you've got to be *real* busy to justify not having read this week's nytimes interview with Google SVP Laszlo Bock - it's excellent. my favorite passage:

One of my own frustrations when I was in college and grad school is that you knew the professor was looking for a specific answer. You could figure that out, but it’s much more interesting to solve problems where there isn’t an obvious answer. You want people who like figuring out stuff where there is no obvious answer.

i managed to structure my college career in a way that avoided the issue Bock addresses (the Linguistics department at UC Santa Cruz was excellent), but i've encountered it many times since - in extracirricular education, job interviews, and just in *life.*

my feeling: if i'm working with you, the facts you know are useless as the business landscape we're working in - the game we're playing, really - changes. i want your intelligence, not your knowledge.