As of last night, I officially became an alumnus of Teach For America as I video-chatted my final meeting with my Program Director. My literal and figurative distance from 88 enabled me to provide Tony with better feedback and it struck me how, despite our best intentions, emotions cloud of better judgement, whether that be in regard to one's work or one's relationships. Despite my abilities to, in all things, be an Econ (how Thaler and Sunstein describe people who can be solely analytical and continually make cost-optimizing decisions), apparently I too am a Human (or someone who's emotions play an aspect in his decision-making, once again as described in "Nudge") It is really interesting to think about life after the corps, and as I've transitioned to life as an alum, I've been continually struck by how holistically transformative the past two years of my life have been. Teach For America does an excellent job focusing on the qualities that make effective corps members, but things like "taking no excuses," making positive assumptions about others and communities, being oriented around explicit goals, et cetera are attributes that are embodied by good people. At the end of the day, no offense to William and Mary, but I think I will look back on these past two years as my most extensive educational period because of the personal and academic rigors of not only surviving, but thriving, in the corps.
Today is Merah Putih (Red and White Day), one of the school spirit days (and by spirit day, the students aren't required to wear the uniform, big stuff!) Additionally, tomorrow is the first day of Ramadan so there is no school, consequently, today had a rather festive atmosphere as tomorrow signals the first break in the school year! I did my part by wearing Red and not assigning homework (hey, it's about as festive as I get :) lol) During my day off tomorrow, I am intending on doing the next few weeks of planning, finishing the working copy of my personal statement, and enjoying sleeping in :)
Monday, August 9, 2010
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Ojek, Misterrr??
Due to the extreme heat and humidity, as well as opportunity to bronze a bit, I've been going running without a shirt and so all the natives witness a bule running by in running shoes and shorts. However, on my run today, I was asked, not once, not twice, but three times if I needed an ojek ride! I always smiled and shook my head no, but I've been thinking to myself that I'm quite evidently running (usually not at a trivial pace), I'm not in normal clothes, and it doesn't even look like I would be carrying money with which to pay for the ojek ride. I recognize that it is counter cultural to run for fun, but I feel like my thought experiment came up with three reasons for people not to inquire about an ojek ride.
Anyway, today I also continued with Adam Hamilton's series on Forgiveness. Last week I watched "As far as the east is from the west" (yes I also realize the double meaning in that given my current situation) and this week I watched the second sermon in the series, "Forgiveness and Marriage." While I am clearly not married, or even in a relationship, I appreciated the perspective Pastor Hamilton brought to the subject. One of my favorite lines was one he uses with his wife, "Honey, help me not to be such a dope." I feel like this will be one for my arsenal lol. Additional, it's important to change our inter-relational accounting regarding small things and not focus on the debits, but only remember the credits. It's too easy to cling to the little things that annoy us, but that will just perpetuate dissatisfaction.
"An escalator can never brake: it can only become stairs. You should never see an 'Escalator Temporarily Out of Order' sign, just an 'Escalator Temporarily Stairs' sign. Sorry for the convenience. Every book is a children's book if the kid can read. Fettucini alfredo is macaroni and cheese for adults. I can whistle with my fingers, especially if I'm holding a whistle."
Anyway, today I also continued with Adam Hamilton's series on Forgiveness. Last week I watched "As far as the east is from the west" (yes I also realize the double meaning in that given my current situation) and this week I watched the second sermon in the series, "Forgiveness and Marriage." While I am clearly not married, or even in a relationship, I appreciated the perspective Pastor Hamilton brought to the subject. One of my favorite lines was one he uses with his wife, "Honey, help me not to be such a dope." I feel like this will be one for my arsenal lol. Additional, it's important to change our inter-relational accounting regarding small things and not focus on the debits, but only remember the credits. It's too easy to cling to the little things that annoy us, but that will just perpetuate dissatisfaction.
"An escalator can never brake: it can only become stairs. You should never see an 'Escalator Temporarily Out of Order' sign, just an 'Escalator Temporarily Stairs' sign. Sorry for the convenience. Every book is a children's book if the kid can read. Fettucini alfredo is macaroni and cheese for adults. I can whistle with my fingers, especially if I'm holding a whistle."
Friday, August 6, 2010
School Picnic at ISCI
Today was the school picnic. It was great to interact with the kids in a third space, but in a way that was more structured and more meaningful than "field day." First of all, the kids from both schools were split into four different teams (red, blue, yellow, and green) a week ahead of time and yesterday we had an assembly for 15 minutes prior to lunch for the teams to get to know one another and sign up for the different events throughout the day. It was really fun to watch students in charge of organizing themselves and observing leadership among peers.
Today, the morning started with traditional Indonesian games (like sack races, longest line, eating a cracker tied to a stick, etc) and then afterwards,we split the field in half and Yusaf refereed one soccer game while I refereed the other while the rest were able to sit on the bleachers and support their teams. The quality of soccer was pretty good, but the limiting factor was definitely the climate. After soccer, the kids split up to go play badminton, participate in a swimming competition, or stay on the field to play ultimate frisbee. Ultimate is definitely foreign to them, and so I transitioned from soccer referee to ultimate referee to ultimate coach to both teams :) At the end of the game, both teams were starting to understand the strategy a little better, but throwing and catching wasn't always consistent... :)
After a morning full of sports, the gentlemen left for Friday prayer and then we all had lunch. Since I wanted to avoid getting sunburned or have too much exposure, I stayed down around the pool area in the shade and played cards with the 9th, 10th and 11th graders. It's great how self-sufficient high schoolers can be :)
Tonight I was supposed to have my end of year conversation with TFA, but that fell through, so after clearing Friday explicitly for this, I have more time for reading and planning for the coming week. Honestly between the TFA stuff from this summer and some of the details about being over in Indo, I've come to expect failure by those around me...kind of frustrating, but I know that my argument loses all power as soon as I drop my end, so I'll just keep on trucking :)
Closing thoughts, as much as I wanted to dislike "Dynamite" by Taio Cruz, it really is catchy...
Today, the morning started with traditional Indonesian games (like sack races, longest line, eating a cracker tied to a stick, etc) and then afterwards,we split the field in half and Yusaf refereed one soccer game while I refereed the other while the rest were able to sit on the bleachers and support their teams. The quality of soccer was pretty good, but the limiting factor was definitely the climate. After soccer, the kids split up to go play badminton, participate in a swimming competition, or stay on the field to play ultimate frisbee. Ultimate is definitely foreign to them, and so I transitioned from soccer referee to ultimate referee to ultimate coach to both teams :) At the end of the game, both teams were starting to understand the strategy a little better, but throwing and catching wasn't always consistent... :)
After a morning full of sports, the gentlemen left for Friday prayer and then we all had lunch. Since I wanted to avoid getting sunburned or have too much exposure, I stayed down around the pool area in the shade and played cards with the 9th, 10th and 11th graders. It's great how self-sufficient high schoolers can be :)
Tonight I was supposed to have my end of year conversation with TFA, but that fell through, so after clearing Friday explicitly for this, I have more time for reading and planning for the coming week. Honestly between the TFA stuff from this summer and some of the details about being over in Indo, I've come to expect failure by those around me...kind of frustrating, but I know that my argument loses all power as soon as I drop my end, so I'll just keep on trucking :)
Closing thoughts, as much as I wanted to dislike "Dynamite" by Taio Cruz, it really is catchy...
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Yusaf's Art Opening
Yusaf, a teacher at Mentari and who introduced me to Sunday futsal, is apparently a freelance photographer. Tonight he is showing 59 of his prints at Eastern Promises and a good number of staff and students are staying a little late at school to walk over to the show together. This is his third show and the prints will be up in the establishment throughout August and September (unless they're sold!) I'm sure it should be quite interesting due to the natural beauty at his finger tips (apparently the collection contains prints from Bali, Gili, and South African safaris - he went to South Africa for the World Cup and had to go on a few when the games weren't going on lol) I've been continually surprised and impressed by my co-workers and other ex-pats that I've met since coming out to Jakarta. It's most likely not their accomplishments per se, but more their world and life experiences that are so outside of my norms. Additionally, the copier broke today, so glad to see that you may change the school, but you still have the same issues :)
"He planted the idea for 'Inception' in Christopher Nolan's mind while he was dreaming. When he goes for a swim he doesn't get wet, the water gets him. His photographic memory is in HD. He is a master chef, when he dices onions, they cry. His blood type is A plus. He has been asked by the IRS to audit them. If Michael Bolton were on his iPod, he'd be world famous again. He is the most interesting man in the world."
"He planted the idea for 'Inception' in Christopher Nolan's mind while he was dreaming. When he goes for a swim he doesn't get wet, the water gets him. His photographic memory is in HD. He is a master chef, when he dices onions, they cry. His blood type is A plus. He has been asked by the IRS to audit them. If Michael Bolton were on his iPod, he'd be world famous again. He is the most interesting man in the world."
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
First Gamelan Sighting!
I've been in Indonesia for over a month, but until today, I had yet to see any gamelan! Some randos outside of Blok M saved the day, however, as they were banging away (it didn't really sound like 'sluku sluku' otherwise I would've joined in lol) Gamelan clearly isn't as pervasive as it is in Ubud, but is another reason to venture out and explore the country!
Wednesdays are pretty awesome because I only teach four periods that consist of only two eighth grade classes, so I have a lot of time for planning and grading throughout the day. Consequently, I was able to leave today at 4pm and it would've been considerably earlier if not for the staff meeting at 3. These have been pretty cool because they involve the entire staff, food is provided, and they help democratize school decisions. Today's meeting went a little long because we had to discuss the plans for Friday's school-wide picnic to ISCI (International Sports Center of Indonesia). My role for Friday will be to help facilitate soccer and I'm doing it with the guy from school who introduced me to the futsal league. I think we're rather qualified and should have a good time :)
"Dogs are forever in the push-up position. I was watching late-night TV, and there was an ad that told me to forget everything I knew about slip covers, and it was a load off my mind. And then they tried to sell me slip covers, but I didn't know what they were!"
Wednesdays are pretty awesome because I only teach four periods that consist of only two eighth grade classes, so I have a lot of time for planning and grading throughout the day. Consequently, I was able to leave today at 4pm and it would've been considerably earlier if not for the staff meeting at 3. These have been pretty cool because they involve the entire staff, food is provided, and they help democratize school decisions. Today's meeting went a little long because we had to discuss the plans for Friday's school-wide picnic to ISCI (International Sports Center of Indonesia). My role for Friday will be to help facilitate soccer and I'm doing it with the guy from school who introduced me to the futsal league. I think we're rather qualified and should have a good time :)
"Dogs are forever in the push-up position. I was watching late-night TV, and there was an ad that told me to forget everything I knew about slip covers, and it was a load off my mind. And then they tried to sell me slip covers, but I didn't know what they were!"
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Nudging
The human capacity for perspective is amazing. We can generate opinions on nearly anything and do a great job at convincing ourselves of the ideal qualities of our reality compared with all others. I appreciate friends who challenge my own perspectives and also encourage me to take a step back and disengage from my outlook to enable a better analysis. This is one of the reasons I've appreciated my new friendship with Mike out here. Mike, like Ab, was a part of the Fulbright program last year, but he is far from your "typical" Fulbrighter. Mike wasn't a tradition college student (he worked for a few years prior to attending full time) and has taken time to literally travel the world. It's funny to be in conversation and for him to insouciantly mention an anecdote about Thailand, Taiwan, or Turkey. Needless to say, his life experiences have created a unique perspective very distinctive from my Type-A, defined-path lifestyle :) Anyway, I bring up Mike to introduce a way in which I'm currently being "nudged."
Obviously, based on both the title of this post and my usage in the first paragraph, I have been thoroughly enjoying reading "Nudge" by Thaler and Sunstein. Thaler is an economics and business professor at UChicago and Sunstein is a Harvard Law professor, and their approach to this book has validated my faith in economics as a discipline. At the end of my undergraduate studies, I became disenchanted because of my macroeconomic focus (specifically in growth economics) and the conspicuous failure, or even disservice, of macroeconomists over time. It is not that I believe macroeconomists are overtly malicious, it's just that the basis for most of their studies are inherently flawed; extrapolating past performance. An overly simplistic example of this is that when a pitcher throws a perfect game, one cannot expect he will repeat this performance in his next outing. (As an aside for all non-baseball fans, no major league pitcher has ever thrown two consecutive perfect games) Anyway, the focus of this book is how "choice architecture" can be manipulated to align intentions with outcomes on a microeconomic level. I've been reading a number of books of late that address the connection between economics and psychology ("How We Decide" by Lehrer, "More Sex is Safer Sex" - essentially a "Freakonomics"-type book - by Landsburg, and "Nudge") and believe that psychoeconomics should be a foundation of microeconomic study because of some essential truths between our brains and the subsequent choices we make and choices are inherently a part of making business decisions, ergo fundamental to any discipline dealing with business.
Ultimately, why and how we decide things is extremely powerful, and greater cognizance of these forces can help us realize a greater potential in transforming our intentions into actions. For example, economic factors like loss aversion stem from the neurological responses to losing something. It is much more painful for our brain to lose something than to gain something (a fact that has been quantified to the uncanny result of our brain views a $5,000 loss to our portfolio equally with a $10,000 gain - or that, in general, we need to gain back twice as much as we lost to reestablish our "mental equilibrium.") The focus of "Nudge" is upon iNcentives, Understanding mappings, setting helpful Defaults, Giving feedback, Expecting error, and Structuring complex choices. In reading this book, I've found it interesting to examine the ways I already "nudge" myself; organizing a consistent ojek driver for the mornings (setting a helpful default time to arrive at school and actively combating expected error of sleeping in too late), taking public bus home (tricking myself with the incentive of it costing 1/3 of other modes of transportation, while simultaneously providing a default period of time to read), and so on.
The book has a section on money that breaks apart the important ways in which scary, confusing, and important things could be unbiasedly (or as unbiased as possible) nudged. For example, the savings rate in America is abysmal, with enormous repercussions on the vast majority of Americans as they edge towards retirement. The idea, and importance, of saving is nearly universally accepted, however, due to loss aversion (we all hate to see our paychecks go down!), people tend not to optimize their potential pre-tax savings opportunities. Thaler and Sunstein promote the use of better defaults, simplifying overly complex financial information, and an interesting concept, Save More Tomorrow, to help combat this issue. The Save More Tomorrow idea is that if you realize your savings rate is too low, you can opt to have your savings rate increased whenever you get a raise (the majority of the raise going to increasing your savings rate so that your paycheck doesn't ever decrease, just increases at a slower rate with raises) until you're maximizing your employer opt-in contribution match. Elegant solutions such as this are where economists should spend more energies: matching our natural psychological tendencies with beneficial economic results.
On the Indonesian front, I worry about the savings rate in this country, but I also wonder with the overall rate of growth and tendency of cohabitation among the nuclear family will cause this to be as big of a concern. Additionally, tonight I successfully made nasi goreng with my rice cooker! It wasn't quite like the beef ribs from the Ibu's restaurant last night, but I feel accomplished and that I'm more actively embracing the culture!
"He once challenged his reflection to a staring contest. On the fourth day, he won. He has won a lifetime achievement award...twice. He has found Waldo several times, but released him because he likes the hunt. He is the only person Chuck Norris has ever apologized to."
Obviously, based on both the title of this post and my usage in the first paragraph, I have been thoroughly enjoying reading "Nudge" by Thaler and Sunstein. Thaler is an economics and business professor at UChicago and Sunstein is a Harvard Law professor, and their approach to this book has validated my faith in economics as a discipline. At the end of my undergraduate studies, I became disenchanted because of my macroeconomic focus (specifically in growth economics) and the conspicuous failure, or even disservice, of macroeconomists over time. It is not that I believe macroeconomists are overtly malicious, it's just that the basis for most of their studies are inherently flawed; extrapolating past performance. An overly simplistic example of this is that when a pitcher throws a perfect game, one cannot expect he will repeat this performance in his next outing. (As an aside for all non-baseball fans, no major league pitcher has ever thrown two consecutive perfect games) Anyway, the focus of this book is how "choice architecture" can be manipulated to align intentions with outcomes on a microeconomic level. I've been reading a number of books of late that address the connection between economics and psychology ("How We Decide" by Lehrer, "More Sex is Safer Sex" - essentially a "Freakonomics"-type book - by Landsburg, and "Nudge") and believe that psychoeconomics should be a foundation of microeconomic study because of some essential truths between our brains and the subsequent choices we make and choices are inherently a part of making business decisions, ergo fundamental to any discipline dealing with business.
Ultimately, why and how we decide things is extremely powerful, and greater cognizance of these forces can help us realize a greater potential in transforming our intentions into actions. For example, economic factors like loss aversion stem from the neurological responses to losing something. It is much more painful for our brain to lose something than to gain something (a fact that has been quantified to the uncanny result of our brain views a $5,000 loss to our portfolio equally with a $10,000 gain - or that, in general, we need to gain back twice as much as we lost to reestablish our "mental equilibrium.") The focus of "Nudge" is upon iNcentives, Understanding mappings, setting helpful Defaults, Giving feedback, Expecting error, and Structuring complex choices. In reading this book, I've found it interesting to examine the ways I already "nudge" myself; organizing a consistent ojek driver for the mornings (setting a helpful default time to arrive at school and actively combating expected error of sleeping in too late), taking public bus home (tricking myself with the incentive of it costing 1/3 of other modes of transportation, while simultaneously providing a default period of time to read), and so on.
The book has a section on money that breaks apart the important ways in which scary, confusing, and important things could be unbiasedly (or as unbiased as possible) nudged. For example, the savings rate in America is abysmal, with enormous repercussions on the vast majority of Americans as they edge towards retirement. The idea, and importance, of saving is nearly universally accepted, however, due to loss aversion (we all hate to see our paychecks go down!), people tend not to optimize their potential pre-tax savings opportunities. Thaler and Sunstein promote the use of better defaults, simplifying overly complex financial information, and an interesting concept, Save More Tomorrow, to help combat this issue. The Save More Tomorrow idea is that if you realize your savings rate is too low, you can opt to have your savings rate increased whenever you get a raise (the majority of the raise going to increasing your savings rate so that your paycheck doesn't ever decrease, just increases at a slower rate with raises) until you're maximizing your employer opt-in contribution match. Elegant solutions such as this are where economists should spend more energies: matching our natural psychological tendencies with beneficial economic results.
On the Indonesian front, I worry about the savings rate in this country, but I also wonder with the overall rate of growth and tendency of cohabitation among the nuclear family will cause this to be as big of a concern. Additionally, tonight I successfully made nasi goreng with my rice cooker! It wasn't quite like the beef ribs from the Ibu's restaurant last night, but I feel accomplished and that I'm more actively embracing the culture!
"He once challenged his reflection to a staring contest. On the fourth day, he won. He has won a lifetime achievement award...twice. He has found Waldo several times, but released him because he likes the hunt. He is the only person Chuck Norris has ever apologized to."
Monday, August 2, 2010
Dinner and a Visa
After school today, one of the Ibus who originally had taken Ab, Mike and me out to dinner stopped by my classroom after school offering to send us beef ribs for dinner sometime this week. This week turned into tonight and so Ab and I got to share a pretty awesome dinner together, while he got to share how he was pitched a pyramid scheme over brunch on Sunday (and I thought I was having a good time playing futsal and whatnot!)
Additionally, I was told (again) today that I'll be leaving sometime in the next week to go to Singapore for my visa. We'll see if this actually pans out, I really hope so :) Other than that, life keeps on going, another pretty good Monday!
"I like rice. I think it's great for when you're hungry, and want 2,000 of something. I was walking by a dry cleaner at 3 am and it had a sign that said 'Sorry, we're closed.' You don't need to be sorry, it's 3 am and you're a dry cleaner. It would be ridiculous for me to expect you to be open. I'm not going to walk in at 10 am and demand an apology."
Additionally, I was told (again) today that I'll be leaving sometime in the next week to go to Singapore for my visa. We'll see if this actually pans out, I really hope so :) Other than that, life keeps on going, another pretty good Monday!
"I like rice. I think it's great for when you're hungry, and want 2,000 of something. I was walking by a dry cleaner at 3 am and it had a sign that said 'Sorry, we're closed.' You don't need to be sorry, it's 3 am and you're a dry cleaner. It would be ridiculous for me to expect you to be open. I'm not going to walk in at 10 am and demand an apology."
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