I think the best thing about coming back from vacation is that most classes get right back into gear with some really interesting topics. Leading up to vacation is kind of like wrapping up and there’s usually a test or project involved, but now that we’re back, it’s time to get even deeper into the course material. By the way, Happy St. Patrick's Day!
Just a short while ago, I watched a video of myself delivering my presentation in managerial communications. It was a little weird seeing myself, but it was very informative to know what I look like speaking in front of a group. Overall, I think I did a great job, but I would like to work on incorporating more confidence in my voice. I sounded competent, but somewhat hesitant even though I knew the material very well.
In psychology, we’ve been learning about language. We discussed the important of having a defined syntax that everyone can understand and we also talked about how it is we learn language. Today, psychologists believe that language is learned based on our biology, but also our environment. I find it pretty interesting that anyone can learn the English language and then be able to read and understand everything I’ve written here. It’s just a bunch of symbols, but we’ve assigned a very distinct meaning to each grouping of letters so that we can communicate in written and verbal form.
In Personal Values yesterday, we talked about a very well-known thought experiment: The Prisoner’s Dilemma. Imagine you are visiting a totalitarian country. Suddenly, the police there inform you that you and another man you don’t know (We’ll call him Smith.) are under arrest for the same crime. In a room with just you and a police officer, he presents you with the following options:
- If you confess and Smith does not, Smith will serve ten years and you will go free.
- The opposite is true if Smith confesses and you do not.
- If you both confess, you will each receive five years in jail.
- If neither of you confess, you will each be held in jail for one year.
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| Substitute 10 years where it says 20 years. |
It is preferable that you confess and Smith does not, but you have no way of knowing what it is Smith will do if he is presented with the same options. Logically, you must confess because if you don’t, you may end up serving ten years. What changes this situation is if you are able to talk to Smith, but then it raises the question if you can trust him. He may try to trick you. It’s interesting to think about how one would react and decide in this situation.
Finally, in economics, we’re talking about four different groupings of firms in a sense of how much market power they possess. We’ve discussed the differences between perfect competition, monopolistic competition, oligopoly, and monopoly. I know this is being way too general, but basically the differences in how much market power a firm holds depends on three factors: how many firms and their size, differentiability of the product, and entry/exit costs to join/leave the market. This terminology makes sense to me because my professor is amazing, but if there’s something I’m not making clear enough, please comment and I’ll do my best to explain in more detail.
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| Wright Hall 1st Floor Common Room |
This entry is already getting a little lengthy, but there’s something that needs to be talked about: the housing lottery! Each student is given a lottery number – next year’s seniors have the lowest numbers and my class has the highest numbers. A current freshman will get a number between 450 and 1000. If you have a lower number, you will be first to choose your housing situation. If there’s someone you’d like to live with, you can sign up together, but others will choose to be placed with someone in a double. I think that’s what I am going to do. Getting assigned to a roommate allows you to meet someone and even a group of people you weren’t already familiar with. The housing lottery is on Monday and Tuesday next week. We’ll see how it goes! Have a great week.
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