Tuesday, February 28, 2006

You can explain love if you knew Economics :)

The views expressed may not be entirely what I believe but I shall go through the subject for just the fun of writing around a subject a lot of people are interested presently. By the end of your read a lot of people might think really awkward about me, others might feel that what I have told in parts are right but others are just for fun. There might be others who would just want to add points. All of you guys are welcome to enter your comments which would give me an idea about the readers. And henceforth I can make a better blog suiting all you people.

Where do we start? Hope you people have read my older blog about “unconditional love”if not do read it as it a small one and shall be a pre requisite for this one .. just kidding. click on the word -unconditional love

As always,everyone needs know my motivation of coming up with this blog and so the story..

From my college days have had a lot of friends,both girls and boys having their significant other. Being friend of all these people gave me an opportunity like none other to hear all their stories. Mind you I never ask for the stories I always like telling stories.
So I know at least from half a dozen people how the process of being love happened and how they went about informing their prospect. Why prospect? For obvious reasons!!! Not everyone hits the bull’s eye.

Now that I have called it a process I thought why I don’t apply all my knowledge about Economics and marketing and explain the process. Forgive me thy lord for using thee names…

Read this definition found in American Heritage Dictionary (1992):

A deep, tender, ineffable feeling of affection and solicitude toward a person, such as that arising from kinship, recognition of attractive qualities, or a sense of underlying oneness.


Sure that most of the American have read this definition and have internalized it. Just before I get to the economics of love I thought that the definition touches upon several complexities. Particularly daunting is the idea that love is indescribable.

Of all the basic emotions, love is the least clearly defined. Our conceptions of anger, fear, shame, grief, contempt, disgust, and joy may be fuzzy around the edges, but they are clear enough so that we can communicate about them. We feel we are able at least to distinguish between painful emotions, such as fear, grief and shame, and pleasurable ones, like interest, excitement, and joy.
Love as it is often perceived like a mystery, but it can be described I thought.

So the attempt.

So why economics and love? Ask those who have girl friends…Dating and Cash…both go together. Financial planning is what one of the guys who studies with us does ! Reason he has a family.
I searched for what economist had to say about love and marriage.

One Mr. Becker writes “A marriage market develop ‘shadow’ prices to guide participants to marriages that will maximize their expected well-being.”

Check out your Decision Modeling notes to know what a “Shadow price” means.. don’t ask me.

There is this guy Frank: “People with well-defined preferences act in purposeful ways to choose mates that best promote their material interests.”

What does a financial manager do before a project? Common guys everyone in BIM at least knows about those 50 problems in 3 hours.
No prizes for guessing – a simple cost benefit analysis (NPV)

Positive NPV i.e., the Market works!

This model is a creation of mine having read all these people. Getting into the “Theory of love”.

( Hey don’t be surprised to really find a paper called “Theory of love”. I just found on an msn website “theory of marriages” )

Love is a perpetual growth process. In Economics it’s learning over a horizon. Heard of the learning curve having an effect on production?

Thus love is
A process- life long learning process,
A dynamic process-changing

Having told it to be perpetual growth need to justify it. It grows with someone’s learning and personal growth (maturity).

I'll get more blunt with details. I'll draw a parallel between love and a firm.

You start a firm – Start up and here you start Dating.


Then you have a personal commitment, which in recent times is a rarity. Just in few days time that I have had some news which really supports what I meant. This is incorporation and Optimizing operation.

Termination of relationship (saddest part) by death or divorce like a firm being sold out or going in drains.

People, going concern concept doesn’t work for both the firm and love in reality. Now I know the concept is either a bogus or it is for a real eternal thing which can’t be seen.

I haven’t finished. Now actually starts the details of the theory.

First in an organization you conceptualize what u need to do?
So what does a guy do? Dream about the Barbie Doll !! “Ennakku oru girl friend venumada” In a company you should know what is your long term and short term goal? Heard of the Vision and Mission.

Second, prelimnary market analysis to be done for the concept. I won’t test your knowledge. The guy goes on a hunt!
Have you studied success stories ? or you have heard of the lyla majnu failure stories only and still want to venture ? What values you bring in to make it a success story for yourself? Competition????

Now that you know there is a market,you finally start your firm. What is the start up cost? When do you think you`ll break even? How much are you ready to sacrifice for today to see a better tomorrow? The guy starts courting a girl.
Corporate communication is so very important these days. How much and what to tell your girl? You remain somewhat mysterious - i remember this,one friend telling me. I don`t get it !! anyone to help me?

The company starts production and what happens over the years the efficiency comes down. Don’t you guys see what I mean. There are concepts of return to scale I think. Brush your fundamentals. Similarly as return diminishes in long run in a firm if not over hauled; in marriage through its stages of Engagement, marriage, honeymoon and children love starts to diminish.

Caution: not every firm finds it self in this cycle of lowering efficiency.

Diversification into new products also happens in some case – “grass is greener always….” This is not for all case. Doesn’t suit everyone. As especially in India with lot of hue and cry by the left parties about diversification. Oops! Its disinvestment.
Sorry got it wrong here.

Then the termination stage.

Having talked about the product design no one knows what the real product is? No one reveals it- a product is a well guarded secret for a firm to run.
But people who want to start up an Organisation what do they do? Insider information ?

Hey guys i realised... lot of us are Entrepreneur.. did i say us? Pardon me.

.
p.s: I am not always right. What I learnt in class also might not hold good everywhere. Remember the screw driver funda- just because you have the screw driver you can’t be using it everywhere.

Saturday, February 25, 2006

Emotional Cycle :Need for a mathematical model

I had a wonderful day yesterday. I don`t know why but my energy level was so high. I had not done my Operations paper well. I have been boasting of Operations being my favorite subject and still didn’t do well because of my poor preparation. Was almost insulted when someone asked what I was doing when the whole portion needed just 3 hours of preparation. With all these things happening I was jumping and having fun. I had a good game of football. I was chatting with a lot of friends online. Was talking about my appa here to one of my friend. I was feeling so good yesterday and if someone wanted anything from me yesterday they would have got them real easily.

Every day is not a Sunday. I did my IBE exam well. Came back to my room and opened my computer. Just was browsing through. Played football like yesterday. Did everything almost like yesterday. But I feel put down. Not sure what is the reason!!! I have been thinking of the reason what was wrong today but things are still hazy. So thought I would speak to my Computer and here comes one more blog.

Emotional Cycle – have you guys heard of anything like this? I wanted to see if there was any study done about how humans feel and is there a cycle that can explain human feelings and emotions.

One article had this to says about emotional cycle

“the emotional rhythm or rhythm of the soul (Green line) which lasts exactly 4 weeks and, as its name implies effects our spiritual well being. It influences sensitivity, creativity, and mood and not in the least the desire to be close and exchange tenderness. In the first 14 days the basic mood will be positive; it will be easy to approach others, to spread harmony or to be creative. Once the curve crosses the middle line, the person will be unstable, feel out of balance and on edge. This can cause a person to do things without thinking, which is not easy for others to understand. In the second phase the disposition will be subdued with more depression and frustration, which can strain personal relationships.”


Don't cross the 'Green line'...Exactly 4 weeks cycle..believe me...thank god the basic mood stays ok for 50 percent of the time. My question is`nt answered by this article as well. The writer is not sure when middle line is crossed and when the second phase takes over. I surely don`t know if it was 24th mid night or 25th morning.

I have been taught to classify people according to what they think? SPSS –Statistical Package for the Social Sciences – that is the tool we use to classify people. Factor analysis, Discriminant analysis and Cluster analysis are techniques. Don`t I just love mentioning atleast these names !

If there is a model which can explain how humans feel at different point of time then he could be well prepared for that day.

I'll tell you the reason why I feel this is important. There is this one guy who is matured enough in my college. But somehow I guess he meets me at one of this Negative phase of the Emotional Curve and gets a lot of treatment from me. Poor chap for no reason of his gets perplexed with the kind of answer he gets for his queries. So if I was aware of my negative phase I would atleast stay away from people so that I don`t make other uncomfortable.

So is there a model that shall give me an idea of how I would be feeling tomorrow. External factors have a say on how you feel. There is no doubt about that. But how would you explain what had happened to me in a span of two days?

Like in finance you can’t diversify your systemic risk I am not bothered about my emotional balance being tilted by external factors those which are not in my control. All I am interested is in the my internal mechanism which makes me feel good or bad. That which can be diversified !!!!

There are other reasons why I should understand about my emotions.

By Understanding his emotions an Investor can decide whether to invest or sell his stocks. Don`t believe me see this..


I had my IBE exam which went well. But then I started feeling let down for no reason. I haven’t seen a problem today but I shall relate my bad feeling to a problem, that is there without me being conscious of it.

At times we go in conscious pursuit of something that is of great interest to us. This pursuit is not compatible with the attainment of the goal. What I mean is attainment after pursuit does not give joy every time. This contradiction arises because people face significant problems that cannot be solved by rational action. These problems sometimes require behavior that may later be contrary to their [self-] interest in order to solve them.
I know you people have started cursing me for talking of a non existing problem. Please read on….

Conclusion…. that people often do not act as predicted. The reason for irrational behavior (feeling affects behavior) is not always that people miscalculate. Not for every thing there can be a Causal Analysis. Emotion is often an important motive for irrational behavior, and being motivated by emotion is often an advantage.
If only someone could give a cause effect relation for changes in emotions Human Civilisation would take a big leap forward.

Modeling of Emotions is important. So what do we do?
A mathematical model ….with couple of differential equations, which qualitatively describes the emotions in an individual. The general goal is to show how dynamic the phenomenon is … anyone ready to assist??

I did understand decision modeling and simulation taught to me but that doesn’t mean I can come up with something as complex as this. Ok let’s leave things that are not feasible.

I had a google search for an image with the key word “Emotional Cycle” and I found a wonderful paper. People do mail me incase you want this paper. Or else I`ll leave the hyperlink here for you to see it for yourself.
Actually you can right click and save..it is a acrobat reader file. Takes time to load on Explorer. Understanding Emotional Energy Cycle


As I write this blog I hear this wonderful song, the lyrics really appeals to me…

Kisikhi muskuharahaton mein ho nisar…
Kisikha dhardu mil sakhe to le udhar
Kisikhe vasute ho tere dil mein pyar
Jeena iseekha naam hai



p.s: the views expressed are personal views of the author but he need not really agree with what he says ... and yeah I have got the subject for the next blog ..another interesting theme … What does Economics have to say about love?

Friday, February 24, 2006

art... expect that from a street artist

Here are two pics of an amazing piece of art.
Location: Tata Museum ,Jamshedpur .
In the first pic, you can see a painting. This was a gift to JRD Tata on his Birthday by a street artist. Nobody was able to understand his art. Unfortunately, only the painting was given to JRD and the artist had promised to reveal the secret shortly . However, JRD was no more when the secret was actually revealed .