I just recently moved into my new place in Tucson a couple miles north of campus. For those of you who do not know, potentially all but very few, I am living with two international students and colleagues in the Economics Department. One is from Germany and one is from Pakistan. One is a Christian and one is a Muslim. And I am sure you are aware that I am American and Jewish. I introduce these facts because I am quite excited to share living space and casual conversation with individuals from different cultures and backgrounds. My German friend likes baking German chocolate cakes and playing fun board games. My Pakistani friend likes to play Fifa and watch soccer (futbol). So it seems already that we have many things in common. Of course I have come to know more details about them than these few but do not think a personal blog of mine is an appropriate place to reveal such things.
At this point we are pretty much all settled in: we just baked the first batch of home baked cookies, we are onto our second loads of laundry, and I have even christened the living room couch with my family tradition of sleeping on it for many consecutive nights.
The place is a 15-20 minute bike ride from class. The time varies depending on the time of day (hot? or extremely hot?) the direction (up or down hill) the tempo of my ipod's chosen track list, and my eagerness to arrive at the coming destination (always anxious to get to an 8 AM Econometrics class!) As you can imagine, living in this desert in the month of August makes daytime commutes quite draining. The only technique we have developed to combat the consequences of this is to wear a spare shirt during trips, then changing once we have made it to class. Maybe that doesn't provide you with a satisfying mental image...then again maybe it does.
As a side note: There are some weirdo's who think it necessary to ride their bikes completely across the continental US over the months of July and August: Kurt. In light of this fact, I don't feel entitled to any sympathy for my woes.
Class has been fun. I thought it quite refreshing that on the first day on a PhD level Game Theory class our professor introduced a classic conundrum found in the Sherlock Holmes saga. The specific story is entitled "The Final Problem". In it, Sherlock has been tracked by his nemesis Dr. Moriarty to one of two train stations. Sherlock must decide which of two train stations to disembark. Moriarty must pick which of the two to track him to. If Sherlock picks the same one as Moriarty, there will certainly be fatal consequences. Sherlock anticipates, with certainty, which station Moriarty will choose and escapes freely. As I am aware from our discussion in class, and based on my understanding of rationalizability, Sherlock's conclusion was incorrect. Rationalizability in essence means that both Sherlock and Moriarty know what the other is thinking with regards to making their decisions. So any clever trick one can come up with, the other has already figured out. Because of this and their conflicting interests there actually exists no Nash Equilibrium in pure strategies. (Meaning there is no equilibrium where both Sherlock and Moriarty pick one of the two train stations with probability equal to 1, where at least one respective individual would not want to change their choice given they know the other's choice.) This means a Nash Equilibrium must exist in mixed strategies. (Meaning each individual assigns a probability to each choice then makes their selection at random using the equilibrium probabilities.) Sherlock and Moriarty are both very clever men, and so each should have figured this out and known the other would as well. Both men would have flipped a coin to decide which of the two train stations to pick. However, as it went in the story, Sherlock must have known Moriarty wasn't a student of Game Theory and took advantage of the fact. As a blooming Sherlock fan I am cautious to propose this last conclusion as it takes away from the brilliant persona Moriarty embodies and makes Sherlock's triumph over him a bit less exceptional.
Here is a link if you would like to read the story for yourself: http://sherlockholmes_cases.tripod.com/finprob.htm
I think that is enough blabber from me for now. Thank you for taking the time to read things I have typed.
-PJ
