My new company has gone from three people (the founding team) to four as of today, six next week, and seven the week after. Startups are such rollercoasters -- one day you think hiring is going to be really difficult, then you suddenly double the company's size! I can't wait to meet the new team members. Now we can get down to working on specs, product, and customer feedback. Wow.

On the school front -- I've come to notice that there are two distinct teaching methods. I'll call them Frustration In Frustration Out (FIFO), and Learning In, Learning Out (LILO). Those of you familiar with accounting, computer science, or both will recognize my sad misuse of these abbreviations.

In FIFO, you work on material on which the professor has not yet lectured. The advantage of this approach is that you are challenged to figure things out on your own. This is most like the real world of business; rarely do people say, "do it this way," and then you follow the instructions. The disadvantage, as the name implies, is that this can be a frustrating experience -- you don't yet know the "right" way to work on the material.

In LILO, you read the material before class but you may or may not prepare particular problems. The professor lectures on the material and you work through sample problems in class. After several lectures, you do a problem set based on the material covered. I call this method Learning In Learning Out because you take the learning in as the professor educates you; then you cement and demonstrate the learning as you work it out on the problem set.

I don't know which way I learn better yet -- just that they're very distinct and interesting styles of teaching.