fear of requirements

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A Missing Fear of Prerequisites

It would not be totally true to say I am enjoying my newest Coursera.org class - Social and Economic Networks: Models and Analysis from Stanford.  I started a similar class last year (Social Network Analysis) which I really enjoyed and have applied at work (at least in theory) and thought this class might be as interesting.  I have a bit more time on my hands now than when I tried Social Network Analysis and was very optimistic I’d finish this class.   It’s feeling unlikely at the moment.

I read the following description and decided – though I haven’t taken a math class in 10 years – I would go ahead and sign up:

“The course is aimed at people interested in researching social and economic networks, generally masters and PhD students, as well as faculty and other researchers, but should also be accessible to advanced undergraduates and other people who have some prerequisites in mathematics and statistics. For example, it will be assumed that students are comfortable with basic concepts from linear algebra (e.g., matrix multiplication), probability theory (e.g., probability distributions, expected values, Bayes’ rule), and statistics (e.g., hypothesis testing), and some light calculus (e.g., differentiation and integration). Beyond those concepts, the course will be self-contained.”

I am finding the course work itself very interesting, learning about how different systems run and how we can represent, understand and predict them. This is all applicable for me at work where I work in a B2B2C business development team that is looking to increase its inbound/ long-tail/ organic client acquisition and retention.  Better being able to predict how to influence how networks are accelerating (or hindering) client and customer growth.

I may have to accept this mission on a pass/fail basis however as my self-imposed algebra, calculus and statistics refreshers from my 11th grade classes is not exactly getting me in MIT.  I don’t have time for much writing at the moment as I am attempting to remember what the f*ck a “log” is and googling various math symbols.

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