|Stumbling with words| Vol. 01

1. The Rise of Marijuana, the (Counter)-Culture of Dissidence, and the Fall of the American Army in the Vietnam War

2.

a) "And to those men in the audience, both young and old, I would remind you what it truly is to actually be a man. It has absolutely nothing to do with money, achievements, skills, accomplishments, degrees, professions, positions. A real man loves his wife. A real man is faithful to his wife. And real men, next to God and his country, put his wife and his children as the most important thing in his life."

b) "Hackers do not cause breaches. People do. And every breach comes down to that." People can't hack if you do no fault.

c) Credit card is the way for future proof of credential. We might no longer need collaterals to borrow. It is also hide your personal account from hackers.

3. Ed Sheeran Is in Love With the Shape of $$$: Brief on how Ed Sheeran broke record on sale. How? Simply lower price and more song in comparison to Taylor Swift

4. Science through cooking: Learnt the name from Inside Bill's brain documentary. Woww. Can't wait to read the whole book. Hope it can top Hervé This

5. Expected future income and consumption reaction: The emergence of credit card allows consumer to spend today, pay tomorrow. It also allow we to question whether future income increase consumption today. The article brings onto the table the other income-related indicators (wealth, average future income, risk aversion, etc.) with the relation to demand.

6. On morality vs. legal Is something legal moral?

Những người làm chủ số 1 Việt Nam

"Những người làm chủ số 1 Việt Nam" (No. 1 business owners in Vietnam) was an interesting read. I learnt quotes worth-sharing.

1. Thái Tuấn Chí: - Khăn khô cũng vắt. Trong quản lý thì tiết giảm chi phí, trong hoạt động thì phải luôn tư duy, đã làm hết cách chưa, còn cách nào không?

- Người ta không tối với mình đồng nghĩa người ta cũng không tốt với người khác. Và mình cũng không gắn bó cả đời với họ để phải phiền muộn quá nhiều

2. Phạm Đình Toàn Thay vì đa dạng hoá danh mục đầu tư, các bạn trẻ hãy tập cách bỏ nhiều trứng vào một giỏ, tập trung đầu tư hết vào mạnh nhất của mình. Nếu bạn học thật giỏi chuyên môn của mình, trải nghiệm bằng thực tế đúng như nguyện vọng, thì cơ hội thành công sẽ có xác suất cao hơn rất nhiều.

3. Đào Hồng Tuyển Đừng bao giờ thấy bầu trời xanh mà tưởng không có giông tố. Sự trong vắt của bầu trời một các không bình thường chính là biểu hiện chân trời đang có vấn đề.

4. Giản Tư Trung

- Về quản trị cuộc đời:

“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”

“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.

“I don’t much care where—” said Alice.

“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat.

“—so long as I get somewhere,” Alice added as an explanation.

“Oh, you’re sure to do that,” said the Cat, “if you only walk long enough.” —Chapter 6, Pig and Pepper - Alice in the Wonder Land

- Cuộc đời mỗi con người, ai cũng có thể có đến mấy "cái hang". Gia đình, tổ chức, xử sở, và thậm chí cả thế giới này đều có thể là những cái hang. Nhưng cái hang to nhất, tăm tối nhất chính là cái hàng "vô minh và ấu trĩ" bên trong con người mình. Nếu như hành trình khai minh bản thân đưa bản thân rời hang đã khó, thì hành trình khai minh xã hội và cùng cộng đồng mình "rời hang" lại càng gian nan gấp bội lần!

To choose and to be chosen

I chose economics as my major for undergrad and continue to pursuit a career in the subject. So what in it for me, and hopefully you, to pay more attention to the subject.

Definition of economics may vary yet we can agree with Lionel Robbins on his words:

"Economics is the science which studies human behavior as a relationship between ends and scarce means which have alternative uses."

Economics is the science of choice. To understand economics, one enters a quasi-scientific approach to make decisions.

What makes this approaches solid due to the fact that it assumes economic agents (aka human) to be rational and self-interest with unlimited needs and limited resources. And look at the world right now, we barely see anyone who does not fall into the category. Throughout my time, economics teaches me the following:

1. To think at margin

At the very first lecture, students was introduced the concepts of marginal costs and marginal benefits. One would choose A over B if the Net benefit of A > Net benefit of B. Economists explain why people stay home watching TV using the marginal method. The cost of watching TV is your effort of "pressing button". The cost of going out, on the other hand, is "dressing up, buying ticket, and going out of the house". Watching movie requires less work and reduces stress level instantly. The net benefit of watching TV, therefore, higher than that of going out given the short period of time. In long run, watching TV will cost lots more: heath, social connections, career, v.v

What you gonna choose? Short term satisfaction or long term happiness? Economic thinking model helps me lots in life from choosing what to invest, to buy, and who to date (LOL). It became a language in thinking system.

Exercise: To date and not to date a hot guy/girl at college? Or why we should be cheap?

2. To never forget opportunity costs

Charles Murger once said:

"Opportunity cost is a superpower, to be used by all people who have any hope of getting the right answer"

So what is opportunity cost?

Homer quit 8 days of works to be second in the queue. Is it true that he lost nothing? In economics discourses, every action casts opportunity costs.

Opportunity costs represent the benefits an individual, investor or business misses out on when choosing one alternative over another. (Investopedia)

So for Homer, his opportunity cost his 8 day salary. Whenever you make decisions, you win some and lose some. Remember to include opportunity cost in the equation.

Exercise: What do you think is the Opportunity cost of Barney if he chose woman over suits? Was Barney sensible in economics terms?

3. To signal your peachiness

One of my favorite moments is the day I know "market for lemons" introduced by George Arthur Akerlof

Suppose buyers cannot distinguish between a high-quality car (a "peach") and a "lemon". Then they are only willing to pay a fixed price for a car that averages the value of a "peach" and "lemon" together. But sellers know whether they hold a peach or a lemon. Given the fixed price at which buyers will buy, sellers will sell only when they hold "lemons" and they will leave the market when they hold "peaches" . Eventually, as enough sellers of "peaches" leave the market, the average willingness-to-pay of buyers will decrease (since the average quality of cars on the market decreased), leading to even more sellers of high-quality cars to leave the market through a positive feedback loop. Thus the uninformed buyer's price creates an adverse selection problem that drives the high-quality cars from the market. Adverse selection is a market mechanism that can lead to a market collapse. (Wikipedia)

To fix the problem, Michael Spence suggested economic agent should utilize market signaling. In the lemon market, signal can be contract to guarantee the quality of the car. In job market, your education can act as a signal to prove your capability. Your acts, your clothes, your certificates can be signals to prove your worthiness in the world of "lemons". Since people know about signaling for such a long time, we have a saying "fake it until you make it". In the world of imperfect information, even the signal can be fake. But one thing for sure, if you don't signal, how you are gonna be chosen?

Exercise: You are on Tinder, how would you signal?

Reference:

Charlie Munger: Academic Economics — Strengths and Weaknesses, after Considering Interdisciplinary Needs, Farnam Street, https://fs.blog/2015/03/charlie-munger-academic-economics/