Specialization is for insects

von Ahn at the Library of Congress

Luis von Ahn talks about CAPTCHA and reCAPTCHA.  Amazing stuff.  This talk makes me miss my days as an engineer; his research so clearly raises social welfare.

More golfonomics

Wonderful write-up in the NY Times of a new golfonomics paper by Devin Pope and Maurice Schweitzer (both at Wharton), who find that PGA Tour golfers are "loss averse."  I haven't read the paper carefully yet, but at first glance it looked well done and had great data.  This is yet more evidence of how much more fun you can have at a business school.

Excerpts:

“Par putts just seem to be more critical because if you miss you drop a shot — if you miss a birdie putt, it doesn’t seem to have the same effect,” said Jim Furyk, one of the tour’s best putters.

Added Justin Leonard: “When putting for birdie, you realize that, most of the time, it’s acceptable to make par. When you’re putting for par, there’s probably a greater sense of urgency, so therefore you’re willing to be more aggressive in order not to drop a shot. It makes sense.”

Of course, it makes no sense at all: each stroke counts as one on a scorecard, whether for eagle or triple-bogey on any particular hole. The goal is to finish with the fewest strokes, regardless of what each might be artificially termed. All else being equal — distance from the cup, one’s proximity to the lead or cut, the course difficulty and so on — putts should be handled the same way.

...

“A 10-footer for par feels more important than one for birdie,” said Goydos, a two-time winner on the tour. “The reality is, that’s ridiculous. I can’t explain it in any way other than that it’s subconscious. And pars are O.K. — bogeys aren’t.”

Today's playlist

The Loneley Island, "We Like Sportz."  I am pretty sure this music video represents how Jenny views me sometimes.  Hilarious stuff from the same people who brought us "I'm on a Boat (ft. T-Pain)"

I'm team captain, and I choose you
I'm the other team captain, and I choose you, too

Today's playlist

Stereolab is one of my favorite bands.  Lyrics are borderline Marxist, but I'm willing to listen to claims of "capitalism's cruel cycles of slump and recovery."  Maybe in their next CD they will cite the recent work of Daniel Sullivan and Till von Wachter, who provide fairly compelling evidence on the health costs of job displacement.

Stereolab, "French Disko"

Stereolab, "The Incredible He Woman"

Theo and Pearl Jam

A few years ago, Levitt wrote the following on his blog:

My friend Laura Beth Nielsen at the American Bar Foundation has a theory that people who are good at one thing are good at everything. Since she shared it with me, I have thought often about whether it is true. I tend to believe it, with the important qualification that the right kind of practice is critical to being good at anything. It may well be that people who are good at one thing have learned how to do the right kind of practice, not just for that task, but more generally.

Today's evidence in favor of the theory is Theo Epstein, who I have decided is one of the few men in the world who commands respect from a large number of both jocks and nerds.  Apparently, he can also play guitar:

On May 25, 2006, Epstein made an appearance on stage with Pearl Jam at TD Banknorth Garden playing rhythm guitar on the concert's penultimate song, Neil Young's "Rockin' in the Free World."

Today's playlist

The Cure, "Killing An Arab" (In today's climate of political correctness and hyper-sensitivity, the record label would probably strongly urge them to rename the song to The Stranger)

Razorlight, "In the morning" (I should probably be a little embarrassed that I like this song; it's pretty unimaginative.  I think I just find the intro very catchy -- reminds me a little bit of The Cure)

Today's playlist (White Male Privilege Edition)

I have been listening to the Dresden Dolls recently (as well as band member Amanda Palmer's own solo work).  Dresden Dolls, "The Kill."  Amanda Palmer, "Leeds United."

Sad/Funny story on the Leeds United video from Amanda Palmer's blog (emphasis mine):

right before the european tour i went to the new york offices of roadrunner to say hi and check in.
my a&r guy (my main contact at the label) sat me down in his office and said he wanted to discuss the “leeds united” video.  he told me that there were certain shots that they wanted to either cut completely or digitally alter to “be more flattering”.

my favorite quote from that meeting:
“i’m a guy, amanda. i understand what people like.”

Sounds like a relative of Byron York to me:

Barack Obama enjoys high job approval ratings, no matter what poll you consult. But if a new survey by the New York Times is accurate, the president and some of his policies are significantly less popular with white Americans than with black Americans, and his sky-high ratings among African-Americans make some of his positions appear a bit more popular overall than they actually are.

Google Chrome Experiments

Thanks to Tal, I have discovered some fun JavaScript toys (Google Chrome strongly recommended):

 - Ball Pool
 - InterNetris
 - Apophis 2029

Today's playlist

Teddybears Stockholm, "Cobra Style" (this song was re-done by Robyn recently; I like both versions)

Teddybears Stockholm, "rock and roll high school" (cool video-game-inspired music video)

Back to blogging!

I think it's a sunk cost fallacy, but since I'm paying money to TypePad to host this blog, I might as well make use of it.  Recently, I starting putting songs I was listening to on my Google Chat away message and people seemed to like it.  I'm going to move those mini-playlists back onto this blog so that they are preserved for posterity.