Sitting in the Skydeck

On the first day of March we received new seats in the auditorium due to the monthly rotation. During January I sat in the middle section in the 2nd row and loved it because it was front and center, I could hear everything that was said, and see everything that was written on the board. During February I sat on the right side 3rd from the end in the 2nd to last row and hated it because the professors rarely called on me (it’s a bit of a blind spot) and because I couldn’t see what was written on the far side of the chalkboard. I consoled myself by saying that my seat couldn’t get any worse, until today when I saw that it in fact did get worse, that I’m in the last seat in the last row on the extreme left side.


The sections in the auditorium each have special names, created many years ago by someone at Harvard. The classroom is arranged in a semi-circle with 3 sections – middle, left and right. The center of the middle section is called the Power Deck, because the students there float at eye level with the professor and so are the main people he/she sees continuously. The first row is called the Worm section because they squirm under the close presence of the professor. The middle of the left section is called the Garden Terrace because they get to observe the rest of the class from the side view like a peanut gallery. The middle of the right section is called the Blind Spot, because most professors are right handed and so have their back to the right side of the room when they write on the chalkboard. The last row, however, is called the Skydeck, because you’re so far away from the bottom of the Pit that you feel like you’re in the nosebleed section at a basketball game. Traditionally it’s a good place for the people who want to hide, and being on the end would make it especially good for that. The problem is that I’m not a person who wants to hide.

The first two weeks of March were the most draining since I got to IMD. My usual two morning coffees were replaced with energy drinks, and one day I set a new personal record for waking up, showering, and getting to class on time in under 20 minutes. I felt the tension and tiredness all around me. People were antsy, had less patience, and were all struggling to stay awake during class. We've gone two months with no break, attending class 5 days a week and every other Saturday.  The burnout coeffecient is rising steadily, the correlation between case preparation and caring is approaching zero, and the covariance between finance and anger has increased by 200%, especially because finance class often runs late, as if four hours isn't enough time to adequately cover what we can reasonably absorb in a day.