This is funny.
Remember that this is an article in the v. serious Business section of the Charlotte newspaper (v. esteemed.. think Washington Post, except Charlotte. and Observer.), alongside v. serious articles such as, "Housing construction hits 16-year low", "Once-bucolic N.C. 73 in throes of growing pains", "Christmas clubs dying, not dead", and "EarthFare coming to Rock Hill".
4th paragraph down:
"This can be smart if the people on whom you are modeling your behavior know more than you do. But in many situations, no one knows very much. When you follow people who don't know what they are doing, and other people follow you, the resulting feedback allows small events to trigger huge and irrational changes in group behavior." [bold added for indication of favorite and most true part]
oh, society, wherefore art thou?!
penultimate paragraph:
"Yang said that although many investors recognize the problem of contagion and herding behavior, this does not keep them from following the herd, possibly because they feel less regretful about bad decisions if they know many other people made the same mistake."
I want to become a professor so I can make lots of common sense statements, and then be quoted in thousands of articles by underpaid journalists all across
"Laura said that although many pigs recognize the problem of crap hanging from their butts and herding behavior, this does not keep them from following the crap-covered herd, possibly because they feel less regretful about being covered in crap if they know many other pigs are just as disgusting and ignorant."
As a professor, I will have lots of common sense to apply the same theories (sentences) across a variety of different issues. e.g.:
"Laura said that although many teenage girls recognize the problem of anorexia and herding behavior, this does not keep them from following the vomit trail to the bathroom, possibly because they feel less regretful about bad decisions if they know they'll one day be skinny enough to make even worse bad decisions."
first-name basis, you'd better believe it. only my friends are allowed to call me by my last name.
1 comment:
On the topic of group think, extrapolate the hog/crap example by 2000 years and watch this: zeitgeist.
To stay on topic - you may or may not want to fast forward through the Jesustrology section - but the 2nd section, "All The World's a Stage," (0:37:00) on 9/11 and the 3rd section, "The men behind the curtain," (1:11:00) on the Federal Reserve are particularly interesting.
Slightly more chicken-little then I typically prefer and about as credible as it can be when its opening trawls include George Carlin sound bytes - but interesting none the less...
What are We The People to do but fall in line and stick our noses in the crap covered ass of the pig in front of us?
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