"The ‘Learning Knights’ of Bell Telephone"

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/16/opinion/16davis.html?scp=1&sq=bell&st=cse

This is perhaps why I chose to receive a liberal arts education and why such education is so important to not only the liberal-arts-oriented but also any people engaged in different industries. Liberal arts prepare us to think of a broad spectrum of issues in an open mindset and inspire us to value the process of analyzing, critically thinking, and learning even just theories.
However, I also wonder if I had yet succeeded in learning these lessons properly and applied this training to real-world problems. Maybe the Honors will challenge me to do that more rigorously.

the way i confront it

Unexpected emails are sometimes exciting but also disturbing at times. Today I received an email from my international economics professor and it gave me a pang of regret and relief at the same time. To be more exact about the chronology of my emotions, I felt relieved first and then regretted for what I did on the exam day.

I don't really want to elaborate on how my terrible moments were. But I want myself to remember this terrible moment of mixed feelings between regret and relief, and not repeat the same mistake. That's all.

Inconsistency

I sometimes find out how much people are exposed to inconsistencies of people's behaviors. People say one thing but think or act differently behind. This is not only common among strangers but also quite often among family members, which I think is more stirring and uncomfortable to face.

I am not that bad at doing this. Although I suck at pretending to be in a good mood when I'm not or deceiving others with great acting, I am quite capable of withstanding uncomfortable circumstances as if they never disturbed me. When there are things all around to distress me, I usually try to numb all my cognitive senses to an extent that I feel no pains. I will get through this inconsistency smoothly after all. Or I will just escape from it very soon and think nothing of it.

Inconsistency - one person says one thing and the other person says another thing when each of them is supposed to be saying the same thing. That inconsistency is driving me nuts at the moment. I must have grown up enough to know how to deal with such an inconsistency by myself and form my actions discretely. But at the same time, I think having to face this inconsistency itself is quite distressful. It's not inevitable and could be resolved without breaking out like this. But people there do not seem to have the determination to resolve it or terminate the inconsistency. I do not also have the guts to ask them in person.

But the answer for now will be to do what I can do and do my best to improve the situation if I ever can - like a diplomat.

Easy to get confused in Linear Algebra

"In the parallel world between any vector space V and R^n, parallellize the basis in V to the standard basis in R^n..."

"parallellize" not equal to "paralyze"

risk diversification

"Don't put all your eggs in one basket."

Same for every risk you might face in your life.

week 9

A week of intensive wandering and unhappiness is over.

My friends helped me and the Lord was there for me, whom I believe was the one who sent those messages to me. The source of my unhappiness was an endless stream of obsessed thinking on my weaknesses, which I didn't want to confront. Now I will confront them and stay strong.

"After rain hardens the ground."

"Every blade of grass has its angel that bends over it and whispers, 'Grow, grow.'"

-from the Talmud

reminder

I think I really do love macro.

national longitudinal study 79

Until now I have been so ignorant and disinterested about the source of data used for all these academic papers. I just took it for granted - literally - rather than being inquisitive about where and how these data were processed.

Alas, that's why the experience counts, especially for economists. I realized unless I had an opportunity to write an empirical paper for my seminar, I would not know how to collect data, where I can best find it and arrange it for my use, and how to read it.

I also realized after more than 12 hours of downloading data sets from NLS79, which has not been completed yet, there's some problem with downloading them in my hard disk. Too long to think it's just a large size file, I guess.

basketball and marriage premium

I've always been interested in basketball the most among professional sports though I haven't played it seriously in my life. This semester I've tried taking a PE course but couldn't fit it into my schedule and ended up taking tennis, which I thought might be a better idea in any way.

But finally, I think I am seriously getting a step further into the world of basketball through a different channel - economics. Well, I've never imagined myself doing any analysis with sport statistics. Even when Professor Wang was giving out some fascinating statistical analysis with baseball data in his uniquely entertaining way, I was never drawn to regard sports as a subject of my statistical analysis.

This semester, however, I think I am going to write a long, in-depth paper using sport statistics on NBA players. I will mainly investigate whether there exists a marriage premium on the productivity of NBA players. Does marriage enhance a player's game performance (measured by scores per game divided by the number of attempts at goals)?

I am still at a very much beginning step to predict anything. But I'm hoping to see some positive effect of marriage on productivity to provide a more interesting result and convince myself there has got to be some reason other than the fact that marriage is a social norm if almost everyone gets married at least once in their life.

I'm excited for this project - it'd be fun - except that I'd have to devote so many nights and days, including my spring break, to struggle to find a good instrument, deal with Stata, and justify my methodology. Agh!

Smiley face

:) -> :)
:) -> :(

So the converse does not work between some people.