they had set up a jumbotron for the Mexico-France game. I stood out there for about an hour and didn't get hot at all. Perfect weather.

Anyway, my goal for the next week is to get up to speed. My title is "Performance Management Analyst" and my project is around using metrics/data to evaluate school performance. The goal is to give the Assistant Superintendents (who manage the principals) a dashboard of metrics that help them allocate resources to schools that need it. For example, if a school is lagging in their math scores, an Assistant Superintendent needs to (a) know that it's happening, and (b) react by (perhaps) sending a math coach to that school to help out. The bigger theory is called "inquiry based learning", where data informs plans, which informs actions, which informs more data. The process is iterative and keeps going and going. SFUSD is only beginning to use data to make decisions (vs. principals making gut decisions), but there's a decent amount of momentum to start building a data culture in the district.

The office I'm in is the SFUSD central office. 3-story building. Quiet. Probably about 100 people that work here. My boss has cautioned me to not expect things to happen too quickly here. At CEB, I was used to moving very quickly on projects, but things simply don't happen at that pace here. SFUSD is a very consensus-driven culture, and there is an unspoken rule that to make a change, you need to get everyone's buy-in. The other factor (as far as I can tell in my 3 days here) is that resources are very limited. For example, my project would not get done unless I was here to do it - nobody else has the bandwidth. The work-life balance is good here. People work hard, but they also leave the office before 6 (mostly). Everyone is kind - it feels like a family around here.

Links for today

Here's a video of Charlie Davies' workouts, and a cool article I read today.

Video of Charlie Davies' recovery

Bill Gates and Warren Buffet conspiring to get all billionaires to give away their money.

Thoughts on US - England

I'm waiting for the bus and thought i'd give my quick analysis.

First, Landon Donovan said today that if we don't win against Slovenia (or at the very leastw tie), then our World Cup is pretty much over. So, I assume yha Bradley willput forth our
strongest lineup instead of resting key guys.

From a "get to the next round" perspective, we should be satisfied with the England result, though a win would have been a monumental outcome. A win would have certainly been cited for years to come as a turning point in US soccer. Making it to the round of 8 is the only
other way we can signal that the US has turned the corner re: soccer
respectability.

It's difficult to say either team deserved the victory. Enland had more chances than the US, but not by much. Before the game, I was doubtful that findley's pace would justify his starting. He didnt play poorly, but I don't think he gave the us an advantage with his speed.

For Slovenia, I'd put Donovan in a withdrawn forward position (in place of findley), stu Holden in donovans place on the wing, and torres in place of Clark. One can argue that edu also deserves a shot in Clark's spot, but torres showed something special against Turkey and should be rewarded.

A couple more observations:
- no cards for Bradley or Clark. This is a really good sign, as both
of them have learned (it seems) to play within themselves.
- remember the days when the us couldn't muster any offense without
Donovan? It looks like those days are gone.

Love this place

Here's a rundown of my first few days in San Francisco.

Wednesday - My street (Valencia) is filled with coffee shops and bookstores, so I walked about 30 seconds from my apartment to get some breakfast at a cafe. A girl came up to me and asked if I knew of a supermarket in the area, which of course I didn't. We started talking and it turns out that she's one of the other 45 Education Pioneers in SF this summer, and her roommate is also. We started talking about bikes, I noted that I was looking for one, and she said the guy who sublet his apartment to her left four bikes, and I could take my pick. Just like that, I had a bike and a few new friends.

Later that day I went to a year-end meeting/celebration for SFUSD and talked to my new boss and another Pioneer who I'll be working with. He's a public policy student at Berkeley. The year-end celebration was more of a pep talk to get the administrators ready for the next year. California has had deep education budget cuts, and I sensed that morale is suffering (though the tone in the crowd was defiant and optimistic).

Spent the evening walking around the neighborhood and working on some COLE stuff for school.

Thursday - Woke up early to go to a mandatory school visit at a Coliseum College Prep Academy in Oakland (part of the small schools movement). I got a ride from another Ed Pioneer who is getting her PhD in education policy at Berkeley - another friend made. At the visit, 15 other Ed Pioneers and I met with the principal and some students. The other Pioneers are mostly from the Bay Area (Berkeley, Stanford students). They're generally younger than I am, but that's because there's a lot of public policy and law students in the program. The business school students are my age. Overall, the breakdown is: 30% b-school students, 25% policy students, 25% education students, and 15% law students.

My thoughts at the school visit were mainly around "do I fit better being in schools/closer to students, or should I be in the central office? What feels right?" This is going to be one of the big things for me to figure out this summer. My gut tells me that being closer to the classroom is where I need to be, but perhaps there's a middle ground.

My friend Jessie from Fuqua came up from Santa Cruz to stay the weekend. We went to a Fuqua alumni happy hour downtown. There's about 20 Fuquans in my class who are in the Bay Area this summer.

Friday - Woke up early to go see the Mexico-South Africa game. If I walk four blocks toward 24th street, I'm basically in Mexico. I had scouted out a bar to watch the game at, but it was too crowded - couldn't even get in the door. So I walked around the corner (following the crowd noise) to another bar. Jessie and I then went to another bar to watch the France - Uruguay game.

After a nap, I bought a new bike (I'm a sucker for new gear, but I wanted a fast bike that I can take around the city), rode around the city a bit, then later that night went to meet a new friend at a bar in Bernal Heights.

Saturday - Again, woke up early to watch soccer. Jessie and I walked a block to the Phoenix bar (Irish pub). We didn't have trouble getting a seat 2.5 hours before gametime, but it filled up quickly. We met up with a few people there (another friend from Fuqua and a group of guys I know through a friend of a friend). Afterward we went to a rooftop bar/restaurant, chilled, and then I napped.

Interpretation

I say all of this to point out that my life in SF thus far has been very unstructured, impromptu, and loose. Honestly, this makes me a bit uncomfortable. For the past 9 months at school, I've been moving very fast - always checking items off the to-do list, always planning, always running, always trying to "fit things into my schedule." In fact, this is the way that I've been for the past 5-6 years (probably longer). The b-school experience has been the most intense, though. Surprisingly, by working so hard in school, I've probably learned more about myself than I have learned about accounting, marketing, etc. I've learned how to manage my time and how to control stress (to a degree). Most of all, I've been forced to think about what I want my life to be like. Do I always want to be running 100 miles an hour? What effect will this have on my relationships? On my happiness? The fact that it makes me uncomfortable to be unscheduled - is this what I want to be like?

I feel like I'm beginning to answer these questions - confidently - for myself. Ironically, business school (and having to make tradeoffs between my personal vs. work lives) is what did it.

First thoughts on SF

I stepped out of SFO airport into a crisp evening and thought "THIS is why I came out here." A 15-minute Super Shuttle ride, and I was at my home for the next 3 months. I'll be living with a guy who works from home - nice guy from the Bay Area. I walked in and the place smelled like a taqueria. I thought, "this can't be happening - it even smells like Mexico/my favorite food." Turns out it was just the microwavable burrito that Mark had for dinner.

I'm living in a neighborhood called The Mission, and it's obvious to me that this is where I belong. The Mission (or from what I can tell after walking a few blocks tonight) is kind of like Adams Morgan in that it has a cool cultural vibe - within a couple blocks of me are indie bookstores, bike shops, taquerias, dive bars, foodie bars... you get the idea. Then there's the Mexico part. I thought that walking down Columbia in Adams Morgan was like stepping into El Salvador (and it kind of is), but walking down the street in the Mission is even more like a foreign country (Mexico, to be exact).

I haven't been as excited about a neighborhood in a long time - everything about this place fits with me. Here's what I had for dinner tonight. Many more tacos to come.

A piece of advice for all: if you're in an overbooked flight and they
offer vouchers to get bumped, RUN to the ticket counter. Any
indecision will cost you possibly 400 dollars, as it just cost me.
Lesson learned, but it stings like hell to miss out on that voucher.

I'm in the las Vegas airport en route to San Francisco, where I'll
spend the next three months. We flew over the grand canyon coming in,
and I'll be eating some tacos autenticos tonight in the Mission
District. Tomorrow I'm sitting in in the year end SFUSD (San fran
unified school district) principals meeting. I just read the SFUSD
strategic plan and am curious to see how all their goals play out in
practice. My goal or this summer is to see how the sausage is made in
public schools - a goal that I'll certainly accomplish.

Off to San fran.

Ultimate Frisbee for Execs

The more I study the topic of leadership, the more I am convinced that many of the problems we face today can be resolved by strong, ethical leadership. I disagree with Milton Friedman's assertion that the only responsibility of public companies is to maximize profits within the bounds of the law. While the market is ultimately the cleanest, best way to allocate resources, it must be tempered by ethical considerations.

One way to encourage ethical leadership - make them all play frisbee! Here's an article from the Christian Science Monitor that proposes just that. Highlights:

BP's ruptured oil well. Goldman Sachs's financial risk-taking. Massey's mine explosion. With each new corporate calamity, we call for stronger government intervention.

But that's like seeing a basketball player throw a punch and demanding more vigilant referees. We shouldn't absolve athletes of responsibility, encouraging them to push the boundaries of acceptable conduct until they get caught.

Likewise, we shouldn't depend on government to make business act in the best interests of society. We need to cultivate in corporate executives respect for not just the letter but the spirit of the law.

The harm those companies caused is anything but a game. But let's inject a bit of levity into an otherwise dire set of circumstances and look to one game for guidance: ultimate frisbee. The fast-growing sport (with some 700 college teams in the US alone) is like soccer with aerial passing but without referees. Players are expected to call their own fouls – and do. Even at collegiate and world championships, players hand the Frisbee to the other team if they've had unnecessary contact with an opposing player or held the disc for longer than the allowed 10 seconds – whether or not someone else calls them on it.

This ethos is known as the "spirit of the game." I've played ultimate throughout the US, Europe, and Asia, and can confirm that the spirit of the game reigns everywhere. Business would do well to learn from it....

Here's a simple way to align business and societal interests: Require that bankers and other titans of industry join a weekend ultimate frisbee game in their local park. They'll spend a few hours in a world where there are no designated enforcers but everyone follows the rules – not just in letter, but in spirit. That would benefit us all.