That's hard to say. But I would go with 'probability 2'. My favourite class was learning how to beat slot machines 😂
Thucydides Half the semester reading History of the Peloponnesian War; half exploring its themes
"History of Science and Engineering in Antiquity and the Renaissance" at Il Museo Galileo in Florence
Less the course, more the professor. I found statistics always very fun but never knew why.
The Art of the Sublime We studied films where people approach the Sublime (perfect beauty, hidden knowledge) and whenever they get too close they die or enter a horror scenario bc we’re never meant to see behind the veil / can’t comprehend perfection
Accounting. Works perfect for industrial era education style
100% the professor. For me, college was a crap shoot and I was lucky enough to have a core group of friends passionate about their work and 3 professors who really cared. Often that's all you need :)
Differential equations with Steven Strogatz, or any other math class taught by him.
Molecular Bio 101 and Critical Theory. Both taught me to look at the world in a new light.
Sexology - our professor organized AMAs with different people incl. pedophiles who spent 10+ yrs in jail, which was v. interesting.
Materials science was interesting. I use physics a lot. Some math too.
Masculinities! Basically studying the gender of man using feminist theory.
interaction design practice or ethnographic research methods
At UNC there was an epic course called “The Elements of Politics”. It was a series over 8(!) semesters where you read the primary texts of western tradition in chronological order. The class did not fulfill ANY major credits, but that’s why the best students took it. The Prof was simply exceptional at asking que
Business writing! I was studying Chemistry and pivoted my career. Universally useful knowing how to write a concise email
History of mathematics! Lots of neat facts like counting to 144 using your fingers (3 segments per finger, 4 fingers on one hand, count to 12, and then multiply by 12 for the other hand) along with many geometric proofs
1. Anthropology of Emotions (spoiler alerts emotions are a social construct) 2. Not in university but I did an online course on Biosemiotics which was also great. Both of these reshape how I think
Comparative Political Economy. Gave me a mental model for much of what matters in the world, and I loved it
Matrix groups was probably the most fun, exploring classic groups like O_n, U_n, SU_n etc in the form of matrices. Classic Greek was the coolest.
Introduction to Computer Science with Brian Kernighan. This legend of a human taught intro, for some reason. I was an English major, but I credit his course with giving me with enough baseline understanding of tech to A. Get hired at Apple and B. Understand and embrace crypto
pure math multivariable calculus http://www.math.brown.edu/johsilve/MA0035/MA0035HomePage.html
My best classes were always due to the teacher, not the subject matter. Dr. Hamlet was the best. Some English class. He could tell a single, weaving story captivating us all, holding our gaze to make a point, daily.
Calc 3. Guy named Steve Krantz who literally wrote and researched on the stuff. Brilliant lectures, never skipped one.
i took a psychology class which was really interesting imo.
“Creating the Modern Financial System” w David Moss at HBS. Traced the history of financial instruments and crises back to rice futures contracts in feudal Japan
“The Art of Troubleshooting”. I studied acoustics so it was based around audio equipment, but at its core it was a logic course. Taught by a brilliant professor; far and away the best course I ever took.
I have never let my schooling interfere with my education. - (maybe) Mark Twain IMO university gives you tools to continue learning and growing. Teaches you how to network, find information, manage time, knock out tasks, etc.
My Media Culture teacher made it one of the best and most remarkable courses I ever took
Judgement and Decisions, that or consumer psychology
linear algebra … made me realize I needed to be a math major
Biology & culture We studied how politics and society impacts the biology of humans…i was so fascinated I still have my notes 10 years later. Some things we analyzed; The Tuskegee experiment, Indian reservation land for casino, how american pple from euro descent all got classified as white vs their real ethnic
• Costume Design with Annie Smart • Sound Art with Chris Kubick • Sound Design with Abigail De Kosnik • CS 198 (Mobile Development) • Stage Design with Annie Smart
Formal Verification. We had to build a nontrivial command line game, then model the game state and invariants using TLA+, and then use that to find bugs. It’s like a fuzzer for your system state transitions.
both at Stanford: 1/ "Back of the Envelope Physics" 2/ "Startup" (Peter Thiel's course)
Contemporary American Poetry with Pulitzer winner Frank Bidart. Had to travel to another college to take the course, but it definitely reframed the way I read and write. Learning from Frank was a real honor, and despite choosing to focus my efforts on silly internet money, I have maintained my love of poetry.
Intro to Critical Thinking. Still the most useful and referenced book of my university career
an entrepreneurship class, the professor ended up being on my panel for my senior thesis, and also inspired me to enter a business plan competition
IT Infrastructure, learned how the internet actually functions from TCP/IP to fiber & WiFi
Most memorable moment: I was taking a Russia politics class during the breakup of the USSR and one day the prof came in and said “rebels are fighting in Armenia, i gotta go” and she left to go fight for the cause
Did a negotiation course at law school Format: - Each week different scenario - Paired/grouped up and each given different knowledge and interests within scenario - Negotiate privately for an hour - Come back, show results, discuss Probably the most broadly useful class I’ve ever taken
EDP 325K - Mindfulness, Compassion and the Self taught taught by Dr Kristin Neff
relational databases were the first class that i just immediately came mentally online for. a lot of courses were interesting, but had big sections i wasnt interested in. rdbms was like entering the matrix for me
Anatomy and Physiology, learning about how your body works and operates has consistently helped me in several areas of my life.
Animation Techniques Taught me to be very scrappy, on a budget & (in retrospect) probably acted as a gateway drug in learning to code. our first project was to etch an animation onto a roll of film (using a thumbtack taped to a pen, lol). 😫deliberately brutal to drive home an appreciation for tech advancing art.
“The Rise and Fall of the Machine” with Jill Lepore — we traced the rhetoric and public opinion around major technological shifts from the steam engine to the computer (spoiler: the arguments for and against have been the same for centuries)
Within my field of study, GIS programming in R. Very useful stuff. Outside of my field, mass communications. The instructor was an old-school, "just the facts, ma'am" objective journalist who was a retired newspaper reporter. It was insightful for understanding how media and journalism work and their shortcomings.
