The least potted of them all?

Vikram Bath 53 Comments

My name is Vikram Bath, and I can’t help myself. It’s been five years since my last post–a dirty rant from a PhD student in the skankiest corner of the Internet on a striving-for-the-D-list blog. Since then I graduated, became a business school professor, and then stopped being a business school professor.

Please accept my voice’s contribution to the cacophony of your Internet.

Philosophy of science and cognition are interests of mine. If I refer to policy or political issues, it will only be as an example to illuminate how we think about things rather than to advocate a specific point of view. I’m a utilitarian; none of my views actually matter, so I don’t want to spend your time on them.

Funny things companies do, investing, and economics will also be topics. I’m arguably an expert when it comes to my academic discipline in the business school, but keep in mind that the whole business school has an “expert problem“: an MIT physics professor can be expected to reliably solve a physics problem for you in a way that a business school professor cannot be expected to solve a stout business problem involving qualitative trade-offs.

So there’s that.

Oddities that I don’t think about too much but might be relevant along the way are that (1) I am Indian-American and (2) my wife is Chinese. It’s a somewhat unusual match, and we stand out in our small New England city though people are usually too taken by our stunningly good-looking dog to bother.

Vikram Bath

Vikram Bath is the pseudonym of a former business school professor living in the United States with his wife, daughter, and dog. (Dog pictured.) His current interests include amateur philosophy of science, business, and economics. Tweet at him at @vikrambath1.

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53 Comments

      • Yeah, I probably should do this for real.

        Vikram, welcome aboard. I look forward to reading your thoughts, however little they matter. It is good to have you be part of our community here.

        I hope you have fun.

        • Thank you!

          I should warn you that I don’t understand sarcasm on blogs. My prior blog had so many people who would have nonsensical responses (to me), that I always took everything they said at face value. It ended up being easier that way.

      • Burt, I think it’s interesting that you felt the need to clarify Jay wasn’t offended but didn’t think I would blink at the earlier threat of carnage.

      • S’all right. That’s a fine looking dog, so you could hardly do better. Welcome.

  5. Isn’t that basically enough information to identify you, if anyone who knows you should happen to stumble across this?

      • Feel free to delete the comment if I unwittingly added additional information. I just can’t imagine that there are many people who match the above description, unless it’s been trumwillized.

        • Brandon, I’m glad to see you’re still around! Long time, no blog.

          I think you’re right that those who stumble across it will be able to figure out who I am (assuming they already know me from somewhere else). I’m content if this doesn’t show up when I Google my name though.

      • There’s an old book called “Choices, Values, and Frames” by Tversky I’ve been working through over a long time. I haven’t stayed in one area enough to really be able to describe my interest any more narrowly than “cognition”. I also am reading more about Weick’s concept of sensemaking (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensemaking).

        If I had to tilt it one way or the other, I’d say I’m more interested in stuff that seems relevant to decision-making rather than the more elemental parts like “how do we see?” I read a combination of lay and academic stuff in the area.

    • Usually takes me about three stiff G&T’s. After that, I may be potted despite the blog’s name.

      • It’s not the potted part that bothers us. What bothers us is that we all know you’re just a plant, but we don’t know for whom or for what purpose.

  9. Welcome aboard!

    What made you stop being a business school professor?

    I say this as someone who is skeptical about whether business should be an undergrad degree. I can see keeping an MBA but most of business as an undergrad major seems to be teachable via apprenticeship and on-job training. This could help solve the student debt crisis.

    • It’s a boring reason. My wife is a business school professor in New England, which was not conducive to my remaining at Big State University.

      >I say this as someone who is skeptical about whether business should be an undergrad degree.

      I tend to recommend students go for something as technical as possible. Some students can’t stand the idea of going into a branch of engineering or a science. A business degree might be appropriate for them. Among the sub-disciplines, I recommend accounting first since that’s delivers a specialized skill.

      In general though, I suspect we share some of the same concerns about the value of undergraduates studying how to make strategic decisions they may never get in the position to make.

      > most of business as an undergrad major seems to be teachable via apprenticeship and on-job training

      I was sad to see that I just missed the higher ed symposium here. What you suggest here makes sense, but it isn’t clear why it isn’t happening now. Yes, there is a social expectation for a lot of people to go to college, but if it were just that, you’d still see some more programs of the sort you’re mentioning.

      My suspicion is that it’s really hard to structure an apprenticeship at the appropriate level to bring along a student outside of fields where the work and skills required doesn’t change that much from job to job and year to year (e.g. electricians, plumbers, welders, etc.)

      • ” It’s a boring reason. My wife is a business school professor in New England, which was not conducive to my remaining at Big State University.”

        Yes, I can see why that would be tricky.

        “I tend to recommend students go for something as technical as possible. Some students can’t stand the idea of going into a branch of engineering or a science. A business degree might be appropriate for them. Among the sub-disciplines, I recommend accounting first since that’s delivers a specialized skill.”

        This is probably where we differ. If people want to study science and engineering than they should but I am also skeptical of STEM being the cure to all of our ills in terms of jobs and the economy. I went to a small liberal arts college and was an arts major (and graduate student) before going to law school. I am a firm proponent in a well-rounded liberal arts education.

        “I was sad to see that I just missed the higher ed symposium here. What you suggest here makes sense, but it isn’t clear why it isn’t happening now. Yes, there is a social expectation for a lot of people to go to college, but if it were just that, you’d still see some more programs of the sort you’re mentioning.”

        My guess is that this was hoisted unto universities sometime during the post-WWII era (when the mass education class really begun) but when university was still affordable. Now businesses and corporations are reluctant to do on the job training. Even many law firms are reluctant to do the on the job training that was once the norm. One law firm I saw had an obnoxious statement on their career section that said “Our clients pay us to win, not train on the job” or some such. Fair enough I suppose but still a bit arrogant in my opinion. On the job training should not be something considered bad but I think most people see it as just cutting into the bottom line too much.

        Now we have a lot of kids who know that going to college/university is the best hope at getting a middle class lifestyle or above. However, these kids were never really interested in the sciences, arts, and humanities. So they study business. It is only a thought experiment but if on the job training was available for business careers, I wonder whether we would see an extreme drop in college applications and enrollment.

        • “If people want to study science and engineering than they should but I am also skeptical of STEM being the cure to all of our ills in terms of jobs and the economy.”

          I should qualify that I’m speaking of students who could be pushed one direction or another. If they do have some interest in STEM, I encourage them to pursue it and perhaps indulge their other interests as a minor or when they look for a job later. You can learn marketing on the job easier than you can learn circuit design.

          In terms of being a cure to all of our ills, I’m not thinking of that at all! When I advise a student, I’m only concerned with that particular student’s best interests. I’m not so society-blind as to tell them that robbing banks can be profitable, but neither am I trying to make them fit a grand plan of where I think society ought to be spending its energy.

          “I am a firm proponent in a well-rounded liberal arts education.”

          I am too. Or at least I’m not an opponent of it. I do tend to think in terms of how to get the student at the head of the employment queue rather than more direct educational outcomes though. I would probably support getting more liberal arts education to business school students. Their writing skills in particular could use some improvement.

          “On the job training should not be something considered bad but I think most people see it as just cutting into the bottom line too much.”

          If it does cost too much (or not deliver the expected benefits), then perhaps it wouldn’t be better after all.

          “these kids were never really interested in the sciences, arts, and humanities. So they study business.”

          My experience has not included so many of these folks you describe. Ordinarily, they will tell me they are really interested in psychology or history or studio art or something else like that, but they decided to go to the business school because they perceived it as being a more marketable degree.

          I always found it remarkable how even at the PhD level so few students I met in business school were actually interested in business. It’s interesting to me, but few shared that feeling.

  10. Welcome, good sir. I don’t know what half the words you wrote here mean, but, hey, maybe I’ll learn a thing a two. Bienvenue!

  11. none of my views actually matter, so I don’t want to spend your time on them.

    That’s funny, I’ve never let it stop me.

    Welcome to the neighborhood!

    • Me neither, but I’m trying something different. My hope is that by pre-committing publicly to not talk about politics I’ll be less likely to do it.

  13. I’m a (as of yesterday) newly minted PHD (so new, the ink is hardly dry on the “he passed the defense form” and the diploma hasn’t been printed yet), and one of my possible career trajectories is, like Vikram, to become a former professor in a relatively small number of years….if I’m lucky.

    Now that that instance of self-promotion is out of the way, I look forward to reading Vikram’s posts.

    • Husky!

      The vet says ours is some sort of alaskan malamute mix.

      From the way people react when seeing him, I wish I had gotten a dog like him when I was single.

      • I had a roommate who had two Irish Wolfhounds. I used to walk them down Haight St. In San Francisco. It’s a surefire way to get people to look at you, but it didn’t do much for my dating life. Maybe I wish he’d had Malamutes.

        • People often stop and talk to us about him, but part of that might be living in a much smaller city than San Francisco.

          Of course, I also say this as if I know how to transition from answering questions about my dog to something else, which I don’t.

          Her: Awwwwww, your dog is so beautiful!
          Me: Thanks.
          Her: What does he like?
          Me: Long runs and Froot Loops.
          Her: Oh, that’s nice.
          Me: It is. You know what else smells like Froot Loops? Your hair.

          Edited: It’s “Froot Loops”, not “fruit loops”. They aren’t allowed to call non-fruit stuff “fruit”.

  15. Welcome Vikram! Look forward to reading your posts

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