Saturday, November 21, 2009

General Sillines

If you’ve been missing Uri’s shenanigans, here’s a taste of Uri in top form:
Note his infamous “Blue Steel” (right) as well as the less appreciate “Magnum” (bottom, left). The hat was a gift from our friends Yuval and Bella (Thank you Nusses). They also sent us Shemo’s new book. I hope I’ll have some pictures to show that soon ;)






Also, I’ve uploaded here our current go-to pick me up:
A Reece’s Moose that I picked up at the drug store. For those of you who remember our mascot from China, Moose, you know that we have an affinity to these animals, specifically when they are plush, stuffed and shorter than 12 inches. So here it is – prepared to be marginally amused:

Monday, November 16, 2009

Ode to My Dad

Strange, but true – one of the strongest memories I have of my childhood is of my dad eating breakfast. He would take 2 different yogurt flavors, and pour one into the other, creating a pretty collage. Then he would pour in cereal and mix it all up with his spoon, but his spoon motions were up and down instead of round, figure 8 motions that most people make while mixing.
I wonder why I remember it with such detail. Maybe it’s because they were so constant and so often, it was almost ritualistic.
A few days back, for whatever reason, I recalled my dad’s ritual when it was actually relevant – in the morning when I took my yogurt. I love how evoking such a memory can make a simple breakfast to much more than it actually was.

Monday, November 9, 2009

Every pot has its cover


Dear friends and family
Usually I let my wife use this form of communication, but I decided to give it a try.
For the first time in A couple of years I have a routine for each day of the week. I know exactly what I'll do and when I'll do it. It is an unusual feeling for me, though it is going to be short lived experience with the baby and all :-)Most of you know that this year I started teaching. All together it's going pretty well. The fact that I don't have to prepare them for a test at the end of the school is a blessing in that it gives me a lot of freedom to teach almost any relevant material that I find interesting. The flip side is that some students don't have any motivation to study since not all of them are curious enough. But overall, those who are interested make it worth while.

The were also two other things I was thinking of sharing with you: First of all. I saw the new Cohen Brothers movie. It is the most Jewish and the most weird movie I have ever seen. I cannot recommend it, although, if any of you are going to see it, I can say that it is a very unique experience. Please let me know what you thought. The second thing goes to a well known fact about me - that I love to cook In big quantities. Despite the fact that over the years it has been somewhat exaggerated, it is mostly true. The nice thing is that now that I'm cooking for others on a regular basis, I have the perfect excuse with cooking for other people. That gave me another excuse to do something else I love to do: I bought a new big pot. I haven't used it yet, but I am excited to try (it also has other uses as well).
This is the end of my experiment,and I hope you enjoyed it
uri

Sunday, November 1, 2009

What would you do?

My Consumer Behavior class has become in and of itself an experiment in consumer behavior. About a week and a half ago the most interesting experiment took place: The professor came into class and announced that given that he thinks the majority of our final project proposals are weak and boring, he is giving us another option for a final project which involves analysis rather than research. In his mind, this second alternative better plays to our strengths as MBA students. The problem was this: that same day was the first of two possible dates to submit the first part of the original project. Moreover, in giving the new, easier alternative, he also changed the criteria for the grading of the original project: before that project’s grade was divided between 3 “mini projects”, now, the entire grade rests on the final paper submitted.
So what do you think? Put yourself in the following situation and tell me what you would have done: Your team decided to submit the first paper on that day. During the past week each of you worked 5-8 hours on researching and writing the paper. When you come to class you find out that (a) you now have an easier option, (b) the work that you did do (that you now the professor prejudges as is poor) will not count towards your grade and (c) there is part of the class that did not do that work yet and given the new option might not have to do it.



If you are an MBA student in the US, I’m sure that it’s clear to you that the answer is 3. I’ve actually seen this happen on several occasions – something related to a project is changed in a manner that makes the project easier for everyone, and those that already put in work get pissed off, completely ignoring the fact that they can benefit from the change as well.
My initial reaction was to raise a question as to the general emotion of social solidarity among my classmates. If everyone were to choose the new option those who had already handed in the first paper in the original project had a sunk cost while other didn’t. That difference was so outrageous to those who did the work that they were willing to give up the benefit of the new option, thereby putting everyone at a disadvantage.
But there is another interesting question in this scenario, even if you don’t consider the relationship between the individual and the group – the fact that to the people who had done the initial work, the sunk cost seemed so much greater than the benefit they might get from switching to the new option. On this topic, I actually found somewhat related research done by On Amir and Dan Ariely, published in the Journal of Marketing Research (Feb 2007). Their research showed that when a rule based decision mechanism is triggered a person is more likely to make an illogical decision rather than break the rule.
The researched focused on money as a cue for triggering such rule based decision mechanism, and actually showed that effort (in their study, a longer drive) does not trigger it. However, I think that this study still is relevant here. My working theory right now is that for American MBA students, there is a rule of fairness which dictates that hard work should be rewarded while slacking off is should be punished. The events in class triggered that rule and made them irrationally prefer continuing with the original project rather than choose the second option, forsaking their own benefit from switching and completely disregarding the implication to others.
It’s a working theory, still not worded perfectly, and I still this that last part (disregarding the implication to others) is a cultural thing has to do with social solidarity. I wonder what Ariely and Amir (both Israeli Professors at American MBA programs) would think.

PS - when putting in links for this blog, I noticed that this month's JMR has an article written by 2 of my professors, one of them the professor of the aforementioned CB class.
Oh - and another think, the link to Dan Ariely is a to the TED website. he has 2 talks there, both very interesting, neither very long.