(no subject)
Cost Benefit models. By defination stale and useless except when thinking about money, right? Not really.
It's funny what you learn being an economics major with lots of business classes. Analytical thinking isn't just for quantitative data, and understanding an agent's motivation is tantamount to understanding behavior, and it works in real life.
A friend was debating between two jobs today. One had a higher salary, but was further from home, and he thought he might like the work a little less. It took him awhile to really say averything, and I just listened, and simplified it so that his thinking would be clearer. What's good about the job? more money (quantity omitted) and a free master's degree. What's bad? He's far from family that he is very close to and sees every week, and he might like the work less. Simplifies the situation a little. then you go about finding the coefficients for everything in the equation. How much do you need the money? Is the master's degree valuable in the field he is in? How much less woudl you see your family? Maybe it's good to move further away? More independence? How much less fun will the work be? And it simplifies, in my head, automatically and clearly
α(Money)+β(Value of Masters)+γ(Family closeness)+δ(enjoyment of work)
Where α and β are greater than zero and γ and δ are less than zero.
Granted, you can't solve the problems with numbers, but having it like that would make things much clearer to think about at least. Thinking about the values of the coefficients to you personally is what helps. It's not hard, nor a great feat, but it is sometimes hard to think in a straightforward manner like that.
I don't really know what this post was for, just throwing it out into the Æther. Oh, and don't forget, better information leads to better decisions - It's cost accounting's mantra.
It's funny what you learn being an economics major with lots of business classes. Analytical thinking isn't just for quantitative data, and understanding an agent's motivation is tantamount to understanding behavior, and it works in real life.
A friend was debating between two jobs today. One had a higher salary, but was further from home, and he thought he might like the work a little less. It took him awhile to really say averything, and I just listened, and simplified it so that his thinking would be clearer. What's good about the job? more money (quantity omitted) and a free master's degree. What's bad? He's far from family that he is very close to and sees every week, and he might like the work less. Simplifies the situation a little. then you go about finding the coefficients for everything in the equation. How much do you need the money? Is the master's degree valuable in the field he is in? How much less woudl you see your family? Maybe it's good to move further away? More independence? How much less fun will the work be? And it simplifies, in my head, automatically and clearly
α(Money)+β(Value of Masters)+γ(Family closeness)+δ(enjoyment of work)
Where α and β are greater than zero and γ and δ are less than zero.
Granted, you can't solve the problems with numbers, but having it like that would make things much clearer to think about at least. Thinking about the values of the coefficients to you personally is what helps. It's not hard, nor a great feat, but it is sometimes hard to think in a straightforward manner like that.
I don't really know what this post was for, just throwing it out into the Æther. Oh, and don't forget, better information leads to better decisions - It's cost accounting's mantra.