xii Preface 3. You taught me to teach by telling students stories that are meaningful to you. I think to be a real teacher you have to let yourself be vulnerable. So the students can see that you are a human with feelings and fears and goals. And then being able to say to the students: This is the way I do it; it fits who I am; it helps me be successful; and don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do something. 4. You taught me that not everyone will like you no matter what you do and no matter how hard you try. I came back from a Deloitte course evaluation, and the deans just hated me. Instead of being upset with me, you assured me that you have to just say what you believe, and some people won’t like you, and oh well. 5. You taught me to start by collecting data. I recall watching most of your papers start by collection of data. I recall watching your criticisms of work that was just abstraction on abstraction, with no data at its roots. 6. You once told me to imagine that my mother was my audience—if I could explain it to my mother, I could explain it to anyone. Incredibly, this seems to work for every audience out there. So I’ve passed that tip along to my students and it seems to work for them too. 7. [remember that you used to tell us we need to be excited to get up and go to work in the morning, that that was the most important thing. For some people, it’s because of the people you will be with. For some, it is because of the passion about whatever it is. But, in general, I still give people that advice (and it is advice I’ve also been giving my own kids). You have to love what you are doing. This is just a sample but it reflects what these former students, now all in their 40s and 50s, remember about what I taught them. Hadn’t they learned any facts from me? Didn’t I teach them some real stuff? Some said in passing that they had learned the actual content of the subjects I taught as well, but that that wasn’t as important to them as the things the