Miljenko's Blog

I love that subject line because just about anything can follow. You may see it a lot. In this particular moment, the thing about it is that once they get to be 17 or 18 all of the little annoying things that your spouse used to say or do for years (or not do), they notice and call them out on. So whenever there is lack of logic in how one parks the car or talks about events of the day, they jump all over their parents and with you and your spouse it means - well, I no longer have to do it! It is bliss, I can just sit back and watch them send zingers of all kinds on all sorts of issues and I can relax and grin (but not so that it can be seen, more of a "grin on the inside"). Really wonderful so you should look forward to when they are about 18 (and then, of course, just when you are enjoying it, they leave the house!). They do the same (calling out any absence of logic or any BS) with stuff on TV, in the news and even in gatherings and family events. Almost like having your o...

Reading "Superfreakonomics" and end of year market summaries it struck me how the term "risk aversion" is really so inferior to what we really mean - "loss aversion". We are not afraid of risk, we are afraid of losing and this is repeatedly confirmed by studies of behavioral economics and other sciences as well as by simple observation. So we should just stop using "risk aversion". The interesting part of all these studies is where they cross the divide into how we are motivated to inflict pain (or economic loss) onto others even when that is not in our own best economic interest. Got to look more into that and understand my own loss aversion better. (Maybe inflicting pain on others as a motivation is a useful "antidote"?) There is a New Year's resolution No.1 !