Monday, June 09, 2003

I saw the film Swimming Pool last night, and it was lovely, especially if you like François Ozon's other works (most recently 8 Femmes).  It reminded me a bit of With a Friend Like Harry - normal at first and then progressively stranger, until you aren't sure what parts were fiction and which were real. The other, stranger part of the film is that while it was shot by a French director, with French cast and crew, and set largely in France, it is filmed in English.  This is not so strange.  Since I saw it in a theatre in France, of course it was dubbed in French - this I can also handle.  However, it was dubbed by the voices of the exact same actors.  This I found to be bizarre in the extreme, watching Ludivine Sagnier speak English onscreen, yet hearing Ludivine Sagnier's voice in French.  How odd. 10:04:26 PM    comment []

"Applied end-Jan, interviewed in mid-March, got told that FBL was full in April... been waiting for news about Jan 2004 ever since.....    I always thought getting into B-school ws a tough and frustrating exercise... but why oh why does it take 5months+ for INSEAD to make a decision ???" For what it's worth, this is exactly what happened to me.  I feel your pain, and wish you all the best.  Feel free to contact me if you have questions. 9:50:06 PM    comment []

Most readers know about the Prisoner's Dilemma.  This week's assignment for Negotiation Analysis is a variant of this game; it is a Finitely Repeated Prisoner's Dilemma. In this game, there are 20 rounds.  Each player chooses to Cooperate or Defect on each round.  Once a player defects, she is assumed to defect for the duration of the game.  Once a player's opponent defects, he will defect on the following round and all subsequent rounds until the end of the game. The payoff matrix for each round of the game is, for decisions (C,C), (C,D), (D,C), (D,D): (5,5), (-5,10), (10,-5), (-2,-2).  Your score is the sum of all scores from all contests with all players. At what round should you defect?  Should you cooperate until the very end? Per Professor Dierickx's recommendations, "Model your ignorance.  Crank the numbers."  I modeled this tournament with N players, using a uniform distribution of defection strategies.  As it turns out, it seems that defecting on round N-1 is an optimal strategy.  I played with the distributions, shaping them to guess at potential competition, and the results were remarkably robust. Of course, were everyone to use this strategy, the optimum point would move to N-2.  Therein lies the backward-deduction logical trap. At equal populations of defectors at N-1 and N-2, N-2 dominates... At equal populations of defectors at [ N+1 (always cooperate), N, N-1, N-2 ], N-1 dominates.  This is a tough call... but it does seem that N-1 is the best decision under uncertainty.  Since I can admit to glorious ignorance about my competitor's actions, I think this is the best choice.   9:37:29 PM    comment []

I have done some research, trying to find out the story behind the student who was recently expelled for exam irregularities.  This is what I have learned. Apparently, this student, who we will call S, was sitting for a make-up exam.  This happens when you miss the regular exam date; it typically takes place a few weeks afterwards.  S is in the midst of the exam, and he gets up ostensibly to relieve himself.  While away, he runs into another student A and has a quick chat.  S says that he is in an interview with an investment bank, and they are giving him some kind of test (this is not unreasonable; it does happen).  S asks A for some help, which A duly provides; S returns to the exam feeling better and with additional insight. Some hours or days later (this was unclear to me), A realizes that S was not, in fact, on an interview, but taking a make-up exam.  Horrified, A rings the Dean and sets in motion a chain of events ending in S's dismissal. One loose end is that S has a job but hasn't told his future employer that he has been expelled... life can be stranger than fiction. One of my colleagues penned a quick note to Professor Henri-Claude de Bettignies, which said something along the lines of, "Professor, I thought you might find it ironic that the student who was recently expelled was in our Ethics class." H-C replied, "Indeed, it is ironic... but you cannot sharpen the moral compass of a person who does not possess one."       8:29:52 PM    comment []