What is the strategy behind Bothner's strategy class??

University professors are dull, boring, droning, nagging Ph.D types hunched over a desk working on some abstract problems that no one cared about anyway..right?? go on, no shame in admitting it, most of us have (or had) a chronic case of clock-watching in class..




BUT, that impression ( in my head )has been gradually diminishing in the past few months or so since I joined Booth, and guys like Prof. Bothner are the reason. To illustrate, he came to the first Strategy & Structure class of this quarter, bright and early Saturday morning, took around 5 minutes to memorize everyone's (65) names by reading the name tags, and then asked all of us to keep our name tags aside!..I was sitting there wondering what he was upto, and then Bothner proceeded to name *everyone*, all 65 students by their names starting from the 1st row, without any help.. Many of them weird sounding Indian, Chinese and European names (no offense meant!), totally foreign sounding for the average American..but obviously Bothner is not the average American - or a dull, droning prof..
Towards the 30th name or thereabouts, there was pin-drop silence, everyone was noticably sitting up straighter, and (maybe) waiting for him to screw up..but he didn't..
Pulling such a gimmick in the middle of the class requires tons of brain power and a LOT of confidence..Which is awesome as it makes us want to concentrate in class and not go yaaaawn!!

So, if this was Bothner's strategy to let people know that he might cold call on people by their names, it worked pretty well..