Showing posts with label Incentives. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Incentives. Show all posts

Monday, July 19, 2010

School of Pretending

An interesting essay about high school education;

In my high school French class we were supposed to read Hugo's Les Miserables. I don't think any of us knew French well enough to make our way through this enormous book. Like the rest of the class, I just skimmed the Cliff's Notes. When we were given a test on the book, I noticed that the questions sounded odd. They were full of long words that our teacher wouldn't have used. Where had these questions come from? From the Cliff's Notes, it turned out. The teacher was using them too. We were all just pretending.

via David Friedman

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Parenting Advice from Ken Arrow

When my PhD thesis advisor, Ken Arrow, found out that I was soon to have my first child, he said to me, "Just remember, it is an investment."
-Joshua Gans, Parentonomics, p 212