• 23 Jun 2006 /  Uncategorized

    It’s 1:15 PM, 23 June 2006, and I feel so old right now.
    I’m at the formal luncheon of the MSMESB Conference, in the Winter Garden of the GSB. It’s mostly statisticians from business schools. It’s not that I’m physically old, at all. I’m one of the youngest; there are lots of balding white-hairs. Yet I belong here. I just finished lunch, where the conversation felt right. I’ve been treated as a junior colleague - people ask about my work, I ask about theirs, they look at my poster. We talk about projects, and they listen. Yes, it’s good work. Yes, it’s strange to be a colleague. I’m not just a student anymore. Yes, technically I’m still not done, but (God and Rob willing) I’ll be done in a couple months. Maybe I’ll become a lecturer, a bank worker, or a consulant. (At least one of those would only be temporary.) In any of those fields, I’m not getting my hand held any more. I love this conference. There are 4 afternoon concurrent sessions and I want to go to three! And I can contribute to them. Welcome to the Grown-up Table, Adam.

    That was transcribed from my luncheon notes. I’ll add one other quote here. Steven Levitt received the Harry Roberts Statistical Advocate of the Year award, and gave about a half hour of remarks. He talked about the difference between statistics advocate and policy advocate. I had been seated at a table with Mark Berenson, a true policy advocate; his daughter Lori Berenson is a political prisoner in Peru. He was there last weekend, visiting. There’s one good quote from Professor Levitt. He had talked to a high class Chicago callgirl, who was charging $300 an hour. $200,000 yearly for ten hours a week is good, but she dreaded hearing the phone. He tried to convince her to raise her rates. Later, he invited the callgirl to speak to his class on the economics of crime. In response to a question, her rates were now $400 an hour. As she said, “Professor Levitt convinced me my services were far more valuable than $300.”

  • 15 Jun 2006 /  Uncategorized

    Here’s a little more lightness, some online quiz results. Well, some are really light, others a little more informative.


    Click here to take the “Which Superhero am I?” quiz…

    Your results: You are Superman. You are mild-mannered, good, strong and you love to help others.
























    Superman
    80%
    Spider-Man
    70%
    Batman
    60%
    Supergirl
    55%
    Robin
    47%
    The Flash
    45%
    Wonder Woman
    35%
    Green Lantern
    35%
    Hulk
    30%
    Iron Man
    25%
    Catwoman
    15%

    From Personality Project comes this evaluation of the standard Big 5 personality traits. My scores are relative percentages; for instance, I scored higher on extraversion than 21 percent of the population.

    Extraversion 21

    Agreeableness 99

    Conscientiousness 96

    Emotional Stability 58

    Openness to Change 98

    The extraversion score is roughly correct (and an increase from 10 years ago). Agreeableness is related to accomodation and anger, and I’m generally pleasant and congenial. I’d score myself a little lower, around 90. Conscientiousness makes lots of sense; I have vast quantities of honor and respect for duty. I agree with my emotional stability score in the middle; while I can generate vast amounts of emotional safety and security, at times I basically break down. The only big surprise is Openness to Change. The test measured inventiveness, imagination, and similar characteristics. I can be very creative in problem solving, and scored high. I wouldn’t call myself spontaneous, though - I would have marked myself in the middle here.

    From OKCupid comes this very interesting offering, The Would You Have Been A Nazi? Test. The religious element is too heavily weighted for brainwashing and underweighted for patriotism here. Catholicism, at least my progressive variety, has a stronger anti-government element. On the other hand, young Josef Ratzinger scored about this level too.

    The Everyday German
    Achtung! You are 46% brainwashworthy, 18% antitolerant, and 38% blindly patriotic.
    Had you lived in Germany in the 1930s, you’d have probably just gone along with the flow. Men with guns are surrounding the house next door? The bagel place on the corner’s gone? Hmm…whatever.

    The data show you’re a decent person who’s willing to listen to what people of authority tell you. That’s what most people are, and in most times and most places, that’s ok. But not then; not there.

    The sad conclusion: you would’ve missed your Jewish friends, but you would’ve done nothing about it. Seriously. But rest assured, you would’ve forgiven yourself eventually.

    If you’re looking for my Myers-Briggs type, The LONG Scientific Personality Test can be taken here. I score as a Counselor, INFJ. I scored 18% I to E, 31% N to S, 38% F to T, and 26% J to P. Inroversion is strongest, which I fully agree with. Though I can be social, it’s draining. Also I score strongly on J over P, which agrees with my natural tendency to order. The iNtrospective N might surprise people, because I work so much with figures in data. I qualify because I form categories and scores, concepts of my own making, not scales of others. Similarly, the F makes sense because I accept emotion, use emotion, and want to feel. This is weakest, and I might truly be a pragmatic rational; the description of NT is close, but SF and ST are farther. On the other hand, Emily Dickinson and Mohandas Gandhi are considered Counselors. One is my favorite poet and the other is on a poster in my apartment. I also think this description is appropriate.

    Your type is best summed up by the word “counselor”, which belongs to the larger group of idealists. Only 2% of the population share your type. You are so empathic that you often know what others need before they know themselves. You are a complex person who can deal with complicated issues and people, almost prefer to, as you love problem solving. You can be something of an idealist or perfectionist, and should try to take yourself a little less seriously.

    You are a supportive and insightful romantic partner, encouraging your mate to have dreams and work hard to make those dreams come true. Because you are so creative, you have a wealth of ideas to help them toward those goals. You need harmony so much that you are driven to resolve conflict quickly, as long as the terms don’t violate your ethics. You feel the most appreciated when your partner admires your creativity, trusts your inspirations, and respects your values. It is also vitally important that your partner be open and emotionally available - in other words, that they be willing to share themselves completely.

  • 04 Jun 2006 /  Uncategorized

    So, a Jew, a Muslim, and Jesus get on a plane. The flight is on Ted, from O’Hare to Phoenix. Jesus has the middle seat, of course. About an hour in, the captain comes on the intercom to announce that they’re having problems. “It’s not terrorism, just mechanical failure. We’re trying to land in Topeka, but things don’t look good.” Immediately, the Muslim opens his Koran and starts reading. Jesus says, “You know, it’s really white grapes, right?” The Muslim just glares. The Jew mutters some prayers about fifth heaven. Jesus just sits there calmly, flipping through The Economist.
    The passengers feel the descent accelerate. The captain makes another announcement, “Sorry folks, I don’t think we’re going to make it. You have a few minutes to prepare yourselves.” There’s screaming, crying, kissing, and so on. The Jew notices Jesus just sits there, reading. He asks, “Why are you so calm?” Jesus replies, “Well, it was a lot more painful the last time.”

    Where did this come from? A few months ago, I was out at a bar with two friends. One had just been dumped by a guy, rather viciously. She was crying. After some hand holding, I was asked to tell a joke. I didn’t have anything on the top of my head, so the third person suggested the opening line above. This is (basically) what I came up with on the fly. Without the HTML links, of course. It’s not that bad, I think.