Maeda's SIMPLICITY

The Paradox of Classes

Yesterday a "Visiting Committee" was here to review our academic program. This is a tradition by academia to bring in an external review board to evaluate the performance of each of its units. I think it's a fabulous idea because it brings in some of the top minds of the world to give us their open and honest advice on how to improve.

During the process, I faced a paradox that I didn't quite know how to articulate while the meeting was going on. Maybe I understand it better by now.

Having more requirements (i.e. "classes") is good for a student because it forces them to learn an important set of specific knowledge.

But at a place like MIT where they are fed gobs of equations and so forth "like drinking from a firehose," at some point it's very easy to lose perspective on life, feeling, and creativity. Here at the Media Lab we are in the top 5% of departments that house undergraduate researchers (UROP) that don't necessarily take any classes here, but apprentice with the stellar faculty and grad students on our premises. They come not because it's a course requirement, but out of curiosity and passion.

Now, I know it's possible to take a class with passion. I've felt that before. The beauty of a structured class is that you know exactly what the goal is -- to eat. It's like having a meal plan where you are guaranteed that Monday is "Chicken Fried Steak, Carrots, Mashed Potatoes, and Applesauce," Tuesday is "Hamburger, French Fries, Celery, Apple Cobbler," and so on (school lunch in public schools was much more hearty in my days of youth). But you really can't walk on the wild side and have Thai food or something else that's not on the menu. You know what you will learn. If that's the case, if your target is to become an innovator then why learn it at all? To innovate you need to be on the edges of what is normal. And classes, the mass-broadcasting of knowledge, absolutely needs to be a normalizing experience.

Having less requirements is good for a student because it gives them more opportunities to procrastinate.

Wait, I once wrote about this procrastination bit. At least I'm consistent with my own form of procrastination by writing this. On to the pile of work on my desk ...