# Model Thinking Discussion (CourseEra Spring 2012)



## B-Con (Dec 24, 2010)

From the University of Michigan, Coursera.org has a free online class on Model Thinking that starts soon. The class covers how formal models work, how to best use and build them, and examines many specific examples. The class (finally) *started* a couple days ago.

This sounds like a class specifically for the NT mindset. Watching the first lecture in which the professor gave the typical introduction on why and how we model things, I couldn't stop thinking about how this matches the typical NT mindset. 

For example, goals for the model class that seem to correspond to NTs:

 a desire to understand similarities in behavior
 a desire to predict the future
 a desire to clearly communicate ideas
 a desire for human-digestible understanding of complicated processes
 a desire to understand how detailed properties combine to produce large patterns

Based on feedback from the previous thread, it sounds like at least a few people on here would enjoy this topic. *So here's a thread devoted to discussing the class content*. Post questions, talk about interesting ideas it spawns in your mind, or whatever.

Don't be intimidated by a time requirement or prerequisites. Most of the video lectures are stand-alone and you don't (I'm pretty sure) get dropped for not participating enough. Just sign up and watch/read at your own leisure. And the prerequisites are basically just high school math and basic probability/statistics, I get the impression that it's more of a conceptual introduction course than a rigorously detailed one.

Link to the class homepage

My reaction to the class through the first few lectures is positive. I love the content, such as watching details form bigger patterns (aka, emergent properties) and such. I think the professor does a good job with his explanations and examples. So far, this has been borderline recreational musing for me. :-D

Sign up, I think most of you guys will like it.


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## DAHN (May 13, 2011)

Wow. Thanks for this. I'm definitely signing up for some of the Computer Science courses.


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