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ERIK DEMAINE: I think in the
very first lecture of class

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we gave out a little survey.

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Partly see what people's
background was, because this

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is sort of a new class.

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We didn't know exactly
how to position it

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or where people
would be coming from.

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So how much complexity
theory they knew

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and how much
algorithms they knew.

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And it more or less aligned
with our intent, which

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was-- people knew some
algorithms and some of them

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knew complexity theory.

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Some of them didn't, and that's
what the class is aimed for.

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You don't need to know a lot of
algorithms to take this class,

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but definitely familiarity
with that kind of concept

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is super helpful.

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And then the other part
we were curious about

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because we were still
designing the class--

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and we designed it
throughout the semester

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that I was teaching it--
was what topics were

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more interesting than others.

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And so we had some topics that
I was sure I wanted to cover,

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because I knew them really well.

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And I thought I had
a lot say about them,

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and they're important.

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And then there were a
bunch of other topics

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where I was going to have to
learn the materials so I wanted

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to some idea of which ones
I should learn more of.

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I think the general response was
everything sounds interesting.

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But there were a
few that stood out.

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One of them for example,
was algorithmic game theory.

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And a class called PPAD where
luckily my friend Costas

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Daskalakis-- another
professor in computer science

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here-- came in and gave
two guest lectures.

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Really great, and they showed
everyone how this field worked.

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And I learned a lot,
and we've done research

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based on that since.

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So there were a few topics
that stood out as particularly

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interesting to the students.

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And then one thing I was
particularly curious about

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was the use of fun examples.

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I was worried that
students would not

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take the material seriously
if I only used fun examples.

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But the feedback that I got
was that a lot of people said,

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I want to see games and puzzles.

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That's like among
the list of topics

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everyone said, yeah,
more games and puzzles.

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That's really fun.

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They saw Mario in
the first lecture.

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They're like, yeah
that was cool.

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It was exciting.

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So I took that as permission
to use a lot more fun examples.

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And still there are some more
serious algorithmic problems.

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But I think you can
get all the same--

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you can understand
all the same material

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and learn all the same
things through fun examples,

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and just enjoy it more.

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So the students--
I was very happy--

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were aligned with
that view, and I

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didn't have to worry
about students also

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seeing tons of serious examples
in addition to the fun ones.

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I used the survey to really
get to know the students.

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And see where
they're coming from,

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and help aim the
class in a direction

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that they would get
the most out of it.