Olga's Odds & Evans

   In about two weeks, a new cohort of college graduates will don their caps and gowns and receive their college diplomas.   The speakers on the podium will undoubtedly talk about their accomplishments: the knowledge gained, the awards and accolades attained, and the life-changing experiences had. The speakers will also talk about the big challenges these graduates might face as they enter the world beyond the safety of their Alma Mater: issues like climate change, mass shootings, discrimination, and geopolitical tensions around the world.   I will sit among my faculty colleagues, as proud of my students as can be, all the while thinking about the small challenges.   With my Wellesley colleagues at 2017 Commencement    Small challenges of everyday life can loom larger and take up more energy and time than you anticipate as a college student.  If banks are only open 9-4PM and you have to work 9-5, when do you go? (Set up online banking ASA...

      Little else delivers quite that same sense of belonging as choral singing. You literally hear yourself “fitting in” – one line of harmony within a larger whole.  Choral performance is a team effort, each person relying on others but also contributing individually.  In that sense, it’s like a team sport which I never got to experience because I moved to the US in high school, long after the age of little league and much too late for breaking into that world.  Preparing to sing Dido's Lament at my last concert in 2007;  MIT Chamber Chorus, Kresge Auditorium, MIT        The feeling of abandon is also extremely appealing for people like me (yup, control freaks, type A, you name it). When it’s right, there are goosebumps, and weightlessness, and effortless energy. The right moment doesn’t come often because someone (probably me) would make a mistake and the magic would be broken. But once you experience the perfection of...

   The winter holidays are almost here, and the sense of excitement is in the air.  Even if you don’t celebrate anything in particular, you can look forward to the vacation week between Dec. 25 th  and Jan. 2 nd  forced upon us by office closings and our kids’ school break.  During this time, we tend to expect magic to happen: a wonderful family celebration, or perhaps that special present we have been dropping hints about.  We anticipate that everything will be just how we imagine it, but does reality match this expectation? Not usually...    As humans, we are built to anticipate the future. In fact, forecasting and scenario analysis is what has kept us alive in an evolutionary sense, like: “If I leave food lying around in my cave, will a bear stumble into it and wreak havoc?” Yet, as Daniel Gilbert explains in his brilliant  book , “ Stumbling on Happiness ,” humans tend to be terrible judges of what will make us happy. I won’t...

Finally, a relaxing mini-vacation! Just Mike and I in Aruba – a place that holds many nostalgic memories for us, including one very special marriage proposal 14 years ago (can it be that long ago???). With all the tranquil beauty of the sea, the beach, the perfect sunsets, one naturally reflects on … optimality of choices? Yes, when the “one” is an economist.       Here is a dilemma for you. Upon arrival at our hotel, the front desk clerk makes us an offer to upgrade to the club level.  The freebies include: continental breakfast, light lunch, hors d’oeurves and desserts in the evening, unlimited wine and top-shelf liquor throughout the day, and a daily spa “activity” which no one could explain to us. There is also some less exciting stuff like daily laundry and pressing, concierge service, and free internet (which is already free for all guests J ). The cost at face value: $300 per day for the two of us (a “discount” from the normal rate of $400 per day)....

I am a big fan of Wellesley College.  It is, after all, my Alma Mater and my place of employment. Because of this, I feel like I need to understand the single most negative attribute of the place from the student perspective: its “competitiveness.” Wellesley is dubbed a “competitive college” simply based on admission criteria: high SAT scores, excellence in high school academics and in extracurricular activities.  This results in selection: women who end up here are not random, but rather identified by certain common characteristics, one of which is most likely some level of “competitiveness.” In behavioral economics, we define competitiveness exactly in this way: it is the willingness of an individual to enter tournaments.  When students apply to Wellesley, they choose to enter a sort of tournament, where there are winners and losers. From a multitude of experiments, including  my own , we know that women are, on average, less willing to enter c...

Today marks 3 weeks since Mike and I “went off the deep end” – out of the blue, we decided to try “ the keto diet .” In some ways, it’s just one among many fad diets, like paleo or 5:2 . But, it also provides enough science (well, probably pseudo-science) to make sense to the skeptics like us. Neither of us has ever been on a strict diet before, as we truly are food-obsessed bon vivants.    Yet somehow, for some crazy reason, keto got us to stick to the plan.  Maybe it’s the meticulous record-keeping or the competition with oneself to stay within the allotted 20 grams of net carbs a day? These are certainly both features that appeal to our Type A personalities and therefore  got us through the first oh-so-miserable few days.   But I think that in the longer run it was something else.   For me, it has to do with loss aversion – the very human trait that describes an individual’s desire to avoid losing.   Loss aversion is associated with a relate...

Bibich winery, located on the picturesque northern Dalmatian coast of Croatia, does not have any Michelin stars. You won’t find it when you search TripAdvisor or Lonely Planet for “the best Croatian restaurant EVER.” In fact, between cracking somewhat inappropriate jokes and telling tales of the winery’s rich history, staff members insist that Bibich is absolutely positively not a restaurant. But I can tell you that I have yet to find a better culinary experience anywhere else in the world. (Believe me, after 36 countries and counting, I am still looking!) The cynical behavioral scientist in me recognizes the possible reasons that the 3-hour 14-course dinner with wine pairings at Bibich may be less of a pure exercise in culinary (over)indulgence and more of an example of clever marketing as an “anti-restaurant”.  For example, one clever differentiator of the place is its emphasis on wine.  The food, prepared with utmost care and inspiration by ...