Business School as an MMORPG

I'll admit to getting a little freaked out today, as I browse the blogosphere and read students comment on the intensity of the first few quarters and the pervasive lack of sleep, with phrases such as "drinking out of a fire hose" and "I knew it would be difficult, but I never imagined to this level." Working as the senior manager of a startup company for the last 2 years, I am no stranger to hard work or overnighters, but I've also given myself time to recuperate between projects and I have always been one of those people who needs 8-9 hrs of sleep a day to be on top of my game.

The whole thing reminds me a bit of an MMORPG, which stands for Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game for you non-geeks out there. As an ex hardcore gamer, I always had a bit of a chip on my shoulder about MMORPGs, because of their lack of parity. In a standard game, such as an FPS, every player starts with the same amount of money and the same access to weapons. Your success in the game is determined primarily by your skill. However, the nature of an MMORPG encourages players to devote their time to the game to gain levels, get better equipment, etc... Which means success stops being determined by skill, and is instead primarily determined by the amount of time you devote to the game. Skill will always be a factor, but in most MMORPGs, it becomes almost negligible. Furthermore, if you are a latecomer to the game, you will never be able to catch up to somebody who has started months before you, as long as they are putting sustained effort into playing.

Back then, as a competitive gamer who had other priorities such as staying on the Dean's List or keeping her full-time job, MMORPGs just didn't make sense. I enjoyed gaming, and while I knew I was missing out on some of the best games, I tried to avoid MMORPGs. I was too competitive to be happy losing to people who had more time, who because they didn't go to work or school had what I perceived as an unfair advantage. Unfortunately, real life is unfair too, and I'll admit to having more than a little bit of envy and resentment for people who can run full throttle on very little sleep. An example is my current general manager, who can stay up until 4am schmoozing clients and be ready for the 7am meeting the next day no problem, repeat ad nauseum for the rest of the week. It's maddening; the man is a machine. Compare that to me after only 3 hours of sleep, when I tend to put my socks on backwards, stumble zombie-like into stationary objects, and come home to discover a rank smell because I've put the cereal in the refrigerator and the milk in the cupboard. Ewww...

Of course I know that I will get out of business school what I put into it. But it annoys me to know my success will be proportional to the amount of time I sink in, no matter how clever I am or what background I have, and following from that, it bothers me to know already that I will not be able to have my cake and eat it too, to ace my classes, network like crazy, and still maintain a regular sleep schedule. The knowledge spurs me to get my ducks in a row now, to start researching and prioritizing before I ever get on campus, while the other half of me is bemoaning the loss of my precious "relax and recharge" mindset I was going into summer with. But it cannot be helped. I have always liked the saying "work smarter, not harder," and by jove, I am going to give it a good shot.

On a side note, does anybody else think Entourage 2008 is the clunkiest, ugliest, most godforsaken software ever created? I really wish there was a better alternative for syncing with Exchange & a Blackberry on the Mac.