Thinking on the Margin

"Life is 10% What Happens to Me and 90% How I React to It"

2012-01-17T06:53:00.002-05:00

One of my all time favorite quotes, by Chuck Swindol:

The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company...a church...a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past...we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you. We are in charge of our attitudes.

Questions: How might differences in our attitude affect the cognitive costs of dealing with difficult issues in life? How do they affect our gratitude, which in turn affects our happiness? Our openness to new experiences? Our overall contentment? How can studying economics help our attitude?

(Photo and quote via Lifehacker)

Why You Should Study Statistics

2012-01-16T22:45:00.000-05:00

(via Dilbert.com)

Tenure Track at Marymount University!

2012-01-15T15:32:00.000-05:00

I just accepted a full-time tenure-track position as an Assistant Professor of Economics at Marymount University here in Arlington, VA. Got my office this past week and classes start on Tuesday. As part of my responsibilities, I will be director of Marymount's Economics in Society undergraduate program. It seems a perfect match on many levels.

The position is heavily oriented toward teaching. To make this position even sweeter, the university is a 10-minute walk from home. The Economics in Society program also seems a perfect match to my academic training and research interests in economics of religion, law and economics, and public choice.

This first semester, I will also continue to adjunct at Catholic University -- teaching two courses at Marymount (Principles of Macroeconomics and Business and Economics of Sports) and two courses at Catholic (Principles of Microeconomics and Quantitative Methods for Decision Making). I expect it to be a busy and wonderful semester.

Getting this position at Marymount in many ways a dream come true for me. This is exactly the type of job I was hoping for when I entered GMU's PhD program in the exact location I hoped to stay in. I am deeply grateful and profoundly elated.

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T20:10:00.000-05:00

Wishing all my readers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Rest In Peace, Steve Jobs

2011-10-05T22:37:00.001-04:00

“No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

- Steve Jobs at the Stanford University commencement address in 2005 (via Cult of Mac)

Below is the video of Jobs giving the speech where these quotes come from. (Highly recommended viewing.)

And another video tribute remembering some of Jobs' greatest presentations:

More of Steve Jobs in his own words:

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.”

“When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

Additional quotes after the link.

Below is a roundup of obituaries from around the web:

WSJ: Apple’s Steve Jobs is Dead
Bloomberg: Steve Jobs, Who Built World’s Most Valuable Technology Company, Dies at 56
Reuters: A world without Steve Jobs
AP: The World-Changer: Steve Jobs knew what he wanted
ThisIsMyNext: Steve Jobs: 1955-2011
Los Angeles Times: Steve Jobs dies; Apple’s co-founder transformed computers and culture
BoingBoing: Steve Jobs has died
People: Steve Jobs, Apple’s Visionary, Dies
The Guardian: Steve Jobs obituary
The New York Times: Steve Jobs, Apple’s Visionary, Dies at 56
The Financial Times: Apple: Jobs done but magic lingers
PCWorld: Apple Chairman Steve Jobs Dead at 56
The Economist: Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs, you sought to "put a dent in the universe" and you succeeded. You will be missed.

Weighing In: One Year Later

2011-09-19T11:53:00.000-04:00

September 16th marked my one year anniversary of starting my self-experiment to lose weight. I hit my heaviest weight ever at 193 pounds after studying for the Virginia Bar last summer and decided it was time to do something about it. I began using the LoseIt app for the iPhone to keep track of my net calories and successfully lost 25 pounds in 3 months, without any special food or exercise. I then maintained my weight without exercise for 3 months and kept it steady for another 3 months while training for my first triathlon ever. My latest feat has been to lose another 5 pounds after the triathlon, making a total of 30 pounds lost over this past year.

Needless to say, I am quite pleased with these results. For anyone sincerely desiring to lose weight, I can't recommend the LoseIt app and/or keeping track of calories highly enough.

(NOTE: I couldn't post this on the 16th this year because I was at the beach in New Jersey and away from a scale. I weighed in at 162.2 on the 15th and 162.8 today.)

Human Flying Squirrel

2011-09-07T14:45:00.000-04:00

This looks like so much fun:

Our friend Annitra Morrison sent in this video the other day, and I’ve watched it at least a dozen times. It’s by professional BASE jumper, wingsuit flyer, and all around crazy person Jeb Corliss, whom you might remember from 2006, when he was arrested on the observation deck of the Empire State Building, restrained by the NYPD before he could BASE jump off of it. My question after watching this video is: how many physics calculations did Corliss and Co. do before he took the giant leap? And also, considering how close he comes (watch at the 1:19 mark, don’t worry you’ll get a few looks at it) was he correct?

Jumping off Sky Tower in Auckland, New Zealand is the closest I've come to anything like this.

A Thank You to Steve Jobs

2011-08-25T15:18:00.001-04:00

The news is full of people opining about Steve Jobs' resignation as the CEO of Apple. Of them, I think Russ Roberts has one of the best:

The headlines say he remade industries. The articles talk about how he gave consumers what they wanted. But he famously didn’t give consumers what they wanted. He imagined what they might enjoy wanting and then he gave it to them. Yes, he remade industries. But he did more than that. He changed the way we interact with information and music, the way we consume information and music, and the way we create it. It is hard to think of anyone who changed the fabric of so many lives in such a positive way. I say that as I write these words on a MacBook Pro, listening to Irish music via iTunes, my iPhone in my pocket. And of course his influence extends beyond the Apple products created under his leadership. Those products influenced the products of Apple’s competitors.

His success illustrates the sterility of the mainstream approach in economics to corporate strategy and the theory of the firm. The theory of the firm in neoclassical theory focuses on how much the firm should produce and optimal capacity. Game theory looks at strategic issues arising under various payoffs. Neither approach captures the nature of innovation, the trial and error risk-taking of the visionary entrepreneur or the power of creative destruction to enrich our lives. These ideas are at the heart of the Austrian approach to the firm, an approach that has made even less headway in mainstream academic circles than Austrian business cycle theory. I don’t know much about it other than its flavor. I’m going to read some more.

I hope Steve Jobs can overcome this latest health setback. In the meanwhile, thank you, Steve.

Jobs' brilliance was indeed imagining what consumers might want and giving it to them. In my lifetime, I can't think of anyone else who comes close in their ability to do this. Jobs will most certainly and deservedly go down as a legend among CEO's.

As an example of the impact Jobs had, here are five industries he helped change forever, how he changed Apple, and some of his best quotes over the years.

While I'm less of a fan of the patent wars Apple often engages in to squash their competition, there's no question they have been a lead innovator and hold a remarkable array of patents.

Perhaps the best tribute to Steve Jobs I can give is the fact that I not only have an iPad and iPhone sitting on the table as I type this in a coffee shop in DC, but also that in the past week I sold the best computer I've ever owned to buy an even better one.

Thanks for all the great products and the great markets you helped create, Steve. You helped transform the world. I wish you well with your health. You will be missed.

Would You Give Up The Internet For Life For $1 Million?

2011-07-08T00:25:00.003-04:00

If not, and the Internet's worth that much to you, you might be richer than you think. As the video says, in some ways we may all already be millionaires.

(HT Russ Roberts)

My First Triathlon: Running Towards the Finish Line

2011-06-20T23:25:00.002-04:00

I'm happy to report my first triathlon was a success. Above is a photo of me on the last leg, running toward the finish line. (Courtesy of my dad.)

Exhausted by the end, but a huge sense of accomplishment. Still pondering what my next challenge will be.

Operation TriBri: My First Triathlon -- Tomorrow!

2011-06-18T17:13:00.006-04:00

Tomorrow morning, I will compete in my first ever sprint triathlon in the DC Triathlon. Our race distances are an 800m swim, 20k bike, and 7.5k run -- finishing up running along the National Mall.

What makes this a particularly challenging achievement for me is that when I began training on March 19th, three months ago tomorrow, I couldn't jog for more than 60 seconds without getting out of breath, had never swam freestyle, and couldn't hold my form swimming once across the pool. I am now going on 5-mile runs and can swim for a mile non-stop in the pool. (Biking wasn't too much of a problem when I started, so my training on that has been minimal so far.)

Like when I lost 25 pounds in three months late last year, this has been accomplished by rapid incremental progress combined with tracking and training with some clever iPhone apps. (See my article on using technology to train for my first triathlon on Geardiary.com for more on this.) While I can't say I've enjoyed every minute of the process of training, I have thoroughly enjoyed my progress. I plan to continue explore new levels of fitness in some capacity after the race.

Combined with my lost weight, I am by far in the best shape of my life. If you are thinking about losing weight or getting in shape, what are you waiting for? Download those apps and get moving!

See you at the finish line!

Weighing In: Nine Months Later

2011-06-16T14:46:00.002-04:00

Nine months ago to the day, I started a self-experiment to lose weight. In three months to the day after starting, I had dropped from 193 to 168 pounds without any special exercise. For the last six months, I’ve been trying to hold my weight constant, including through the last three months of triathlon training.

Target weight = 168.0. Actual weight as of this morning = 167.6.

Useless Research and the Signaling of Economists

2011-05-15T10:47:00.006-04:00

Have economics professors failed to learn from the financial crisis? If so, is it because they care more about doing useless research than being relevant to the world? Seth Roberts thinks so:

I like this essay by Brad DeLong about the failure of economics professors. They didn’t just fail to predict the recent economics crisis but they have failed, as far as he can tell, to learn from it. If you are naive, of course this is astonishing — but DeLong is not naive. Yet he is “astonished”. That’s interesting.

It’s hard to imagine DeLong doesn’t know what I am about to say. I imagine anybody with any academic sophistication is aware of it — especially economists. As Thorstein Veblen (an economist) pointed out in The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899), a great deal of what professors do, including economics professors, is about signaling high status. In economics, this is done by being highly mathematical. (Same in statistics. In art history, it is done by using big words. In engineering it is done by being theoretical. In many areas of science, it is done by using expensive equipment and having a large lab. In many fields it is done by being useless — e.g., preferring “pure” research over “applied” research.) This is no mystery. Economists think a lot about signaling. Michael Spence wrote an influential paper (which included Veblen’s phrase “conspicuous consumption”) and book about it, for example, for which he won a Nobel Prize. (More examples from economics.) But DeLong ignores the signaling of economists. Let me propose why economists haven’t taken the steps DeLong is astonished they haven’t taken: Because it would make them more useful and less mathematical. Thereby signaling lower status.

Why is signaling so common? It is basic biology, yes. But it is also convenient. Here is what Veblen didn’t say: It is so much easier to signal than to make progress. Among animals, it is much easier to signal you will win a fight than to actually win one. Among professors, it is easier to use big words than to write clearly. DeLong wants economists to choose progress over signaling. Shouldn’t an economist not be astonished when the lower-priced option is chosen?

I wanted to study economics after learning about it from reading popular books and studying it in business school. I thought there were a lot of cool applications for economics in both business and life. (And there are!) Unfortunately, I have been underwhelmed by how much practical value most contemporary research seems to have. And positively alarmed by how few academics seem to care.

Is it simply a matter of signaling or an aspect of diminishing marginal returns to research? Or am I wrong in my perspective?

See my previous post on making economics relevant again.

Was the Obesity Epidemic Caused by Cars?

2011-05-12T11:38:00.000-04:00

If so, removing Twinkies and Coca-Cola from schools probably won't change things much.

Junk food, video games and a lack of exercise all have received their fair share of blame for the spiraling epidemic of obesity in the U.S. But according to a University of Illinois researcher, public health enemy No. 1 for our supersized nation may very well be the one staple of modern life most Americans can't seem to live without one (or more) of: the automobile...

After analyzing data from national statistics measured between 1985 and 2007, Jacobson discovered vehicle use correlated "in the 99-percent range" with national annual obesity rates.

"If we drive more, we become heavier as a nation, and the cumulative lack of activity may eventually lead to, at the aggregate level, obesity," he said.

This makes me wonder how this correlates across income ranges? My understanding is that the poor are more likely to be obese and less likely to own a car. This might be obscured by simply looking at national statistics.

Obesity is rising across all income brackets (in the US). It could be that obesity is positively correlated across national income levels (the richer a country gets, the greater percentage of their population becomes obese) and negatively correlated across individual income levels (the poorer a person is within a given (developed) country, the more likely they are to be obese).

As national incomes rise, you would expect more food to be consumed and more cars to be purchased per capita. Is increased automobile usage the cause of obesity or greater income? Or both?

(HT Barking Up the Wrong Tree)

Lego-Style Apartment Transforms Into Infinite Spaces

2011-05-12T11:25:00.001-04:00

Readers of this blog will know I'm a big fan of small space living. (Influenced from all my trips to Japan and traveling the world with very little.) While I'm not sure I'd want to constantly rearrange my apartment, this Barcelona flat is pretty cool.

Here are more examples of small space living from Apartment Therapy's Small/Cool 2011 contest.

(HT MinimalMac)

Libertarian Paradise?

2011-05-10T10:26:00.000-04:00

(HT Greg Mankiw)

Dilbert on Opportunity Cost

2011-05-03T10:36:00.002-04:00

(HT Josh Wright)

Fight of the Century: Keynes vs. Hayek Round Two

2011-04-28T10:36:00.006-04:00

Another great econ rap video from Russ Roberts. Especially fun seeing Mike Munger do a phenomenal job playing the security guard at the beginning.

See the first Keynes vs. Hayek rap video here.

Fantastic!

The Daily Dozen

2011-04-20T10:48:00.000-04:00

What health insurance does cover, and doesn't.
What techniques do police use to get suspects to confess?
The joy of not cooking. Megan McArdle takes a look at the difference in how easy it is for her to cook compared to her grandmother.
Nature vs. nurture, as seen by economists.
Seth Godin on accepting false limits.
The sad, beautiful fact that we're all going to miss almost everything. (HT Tyler Cowen)
Angry Birds meets Star Wars.
A free book well worth your time: For those interested in the topic, click here to obtain a free download of Policy and Choice: Public Finance through the Lens of Behavioral Economics by William J. Congdon, Jeffrey R. Kling, and Sendhil Mullainathan.
Upper income people still don't realize they're upper income.
Can business be taught?
Privilege: How society's elites are made.
A look at iPad users: Apple still trouncing Android.

The History of Home Values in the US

2011-04-19T17:26:00.003-04:00

Are housing prices headed for a reversion to the mean?

(Click image for larger view.)

(Graph via The Big Picture)

All Cups, No Tea?

2011-04-19T16:06:00.005-04:00

If these allegations about Greg Mortenson prove true, this is a tremendous disappointment. Ali gave me a copy of Mortenson's book, Three Cups of Tea, a couple years ago. I loved the book and had been a big fan of Mortenson's work. Now it looks like he has exaggerated much of what he's done and engaged in some pretty serious fabrications and lack of financial oversight.

Another humanitarian hero has tumbled off his pedestal.
It remains to be seen whether Greg Mortenson, author of the best-selling “Three Cups of Tea,” will be able to avert a total reputation meltdown. But last Sunday’s 60 Minutes broadcast and a thorough exposé by Jon Krakauer provide convincing evidence for some serious allegations:
That some of the most important, inspiring stories in Mortenson’s nonfiction books—stories that provide the foundation for his whole mission—fall somewhere on the spectrum between greatly exaggerated and completely invented.
That Mortenson’s charity, the Central Asia Institute (CAI) lacks sufficient transparency and oversight.
That some not insignificant number of schools Mortenson claims to have built in Afghanistan and Pakistan either aren’t being supported by CAI, aren’t being used as schools, or don’t exist at all.
Mortenson refuted the allegations in a letter to his supporters, saying that the story “paints a distorted picture using inaccurate information, innuendo and a microscopic focus on one year’s (2009) IRS 990 financial, and a few points in the book ‘Three Cups of Tea’ that occurred almost 18 years ago.” But the rebuttals he’s provided so far do little to counter the weight of evidence against him.
What surprises me most about the story is not that yet another development demigod turned out to be a human.
What surprises me most is the way Mortenson’s charity—embraced by the US military and admired by President Obama, Oprah and literally millions of Americans—has managed to avoid scrutiny of its spending priorities for so long.

Read the whole thing and be sure to watch the 60 Minutes video.

More on this by Megan McArdle.

Jon Krakauer has an eBook on this called Three Cups of Deceit. It's available for free [PDF] through tomorrow.

Like I said, this is tremendously disappointing.

The Daily Dozen

2011-04-19T10:43:00.006-04:00

Have we reached a tipping point? E-book sales top paperbacks for first time in February.
How to spend your way to happiness -- part 1 and part 2. Some of the takeaways include 1) buying fewer material goods and more experiences; 2) use money to help others; and 3) buy fewer expensive pleasures and more frequent, less expensive ones.
Why some of us get more done in coffee shops.
How to add years to your life? Develop a positive attitude about aging. It also helps to act like you are younger than you are. Looks like shopping daily might help too.
Human capital follows the thermometer.
75 things worth watching on Netflix streaming.
Randomization is a dilemma to managed rather than a problem to be solved.
Computing research that has changed the world.
Women won't marry down: So Kay Hymowitz asserts. "...[T]he biggest reason we probably won't see a lot more college-educated women walking down the aisle with their plumber is one we don't like to say out loud: they want to have smart kids. Educated men and women are drawn to spouses they think will help them produce the children likely to thrive in the contemporary knowledge-based economy. That means high IQ, ambitious, and organized kids who will do their homework and take a lot of AP courses." As she points out, this serves to increase inequality. My guess is that it is a far more important driver of inequality than any government policy or lack thereof.
How worrisome is student debt?
Regulatory monopolies and interior designers. How long until lawyers face deregulation scrutiny?
A timeline of Holy Week:

(click image for larger view)

The Arlington Triangle

2011-04-18T14:38:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, I went on a 16.29 mile bike ride with a friend around the Arlington Triangle. This is a loop around Arlington that goes rough an interconnection of four separate trails, including some great views of the monuments while riding along the Potomac. Turns out Arlington is not just a great place for walking, but for biking too.

You can see a detailed map of our route, including our ride times here.

In addition to biking, I have also done quite a bit of running and swimming over the past few weeks. After having so much success with my weight loss, I figured the next logical step is to start focusing on my fitness. Stay tuned for more on this.

P.S. - This post was entirely written and formatted on my iPad using a new Blogsy app. I hope to share some thoughts on this soon.

In China, No Deed Means No Dates

2011-04-15T12:16:00.001-04:00

The effects of gender imbalance or marriage markets gone awry?
Although there are few concrete ways to measure the scope of involuntary bachelorhood, more than 70 percent of single women in a recent survey said they would tie the knot only with a prospective husband who owned a home.

Among the qualities they seek in a mate, 50 percent said that financial considerations ranked above all else, with good morals and personality falling beneath the top three requirements. (Not surprisingly, 54 percent of single men ranked beauty first, according to the report, which surveyed 32,000 people and was jointly issued by the Chinese Research Association of Marriage and Family and the All-China Women’s Federation.)

The marriage competition is fierce, and statistically, women hold the cards. Given the nation’s gender imbalance, an outgrowth of a cultural preference for boys and China’s stringent family-planning policies, as many as 24 million men could be perpetual bachelors by 2020, according to the report.

Zhang Yanhong, a matchmaking consultant at Baihe, one of the country’s most popular dating sites, said many disheartened men had simply dropped out of the marriage market.

“This fixation on real estate has twisted the popular notion of love and marriage,” she said. “Women are putting economic factors above everything else when looking for a mate, and this is not a good thing for relationships or for society.”

Hans Rosling on the Magic of the Washing Machine

2011-03-26T09:31:00.003-04:00

Another great video by Hans Rosling on the power of the washing machine to liberate and educate women. Well worth watching.

(HT Steven Horwitz)