ESP Biography

"Should I ask him/her out for a date?" "Should I apply to Stanford?" "I am facing a decision situation - what should I do?" We face decisions all the time in our life, and often make them without realizing that we have choices. How should we think clearly about our decisions? This class introduces students to decision analysis, the best story we have on approaching decisions thoughtfully. Developed largely at Stanford, Decision Analysis is inspired by the Buddha's approach of combining a warm heart with a cool head. A cool head protects us from the trap of losing our balance with emotion, while a warm heart protects us from indifference. We will learn how to dissect our decisions into their components and look at them in a manner that gives us insights. This class will be taught in an experiential manner (and not theoretical lecturing), with students grappling with decisions and learning in the context of class simulations.

Students will learn how to judge if they've made good decisions. They will also learn how to help themselves, their family and friends improve the quality of their decisions.

Students will examine their deepest held values, share stories that exemplify them, and learn to draw value diagrams to communicate their values to their friends and family.

This class presents an introduction to Hinduism from a practitioner’s perspective. Students will hear stories that exemplify different traditions within Hinduism and learn about the differences and similarities between these traditions.

This class presents an introduction to Hinduism from a practitioner's perspective. The class will cover a short history of where Hinduism comes from, and given its massive diversity, share its fundamental principles that allow it to accept such diverse worldviews as dualism, nondualism, qualified-nondualism, atheism, agnosticism, etc. Hindu philosophy provides a framework to understand the psychology of religion itself, and demands a scientific attitude toward self-development. The class will introduce the four yogas that can be used to broadly understand different religions. We will discuss the benefits and traps of each yoga. The class will be interactive and be driven by students' questions.

This class will take a look at the value of values, and share case studies and stories of organizations and institutions that have aligned their decisions with their deepest values and acted as beyond-profits. In particular, we will examine examples from the airline industry, the automobile industry, the software industry and martial arts. We will examine a framework to understand one's own values and communicate them using value diagrams. The class will be interactive and examine practical questions that come up around being true to one's deepest values.

This course will give an introduction to the philosophy of Decision Analysis, knowing which, students will be able to assess the quality of their own decisions. Group exercises will help keep the learning experiential.