Commanding Heights
Commanding Heights - a beautifully shot movie based on the book by the same name by Daniel Yergin by PBS is one of the most amazing documentaries I have seen which describes the rise of the Global Economy as we see today. It answers a lot of questions such as How did almost all countries in the world today end up being capitalist nations? Who were the chief architects in building this Global Economy? What are the pros and cons of a Global Economy? Why did the South East Asian miracle economies happen ? Is the current Indian / Chinese economy a bubble or is it based on strong fundamentals? And lots more ......... I think everyone (whether you know anything about economics or not) should watch this because it helps build your perspective on a lot of happenings of the past century. You can watch it online (if you have good bandwidth) at
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/commandingheights/lo/story/index.htmlAnd the best part is this is part of the syllabus for my mid term exam on Macro Economics tomorrow, so now I can say that I have to watch movies to do well in my exams!! ;)
Beaten by the curve
The letter grades for 2 subjects in Term 1 are out and I have lost an 'A' by less than 1% ....... so now I have to live with a 'B'!! The worst part is that anyone between 60% - 83% (which is 63% of the class ~ 263 students) get a 'B' ........... I know that this is a Normal distribution and this is how Normal distributions work but now I really feel like I have been
Beaten by the curve!! So either I perform way above average or average, it doesnt matter ......... there is nothing in between.
Has this motivated me to make that extra effort to get into the 'A' category? I am not sure because I believe that the
Law of Diminishing Returns is at work here which means that for every additional increase in points, I will have to put increasing amount of effort ..... and the question to be answered is "Is it worth it????".
Anyways heres an interesting article on Grade inflation at Harvard
http://chronicle.com/free/v47/i30/30b02401.htm
Under House Arrest
I have been diagnosed with Shingles and the doc has put me under heavy medication and advised me to stay at home and take rest for the next couple of days. So when all of ISB world is juggling their time between classes, Markstrat decisions and studying for exams, I am juggling (??) my time between sleeping, eating, and of course studying for exams! The good thing about my situation is that I have been forced a study leave, the food is delivered to my door step, I sleep about 12 hours a day and I have time to watch TV!!! And for those of you who think this is a good situation to be in, go find out how painful Shingles is .......
Arabian Nights Party!!
I believe that
a picture can speak a thousand words, and so I will let the pictures do the speaking!
What happens after studying Game theory too long ...
Since I dont have enough time to post something new, I thought I should post this series of mails runing in our section. This was after people had been studying Eco (Game theory), Marketing, Accounts, etc for long for the finals. BTW, for the uninitiated, the prof always uses examples of widgets, SOMA, poiuyts, qwerts to illustrate his example. Read on ....
I’ve lost a widget while traveling from LEFT to RIGHT. If anybody happens to find it, please let me know. SOMA treat is assured.
What colour is it?? Blue or Red???
Any differentiation guys?
Don’t bother… ISB is competitive.. you’ll find another one at the lowest cost here.. JJ
Fortunately, I found lots of widgets today!! Unfortunately, they are all either Red or Blue in color. If yours was any of this color, please meet me tomorrow at 3:30 PM in the Rec-centre and collect the same. However, I accept only AMOS in return, no SOMA please!!
I have a green widget! I have a green widget!! Now I am differentiated.
THE RP of junta for a green and other color widgets is zero…so quit OR grow your market using 4Ps 5Cs 7 Ms 12Xs 100Fs and so on..
Kamlesh I found your widget, but I’m on left side and your distance to my side is more than (1 – D) Better Integrate vertically with your manufacturer and produce a new one
It can be reported as LOSS on (non)disposal…that should settle the matter…
The eco toppers are definitely going to be from sec d, we have all learnt our lessons well……….errr maybe not. Remember what the prof said…”You should not give incentive to the rival firm to enter the market…….when u let one spamming firm enter the market, all the other spamming firms will follow and you will loose your MONOPOLY position…..prices will fall to MC………………………………..errr on second thoughts…..is accommodation better in some cases?????Time to get back to the books guys!!!!!!!!! J
One firm on the fringe was monitoring the market, waiting for a first move I guess..??
What about my Poiuyts & Qwerts??? Am I out of the market or am I differentiated?The mails died after this ........ I guess people got their frustration out and are now immersed back in their books.
Term 1 Ends.....
and I am technically 1/8th of an MBA. Anyways the picture above is of Section 'D' (my section for the Core terms) and the person in the center wearing an autographed T-shirt is our Economics Prof, Rakesh Vohra from Kellogg. Personally, I thought he was one of the best teachers I have ever had ........ it always was such a lot of fun attending his classes. He taught us Micro economics and Game theory and his method of teaching was just playing games in his class. Every class we used to play a different game with which he would illustrate the different models in Game theory ........
After the weekend we have our First term final exams and next week, Term 2 begins! All I can say is its been a lot of fun so far ........ next term is hopefully going to be more fun especially since I am fighting the elections for President-ship of the Pharma & Health care Club in ISB!!
P.S: Spot me if you can, apparently I have lost a lot of weight .... thanx to Sarovar (the food provider on campus)
