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Behavioral Economics

May 29, 2008 – 9:35 am

“There’s an old joke that if you laid every economist in history end to end, they still wouldn’t reach a conclusion.”

Ha! The main point in Gary Belsky and Thomas Gilovich’s book is found in its long title: Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes and How to Correct Them: Lessons from the New Science of Behavioral Economics. The authors say, joking aside, we actually know a lot about money and markets, yet still make irrational decisions when it comes to money. Belsky and Gilovich write that by combining the disciplines of psychology and economics, we can understand how people make illogical choices when spending, investing or borrowing money. The book is written in an entertaining style — just the kind of writing that will help make solid financial advice less dry!

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McClellan’s Deception

May 28, 2008 – 7:30 am

“So I stood at the White house briefing room podium in front of the glare of the klieg lights for the better part of two weeks and publicly exonerated two of the senior-most aides in the White House: Karl Rove and Scooter Libby. There was one problem. It was not true.”

Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan has written a book titled What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception which comes out in June from Public Affairs publishing. McClellan writes about the glare of the lights to communicate the intense scrutiny he received by the press while passing out information he found out later was false. While McClellan is bitter at being deceived, a review in the New York Times of the yet-to-be published book says he retains affection for President Bush.

What Happened may be written in an entertaining style but I think I’m done with this administration and will skip this read – time to move on!

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Back to work!

May 27, 2008 – 7:45 am

Time to get busy, such a lot to do
Building and fixing till it’s good as new
Bob and the gang have so much fun
Working together, they get the job done.

Are you heading back to work today after a relaxing holiday weekend? For my international readers, Memorial Day commemorates U.S. men and women who died while in military service. Some people will have observed the day by flying a flag at half-staff. While for others, it is simply a day off with the meaning lost like so many holidays.

My boy has been going around this morning singing this theme song to the kid’s show Bob the Builder. The simple rhyme is catchy and the point about team work is a good lesson, for both big and little people. It seemed apropos for today. Happy working!

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Simple Gifts

May 26, 2008 – 8:03 am

‘Tis the gift to be simple, ’tis the gift to be free,
‘Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be,
And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
‘Twill be in the valley of love and delight.

Joseph Brackett’s 1848 Shaker dance song wasn’t well known until composer Aaron Copland used it in Martha Graham‘s ballet, Appalachian Spring, first performed in 1944. Since then, the song has been adapted by many folk singers and composers. This first sentence has been broadened from Brackett’s original religious meaning to refer to the whole simplicity movement, or the path away from material possessions.

I remember singing Simple Gifts in middle school choir. I’ve always believed in the point of simple living in today’s context: knowing the difference between needs and wants, enjoying nature and family, spending time consciously. It’s an ongoing process to weed out what is not important — it’s like a writer editing a sentence.

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Weekend Words: Tilting at Windmills

May 24, 2008 – 8:08 am

“Tilting at windmills” means attacking imaginary enemies. And while most people know it is a reference to Cervantes’ 1604 book Don Quixote, those words are actually not found there. In the popular Spanish novel, Quixote uses his lance to attack a group of windmills which he mistakes for ferocious giants.

Later that century, there is a figurative reference to tilting (or jousting) in a journal written by English poet John Cleveland, “The Quixotes of this Age fight with the Wind-mills of their owne Heads.”

The full form of the phrase isn’t used until towards the end of the 19th century. For example, in The New York Times, April 1870, “They [Western Republicans] have not thus far had sufficient of an organization behind them to make their opposition to the Committee’s bill anything more than tilting at windmills.” Today, I think people use it in an even broader sense to mean a futile effort.

So, even if Cervantes didn’t write the specific words, we have him to thank for this useful phrase.

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TGIF !

May 23, 2008 – 9:17 am

You might be using the American slang phrase today, “TGIF !” to mean “Thank God it’s Friday” or “Thank goodness it’s Friday !”

It’s interesting to find out, these four little letters can stand for several sentences with meanings beyond an expression of relief at the end of the work week. Florida used TGIF as a slogan to mean, “Thank God it’s Florida.” Of course, there is a restaurant chain named T. G. I. Friday’s. And one television sitcom used it to mean, “Thank goodness it’s funny.”

Since people from the UK to India and Belgium read this blog, I wonder if my international readers have heard of this saying..?

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Conrad’s Verisimilitude

May 22, 2008 – 9:19 am

“What is a novel if not a conviction of our fellow-men’s existence strong enough to take upon itself a form of imagined life clearer than reality and whose accumulated verisimilitude of selected episodes puts to shame the pride of documentary history?”

Of course I would like this sentence from English novelist Joseph Conrad since it has such a wonderful “v” word in it! Verisimilitude means being true, or depicting realism. It is often used in reference to art and literature, as in Conrad’s sentence. I wish I’d taken Latin; it provides so many clues to words. For example, verum means truth.

So is there more truth in fiction? In a novel, an author can certainly leave out the daily bits of life to focus on one important theme so we see it more clearly.

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Fleming, Ian Fleming

May 20, 2008 – 9:27 pm

“If I wait for the genius to come, it just doesn’t arrive.”

That’s a modest statement from an author without literary ambitions whose books spawned the James Bond empire. Ian Fleming didn’t seem to think he was very talented – rather he scheduled “seat time” daily and wrote a novel in two months. Fleming kept up his writing pace through a glamorous lifestyle which included his Jamaican retreat and a steady diet of cigarettes and cocktails. In one aspect, his lifestyle sets an example for writers — that is to schedule time to work every day and not let lofty visions of literary excellence hold you back.

In a New York Times article titled Remembering Fleming, Ian Fleming the reviewer writes about a current exhibit on Fleming in London’s Imperial War Museum. Fleming had rich experiences to use for his books from his military career in World War II. It’s amazing that the man whose first book was Casino Royale also wrote the children’s book Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Fleming’s approach to his writing reminds me of the words by Pablo Picasso, “Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.”

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Bacon’s Books

May 20, 2008 – 9:27 am

“Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.”

The English philosopher Francis Bacon wrote this around 1600 long before the term “beach book” but I think that’s the type of book he says should be tasted. The books that are worthy of being digested are harder to find. It is funny to think that reading habits change with the seasons along with clothes and food — but many people do turn to light reading in the summertime. What are your summer reading habits?

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Thoreau’s Solitude

May 19, 2008 – 8:16 am

“This is a delicious evening, when the whole body is one sense, and imbibes delight through every pore. ~ The bullfrogs trump to usher in the night, and the note of the whip-poor-will is borne on the rippling wind from over the water.”

So begins Henry David Thoreau’s chapter titled Solitude from his book Walden. I like Thoreau’s suggestion that your senses can become one in taking in the summer evening. We went to sleep last night listening to the frogs — a sure sign of the new season. Thoreau ends this chapter enthusing about the power of the morning air to keep one serene and contented. It is hard to imagine this lover of nature working in his family’s pencil factory in Concord, Massachusetts, but that’s what he did much of his adult life.

Are the writings from this man of the mid-1800’s relevant today? I haven’t read much Thoreau – so you tell me..?

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