Interview with SAS Graduate ❘ Alisa Bekmanova

How did you choose your field of study?

In the framework of school education and additional education everything was given to me quite easily, and it was difficult for me to single out one sphere for myself, so much so that at some point I decided to simply delegate the choice to fate: to pass different subjects so that the dry figures would show what I actually know better and in what I might be more successful. This cunning plan turned out to be a failure — I got the same results in both humanities and physics and math subjects.

When I found out about SAS, I was very excited about the opportunity to broaden my horizons during the first half of my studies, to study broad disciplines like philosophy and current world problems, to ask myself existential questions, to try myself in different directions, and only then to decide on my major. I realized that if I chose SAS, it would be difficult, that it was an experimental format, but I also realized that it would be interesting.

I applied for all available SAS majors and left the originals for economics, simply because it was easier to get a budget for this major that year. But I was sure that I would not stay in this line of study.

When my studies began, I was delighted: for the first time in my life I could try different things and somehow mix them, for example, write about the use of physics in media theory. For two years I just observed: what I was interested in, what worked, what I spent hours working on without boredom or fatigue. After a certain amount of observation, I realized that I preferred history and smuggled it into all my classes, always adding historical context to the prism of my analysis.

Moreover, in the TFY (Topic of the first year) course, we had to create a project linking the different subjects covered in the first year, and I again focused on history. Peter Jones, the historian who taught the course, suggested using the project as a tool for self-reflection: to think about and choose what we were really interested in during the year, what topics we wanted to keep talking about in class, and what was controversial. The project involved two kinds of history study: 'the way it really was' and 'poetic art', which differ in that the former takes history as a set of facts, while the latter notes the impossibility of reliably identifying certain things in the past and requires a careful interpretation of events. Linking Nietzsche's philosophy and programming languages, I argued that we are teaching history incorrectly, and it is necessary to use the second method rather than the first, as the information encoded in the media can change meaning. For example, reading in an ancient chronicle that a king was kind, we cannot read this as a fact of his humanity. Linguistic analysis can show that earlier, at the time the record was created, the word “kind” meant not so many moral qualities as human welfare, so we must interpret this data carefully rather than take it as fact.

Did you manage to decide on a major after two years of study?

My project in the TFY course was highly praised, and my professor invited me to major in history. I said yes, because Peter Jones taught history using the method I was doing the project on — a more complex, multi-layered analysis. In addition, he always spoke about history with great affection. You could literally see those stars in his eyes and wished you had them too. However, an unforeseen situation happened for me — Peter Jones left the SAS for family reasons. With my belief that history can't just be learned, the figure of the teacher seemed particularly important, and since other history professors were practicing methods of studying it that were less interesting to me, I didn't want to stay that way.

But I could not choose my major again, and the only option available to me was to cancel my application for transfer. So I became an economist again. Surprisingly, in my priorities for choosing a major, economics was on the last place. I was sure that it is absolutely boring direction, there is a lot of math, with which I am not a friend, and I will never do it. Well, what can I say... Usually they say fr om love to hate is one step, but with economics it was the other way around.

Have you regretted the situation you found yourself in?

Now, I do not regret that I graduated with a bachelor's degree in economics, because it was at SAS that it turned out to be surprisingly interesting. Justifying the principles of interdisciplinary of our institute, we taught economics at the intersection with different disciplines, rather than in its pure form. For example, one of my favorite major subjects was Behavioral Economics. It studies people's thinking and the mistakes that are made in its process — a kind of “psychology with numbers.” When you add those numbers, the analysis becomes more interesting and the conclusions more valid. For someone who loves psychology, seeing that you can do cool psychological research in economics was a revelation.

Experimental economics is also a non-obvious but very interesting area of economics. My thesis is directly related to it. Economic experiments differ from any other experiments in that they are motivated. For example, in sociological research, you are given forms with questions, and no one can control that respondents will not mark random answers or cheat, will be attentive, and so on — respondents are not motivated to provide quality data. Whereas in economic research, questions are asked in the format of experimental conditions, and participants answer these questions by their actions, depending on their efforts and successes, receiving rewards — respondents are motivated. This is why economic experiments are cooler than other experiments: they allow you to draw more valid conclusions. In this course, my friend and I did a study based on a philosophical problem called Guns and Butter, which explores competition in society. It turned out that for the economics experiment we involved philosophy since we were basing it on a philosophical problem, sociology since we were studying human behavior in a group, and IT since we were programming a game for the experiment. The economics major at SAS is, in my opinion, the most interdisciplinary. I can do the same things that guys from other majors can do, at least the above, plus I can do more complex math for quantitative, regression analysis. That's why I love economics at SAS.

I initially entered the bachelor's program not to get a specialty, a profession. At the bachelor's stage it was important for me to choose such a direction of study, wh ere I will maximize the development of universal skills, knowledge and build a base, on which later the next layers of study will overlap well. Unexpectedly for me, such a direction was Economics. It was able to answer my request even better than history, which I originally chose with the same thought.

What is your thesis about?

The topic of my diploma is not exactly economic, which I am very happy about. The method used is economic (because economic methods are cool!). I study the impact of implementing artificial intelligence (AI) in management. More specifically, the impact on people's behavior and performance in two situations: (1) when a promotion is given by a manager and (2) artificial intelligence. We defined this topic together with our supervisor, Alexander Usvitsky. We decided fr om the beginning that we would conduct an economic experiment, as this is Alexander's area of expertise. For this purpose, we used the human behavior research laboratory organized by him at SAS. The experiment was conducted in the format of a computerized economic game, which we had specially written for this purpose.

Was it hard?

I think I could not have done it without the help of my supervisor. To put together my interdisciplinary work, I had to develop a lot of things and put them together harmoniously, including things I had never done before. My supervisor was a huge influence on my work and I am very grateful for the effort he put in. I had the energy throughout the year to learn new and difficult things, to spend a lot of time and effort on writing this paper because I could see that the person who works with me cared and was interested in it. I felt from him a sincere desire to engage his student and explain why somehow what we do is important, and that had more impact than some prompts.

How did you prepare for writing your thesis?

In the third year of my studies, we had already formed the topics of our graduation theses, and at that time I already realized that I did not know anything about AI or management, and that it would be great to correct this. So I did my internship in a Russian company, which positions itself as an international company and is engaged in AI development. I served as a manager and managed three teams that researched and developed AI. On top of that, I wanted to earn money in the summer to cover my needs without burdening my parents. So I found a position at an overseas company that used AI in workflows. I had an interesting task: finding AI bugs and systematizing them to find solutions to fix them. I had just a crazy schedule. In the morning I worked in a Russian company, and from 8:00 p.m. I started working in a foreign company, because its office was in Chicago. I don't recommend doing that! But it was very interesting for me. I tried myself in the management of AI-related projects, I tried myself in the role of an employee using these algorithms, and in two different companies from two different countries. I dived into my thesis topics, made sure that these topics were important and worth writing about. I think that had a big impact on the quality of my thesis.

How was your work evaluated at the diploma defense?

We had foreign examiners at our thesis pre-defenses, who were selected by majors. I had a cool examiner who wrote articles with the author of the book I was writing my thesis based on. The news that he was going to be my examiner was scary at first. But then I realized that I was interested in how my work would be evaluated by someone who knew more about the topic than I did. The feedback he can provide is very valuable, even if it turns out to be negative, not even that — especially if it turns out to be negative. In the end it went well, the examiner commented that he liked the work and had nothing bad to say.

At the defense I knew that some members of the commission will be not from the academy and I was afraid that I would not be understood, they would say that it was more useful to take data from the Central Bank of the Russian Federation and not to create any game. So I prepared arguments about the importance of primary data and the proven validity of my method. I was listened to, understood. My prejudices were disproved, and I received an “excellent.”

What courses at SAS did you enjoy and influenced you the most?

From the core, this and, of course, I'll highlight the history course taught by Peter Jones. He once said that history as a discipline is the many stories of individuals. I really liked that idea because I love learning about the stories of others and myself through those stories.

In the majors, as I said, my favorite courses were Behavioral Economics and Alexander Usvitsky's Experimental Economics. The first thing I heard from this professor, my major leader, was that economics is not about money or energy resources in a limited sense at all, but about resources in general: time, effort, emotions you invest in other people, and the like. And he also said that economics is about stories, and a good economist should be able to tell stories. Because behind all the math you do, there's always a story that numbers and signs tell. So unexpectedly, it turned out that economics easily covers my love of stories as well.

Of the electives, I will highlight Peter Lešnik course. The course was related to contemporary world cinema. It was great to study the historical and cultural contexts of several countries and find how they are reflected in the medium of those countries. And it was also great to recite Silver Age poetry in the dark, by the light of flashlights, with SAS director Andrey Shcherbenok on the course “Russian Culture,” to read St. Petersburg by wire on the course “City as Text,” I could go on for a long time....

What was your study at SAS like?

I think SAS was the best place for me to learn in terms of feedback. It was very important for me to get the amount of feedback that I could get at SAS because of its camaraderie. I am a first generation student — the first in my family to pursue higher education. I had no one to ask for advice and guidance about the academy and my path in it. I am grateful to SAS and especially to the professors for always having an answer to all my questions, clarifications and objections. It was important to me to be guided, and perhaps spend a little more time than I was obligated to, to explain, not even how, but why it is important to do something. So, as cliché as it sounds, professors often became models of behavior for me.

I used to be very embarrassed to talk about it, by the way, and about the fact that I'm from a tiny village that's not on the maps. But now I think it's great. When I said I was going to go to the School of Advanced Studies and study in English, my parents were shocked, but very supportive. No one in the family, including me, spoke English, so in my first year I was very brave to say the least. Because of this, it was difficult for me in my first year: I had to learn English urgently, and I did it not from textbooks, but from professors' lectures, tests and essays that I had to write. Of course, it was not possible to learn English at once, sometimes it was very difficult and even frustrating, but my family and friends supported me a lot. I found a lot of friends in SAS. SAS has very cool people in general!

To motivate those who are afraid to go to SAS because of poor English, I will tell you that I came to SAS with a poor level of English, but I was able not just to study, but to study great. For the last five semesters out of eight, I was the first in the ranking of students of my course, and sometimes among students of all courses. So three semesters of suffering and you're at your goal... I'm kidding, of course, I don't want to inflate the “survivor's error:” many brave men have gone to Valhalla. But surviving the SAS with initially weak English is real!

Will you continue your studies or develop your career?

I would like to interest people in my research as much as our professors do, so I would like to stay in academia, maybe even teach. At SAS, I have noticed that professors from different countries, besides the direct transfer of knowledge and skills, bring other cultural codes, contexts and experiences into the learning process, greatly enriching it. Therefore, I would like to continue my studies in an environment that, in addition to standard knowledge, will provide a broad understanding of different cultures and contexts (my minor, by the way, is in Cultural Studies). I can't yet say what area of academia I want to stay in, so I'm taking a year to think about it and see how economics at SAS differs from economics, which I can further study, and what interesting things there are on the fringes of that field.

What is SAS to you?

SAS for me is a challenge. A constant challenge to myself and my capabilities, because I constantly need to improve myself, to do something better than others. The competitive environment of SAS is insistently challenging. When I was writing my graduation speech, I tried to analyze my SAS experience by answering this question in some succinct way. And I realized that there is something common between all students, professors, and those who are involved with SAS in any way. What we have in common is that we once chose to be brave, and we have continued to be brave. The professors once chose SAS and left the places wh ere they felt stable, the people who came up with the School needed even more courage, I would even say audacity, to question traditional education and risk organizing experimental education somewhere in Siberia, in Tyumen. Students need enormous courage to decide to study in a foreign language with world-class professors, to write tests in neurobiology after three philosophy classes, to create projects combining media and the laws of physics, to enter biology and graduate as a sociologist, to compete constantly. I think it takes tremendous courage to know that you're going to have a harder time than someone else and go anyway. It's harder, not even in terms of the amount of material, but in terms of the variety of material. It takes courage to constantly step out of your comfort zone, trying new areas. That is why SAS is a challenge for me, a motivation to be brave, to try new and complex things, to combine seemingly incompatible things, complementing them, making them bigger and more meaningful.