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October 01, 2003
Fear of the cold call
B-schools often use the cold call as a motivational tool. The idea is that students will prepare for class or face the risk of getting called on and looking stupid in front of the entire class. At Cornell, at least in my accounting and econ classes, this tool has already lost much of its weight.
With only ~250 people in our class, we've all gotten to know one another at least to some degree. To the point where - at least - you know that pretty much everybody is not a complete moron. And that's where the cold call loses its effectiveness.
When you know that nobody is a moron, and you know that everybody knows that you're not a moron, the fear of looking like an idiot loses its effectiveness. In accounting and econ everybody is guaranteed to look stupid at one point or another, and we all know it. So there's no shame in it.
Posted by sam at 03:30 PM | Comments (0)