Circles

So, I've just kicked off my latest year out here in the cornfields of Illinois. And this time, the first day of class was a little different. Let's just say that the other side of the table is a little more work on the first day. But there were some similarities to my days taking class. I got there a little later than I was planning. I didn't really want to be there, but was curious to see who else was going to be there. I got bored about halfway through class and zoned out. And then I played basketball at IMPE afterwards. I suppose that some things never change.

But there was a little 15 minute stretch after class finished up that things sort of hit me. I realized that I was starting my last year in my 20's. The first day of class had a very different meaning for me this time. I know that I taught this past summer, but this was my first full semester classroom. This means that I'm an adult, sort of. After everyone left, I just sat down in the very familiar classroom. I had taken at least one course in that room back in my days as an engineer. Nondestructive Evaluation, if I recall correctly. I took a seat in the front row, on the very left, where I used to always sit. My logic was that I'd be less likely to doze off if I sat in the front row. Of course, it made it that much more embarrassing when I did doze off. And now, I'm trying to figure out ways to keep my kids from dozing off. It was an interesting experience, just sitting there, remembering what it felt like to be just a student. I think that I was a little sad that the relatively simpler times had gone by.

I wonder if I'm become more sentimental in my old age. Earlier in the summer, I drove through Louisville, KY when it hit me that it was almost a full decade ago when I had my little 8 month co-op stint with General Electric. As I drove by the exits that I still vaguely remembered, I was thinking about all of the great people that I met down there. I have very little clue where most of the folks are. I keep in sporadic touch with some of them. Some of been lost to me, possibly forever. But that was a great time in my life. I lived by myself for those 8 months, and really grew up from that experience. Perhaps most importantly, I discovered that I didn't want to be an engineer when I grew up. But I also learned how to manage a home, how to take care of myself, and how to make friends so as to not die from boredom. I've got another chance to live by myself for the next couple years. It will be nice to recapture some of those old habits. It was fun thinking about the good times I had down in Louisville, as I drove through.

Perhaps what triggered my memories from last week was a visitor that I had come by last Monday. Capt. Matt came through town. He had some paperwork to take care of at the DMV. We went out and goofed around, staying out way too long, and then shot the shit for way too long afterwards. It was a great time, remembering all of the old stories that really helped us define who we've since become. We talked about the old crew that we used to play ball with and hang out with. Perhaps it was fitting that Matt came by. He was my first roommate ever here at school. I suppose that it's right that he was here when I was planning out my first week here as a real teacher.

We had an interesting conversation, just talking about where all of our friends are or will be soon. Matt was getting his Masters with the Air Force, and was going career. Conversations about multi-million dollar budgets and managing multiple levels of subordinates had made their way into our normal conversations, which used to be almost exclusively about sports. We went down the list of everyone who we were friends with - mostly all with nicely developed career arcs, lots of marriages with a handful of kids on the way. It was sort of cool. We took a look a few years down for ourselves. Major Matt, and then probably Lt. Col. Matt, and maybe even Col. Matt by the time he hit his 20 and was looking to retire. On my end, we'd be looking at Dr. and Prof. Chairman soon, as well. Becoming a professor in 2 years. Getting tenure 6 years after that, if I was lucky. Having my own little army of doctoral students and undergrad assistants. It was a fun little indulgence.

Flash forward a couple days to earlier yesterday. I was at our annual kickoff retreat, where we got a nice lunch over at Allerton, and the faculty told us about whatever changes were being put in place this coming year. What was funny was that it felt completely like old hat. It was a far cry from coming into the program 3 years ago, and being completely lost. This time, I got to be embarrassed as during our discussion of RA/TA responsibilities, one of the professors just went on and on about how well I did for her last year. But the intention of the session was to sort of scare the doctoral students by telling us how well-qualified all of the applicants were this year. The professors were talking about how on our CV (curriculum vita = fancy word for resume), we should be allocating 5 lines for the different papers that we were supposed to have published or under review by the time we hit the job market. And the funny part was that my advisor, who was sitting next to me, just starts writing down a list on his notepad:

JMM
JRet
JPPM
JIBS
? - Memory

I looked over, and saw that he was writing down the journals we were publishing in for my 5 lines of the CV. I just laughed, and remembered that I needed to get him the latest version of the Memory paper, so I just wrote down "next week" and circled "Memory." Once we get the last two papers polished enough to send out, I'll have my 5 papers, with at the possibility of 1 or 2 more still on the way this year that were brand new, in addition to my dissertation. It was crazy, but the more I look at it, the more I'm realizing that I actually belong in this field. My dissertation needs work, so do the 2 other projects, and I'm sure that we'll get all sorts of feedback for the pieces under review. But we're getting there.

-Chairman

Provoking Thought: Blowing Sunshine

It's interesting. We're supposed to be civil in how we deal with other people. Some modern arguments for evolution with group goals (rather than individual goals) suggests that these are evolutionary traits that have survived the test of time. However, we also have instances where people are a little too nice. A little creepy, maybe, like they have a hidden agenda when they're so nice. It could be the guy trying to smooth talk his way into some gal's pants, or the guy trying to close a sale, or even the telemarketer trying to be your friend before you realize that he's a telemarketer. In any case, there's something there.

Kelley Main, Darren Dahl, and Peter Darke study what they call a "Sinister Attribution Error," where essentially, people become suspicious and think that others have a sinister intention when they are a little too complimentary, particularly when the person being complimented doesn't believe that it's deserved (Journal of Consumer Psychology, 2007, 17 (1), p.59-70).

I think that the lesson here is to not to blow too much sunshine up someone's ass. A little sunshine may be okay, but I'm not taking any chances.

-Chairman

Provoking Thought: Intuition

I just had an interesting idea pop up in my head. I think that I'm going to add a new aspect to this blog, "Provoking Thoughts." I've never been good at being brief, but I'm going to try to post more often, just a quick hit about something that I find interesting from my research or the research that I come across. I think that some of the things that academics work on never really get out into the world at-large. Maybe you guys can see some interesting links into the random things that I find cool/amusing and what you do in your fields. Plus, it makes me read a little more if I'm expecting to post something interesting on a regular basis.

Today's thought: One of my buds has a theory-based paper that talks about intuition. (Dane and Pratt, 2007 - Academy of Management Review, 32 (1), 33-54, if you've got access to these academic journals). Essentially, it boils down the notion of intuition into being, "affectively charged judgments that arise through rapid, nonconscious, and holistic associations. They further suggest that intuition works best when done by those with some level of expertise in a given area, and that it's most appropriate for tasks that require judgment (not the synthesis of existing facts).

It's interesting if you get a chance to look at the paper to see how they conceptualize intuition. Their definition is appealing for smart folks who want to pat themselves on the back, for sure. I'm not sure how appropriate it is for more everyday tasks. I don't necessarily agree about the things that they suggest comprise expertise, nor am I in accord with the relatively limiting definition of judgment that they use. However, I do like very much how they put together expertise and judgment tasks together to describe intuition. Much of what they study is geared towards managerial tasks, and not for everyday people. However, they've positioned this as a rather general paper, so naturally, you have gaps.

Do you guys have places where you (or a colleague) seem to have a knack for having the right intuition in complex environments? Please explain in a comment.

-RG

Where's My PR Person?

See below. My people need to do a better job getting my name out there. As an aside, I also enjoyed it when La Parka was in WCW hitting people over the head with a chair and calling himself the "Chairman of WCW." That was pretty sweet. The Sports Guy not recognizing my nickname? Sad.

Q: I know it's pretty obvious, but Yi Jianlian's nickname has to be "The Chairman," right?
--M. Filion, Montreal

SG: Has to be. There hasn't been a more effective nickname in years. Not only does it sound like the right nickname for him ("Chairman Yi"), but the joke-trapped-inside-the-joke (during ESPN's lottery show, there was video of Yi posting up actual chairs and spinning around them for layups) will never stop being funny. And when you think about it, we haven't been able to call anyone "The Chairman" since Sinatra died. So it's done -- we're calling Yi "The Chairman." This meeting is adjourned.

edit: And just for the record, "Chairman Yao" would have been a far superior nickname. Almost on par with Chairman Gau. Leave it to a Canadian to butcher things.

-Chairman

That Time Of Year

Yep. Football season's right around the corner. How do I know this? Because TMQ is back. I have to say that TMQ is pretty much required reading for folks who like football, but are also curious about other happenings around the world. Essentially, I get my current events entire from Gregg Easterbrook and The Daily Show. As an aside, I wonder what Craig Kilborn is doing nowadays, other than being self-satisfied.

At some point, I'll have to give my 2007 NFL predictions. Probably after my fantasy football drafts, just so that I don't give away any trade secrets. Of course, I'm not very good with football predictions. But that doesn't keep me from being pretentious enough to believe that everyone in my fantasy league is scouring my blog to pick up little hints for the upcoming season. You hear that, C-Lauff? Greg? Westy? Nothing for you until after the draft. Just like my Erik Bedard prediction this year :-)

The fun part is that like a couple times in the past, I'm entering the football season on the precipice of something great: The Roland Slam. Essentially, this is what I have dubbed the achievement of winning all three fantasy sport seasons in a row (basketball, baseball, and football). I've only done this once (in a magical season we now know as "2003"). No one else has come close to this in the past. So, lacking any form of modesty, I've seen fit to name this accomplishment after myself.

We have a little group of guys who always play fantasy sports, called the UPL. We're a bunch of guys who all met back in college, and includes a few new folks that we've met along the way. I don't know how true this is for everyone else, but at least a couple of the guys (including myself) actually care more about his league (which we play solely for bragging rights) than they do for the leagues that they have money riding on. And it makes sense. We're all still relatively close, despite not really seeing each other that often in real-life. But, we always stay in touch at least a few times a year during our league drafts, and of course when we throw trash talk around the message boards in our league. It's sort of funny how much our fantasy sports persona have taken hold over time. One of the funniest things that has evolved is what we call "Westy's Pawn Shop." I can't remember if it was me of C-Lauff that come up with this, but one of our buds always lowballs people with trade offers, sometimes to the point where people refuse to deal with him. I don't know if it's actually true or not, but I always mock C-Lauff for being afraid to trade with me, even when the trade is fair and that he's more worried about not giving a player that wins me the league than trying to win the league himself. Greg is usually very competitive in the league, and offers some hilarious posts on a variety of subjects. One of the guys, Rupert is usually not very competitive (except for a mystifying 2006 baseball season when he rode a number of career years to the title), very opinionated, and doesn't use much evidence to back up his arguments, much to my amusement. One of the guys, Schultzie, commented to me a couple months ago that he loves playing fantasy football with us, but he's amazed at how competitive his teams are, yet have never made the playoffs (bear in mind, we typically have a 12 team league, in which 8 teams make the playoffs). Olthoff is very up and down in football, having had some teams that were scary good (but just fell short in the playoffs) and some teams that were scary bad. Mikey is more or less a silent football savant, having won 4 out of 5 seasons in which he's played, and not hardly ever saying anything on the message boards. Me? I'm sort of a smartass, though I use an intriguing mix of pompus and self-deprecating humor. I typically have some sarcastic comment for whatever's posted on the board, whether or not I was the original target. But over the years, just like with everyone else, I've become a caricature of myself.

Which is what makes this fun. We jive with these images, and have fun with other people in the league based on their images. I think that this is a nice little way to get away from our real-life stresses, and be able to talk some smack and be competitive with our friends from the life-imposed distance that exists.

This year, I pretty much dominated the basketball league to the point that I declared victory around halfway through the season, and pretty much everyone agreed with me. Baseball's been much more interesting, with my team currently in 1st, but in the middle of a 3-team battle down the stretch, along with Greg and C-Lauff. The fun part of this one is that I was actually in 10th (out of 11) teams as late as early May, but was still trash talking as though I was in first, telling anyone who would listen (and some who tried to not hear) that I was going to win this league, going so far as trying to bet (albeit, only a single dollar) anyone in the league that I would finish ahead of them. Only C-Lauff was foolish enough to take the offer, and he's a little behind in 3rd. Of course, I think that he was in 1st at that point, and I was in 10th, so it really wasn't that bad of a bet for him to take. But after a couple months, I'm awfully close to setting the stage for my 2nd Roland Slam.

Which would make football awfully intriguing. Because we're ready to talk some more trash.

-Chairman

That's Hot.

Yeah. It's not just Paris Hilton saying that. It's seemingly everyone across the US. Last week, I drove from Illinois out to SC, and just about every temperature reading I saw was in the 90's. The entire week out in SC was in the 90's, as well. And sure enough, after one day cooling off into the mid-80's, it's back into the 90's for the next few days. That's hot. And muggy, too. Oh well.

I've spent a lot of time in the air conditioned comfort of my car the last week or so. 650 mile drive out to Greenville, SC. Then another 220 miles from Greenville to Charleston, SC. Then 220 miles back to Greenville. Then another 650 miles back to Urbana. Then another 150 up to Naperville. And another 150 back to Urbana. That's a lot of miles. Roughly 2000 miles in the past 8 days. I'll be perfectly content to just putz around town for the foreseeable future.

I suppose now's a good time to work on my dissertation.

Overall, we're getting there. I'm pretty much prepped for my first month of class. Still need to edit a few more sets of lecture slides, but I think that we're getting things there. My professor was kind enough to let me have his lecture slides, so I have something to start with. I've been doing a lot of editing, and I'm going to teach a slightly different course than he did, but it's great that I've got a proven template. I have a suspicion that students won't particularly love every minute of my class (since I'm going to work them relatively hard), but hopefully it'll be good for them when they're interviewing. For my work, I need to have a couple solid weeks of work before classes start up. I'd like to get a couple chapters written up and sent out to my advisor for review, so I can really get into designing stuff for the actual data collection. In any case, it's time to get stuff done.

The body's held up alright the last couple weeks. I actually shot a round of golf and played tennis twice over the last couple weeks. The tennis was okay, though I couldn't do the things that I used to with my serve - that will come if I actually start playing regularly. I'm still lousy at golf, though I think that with my current incarnation of game, I can become a guy who legitimately shoots around 100 pretty easily. I think that I have to re-tool my swing if I ever want to hit woods well, but my swing seems to be built well for long irons. I think that if I can figure out how to hit that 30-75 yard shot with a sand wedge (which I used to do reasonably well), I'll be enjoying myself a lot more out there.

In any case, I've got a visitor for the next week, so I finally got the guest bedroom/future studio cleaned up and set up roughly how I want it.