The paradox of Supply and Demand :The other perspective
Posted by: ekta1007 on: September 1, 2009
There is a phenomenon that has long puzzed the economits view of the supply and demand, and it is the Giffen Goods .
A Giffen good is termed as a good which people consume more of as price rises. If that be it, how is it that this class of good defies the supply and demand equation ?
The existence of the phenomenon was first identified by a Victorian-era British statistician, Robert Giffen.
There are three necessary preconditions for this situation to arise:
a.The good in question must be an inferior good,
b.There must be a lack of close substitute goods, and
c. The good must constitute a substantial percentage of the buyer’s income, but not such a substantial percentage of the buyer’s income that none of the associated normal goods are consumed.
Water, Rice and other staple foods have long been said to be an example of the Giffen goods.
Here’s another view though :
If rice be a Giffen good , then increase in the price should increase its demand. But if for the same amount of money one can afford much luxurious Meat, why would he buy Rice ?
Is it just because Rice would still be more affordable? But even if that be it, why does the demand rice ?
Looking at it from this perspective :
I consume 4 kgs of Rice and 2 Kgs of meat in a week (Assuming these make up the substancial part of my income.
The price of rice now shoots ,and I can only afford to buy 2.5 Kgs.
But rice still being more affordable I cut down on my consumption of meat,and buy rice instead .
Here’s the trick !
If the price of a Giffen good increases, then the supply for these “luxurious goods ” must decrease ,and they would become more affordable, as there will be more supply of it due to less consumption !
Wouldn’t they appear to be more affordable?
This is a question that is seldom ever raised in the context of the Giffen Goods.
So, the price of so called “Giffen Good” has a virtually cap, after which the demand for it, Must decrease and it will conform to the normal supply and demand curve .
So here’s my take ( Probably justifying why Giffen Goods is a less noted phenomena) :
There should be none on the Giffen goods, the goods at best can adhere to the inelasticy of the demand curve, i.e the increase in price doesn’t change the consumption of the so perceived vital goods .
~
ek
I doubt, I think therefore I am – René Descartes
20/20
Posted by: ekta1007 on: June 5, 2009
Back at school, 20/20 excited us so much, so much that only later we took it for granted, and as we grew up, the marks deceased from20 to 19 to 17, to 9.
So what was it when the class teacher drew a star on your right cheek, and your wrist, or gave you a candy every time you scored a 20, afterall many others did get it too.
It was “Creating a model of success”, a small achievable goal which leads you into believing that things are very much doable.
In his book our Iceberg is melting, the author John Kotter talks about producing short term wins by creating some visible, unambiguous successes as soon as possible.
So today, choose not to just think it over, but to CREATE something, which further affirms your belief in an activity or a goal.
Create small measurable goals and milestone, and keep working , it is easier to wok on granulated problems then on a heap, for it will scare you to take the initial plunge.
This day just choose to DO.
~
ek
The thing about bozo’s and Solvitas perambulatorum
Posted by: ekta1007 on: April 13, 2009
On a sunny morning , I open my inbox and I find the following comments about me “pathetic web site, all blogs are dumb…..some movies are made, after release director thinks, why did I made such a dumb, idiotic movie, I guess same goes with the idiotic page of urs..”
And I must say, that is the best compliment I have ever got ! Why, simple, no one remarks if you do a good job , we have far less time for that , but yes, if you meet a good resistance, you are doing a wonderful job. Keep it Up ! Shout out loud, and pat your back!
The message : If you are working hard, sure there will be people to pull you down. Guy Kawasaki calls them bozo’s, they are the people who tell you why certain thing will not work, and why you don’t need to take a plunge.
Bozo’s come in all shapes and sizes, but the worst ones are the ones in your friend circle, those who actually monitor your thought process, and tune the message to what you want to hear. Because all battles are on twice, once in your mind, and once in the battle field, these bozo’s make sure you lose out with your mind.
Here is how to productively fight these and other battles day in and day out.
In my earlier post I had introduced about Solvitas perambulatorum.Here I touch upon the vital aspects of increasing your creative output, by feeding your brain the thought food it so desperately needs.
Thoughts matter : You might have heard this endlessly, “Feed your Brain with positive ideas”, and for a good reason, for when you think about HOW and not WHY, you shift your focus from pondering to creating something of value. Your goal then subconsciously becomes hitting the problem hard , because now the problem seems to occupy most of your time and energy and solving it becomes your priority.
Use the inputs well : Just before you start your workout ,set with the problem in your mind. Since there is a better circulation of blood to the brain when you work out, there are chances that you will think about it from a different stand that you did not earlier .
A research carried out in the early 1980s by Marian Diamond, a neuroanatomist at the University of California at Berkeley, made some discoveries about brains in general and Einstein’s in particular that could revolutionize ideas about genius and help entrepreneurs who want to become more innovative.
One of Diamond’s experiments was with rats, One group she placed in a super-stimulating environment with swings, ladders, treadmills, and toys. The other group was confined to bare cages. The rats in the high-stimulus environment not only lived to the advanced age of 3 (the equivalent of 90 in a man), but their brains increased in size, sprouting new glial cells, which make connections between neurons (nerve cells) As long ago as 1911, Santiago Ramon y Cajal, the father of neuroanatomy, had found that the number of interconnections between neurons was a far better predictor of brainpower than the sheer number of neurons.
So, in rats, Diamond had created the physical footprint of higher intelligence through mental exercise. She then examined sections of Einstein’s brain — and found that it, too, was unusually “interconnected.”
It had a larger-than-normal number of glial cells in the left parietal lobe, which is a kind of neurological switching station that connects the various areas of the brain. It has long been known that unlike neurons, which do not reproduce after we are born, the connective hardware of the brain — glial cells, axons, and dendrites — can increase in number throughout life, depending on how you use your brain.
The more we learn, the more of these pathways are created. When we learn a skill such as riding a bicycle, We create connections between brain cells that remain, even if we don’t practice the skill for decades. Mental power is, in a way, connective power.
Research data picked from the data here .
Which is to say that working out works !
Find the connections : There is a reason why a certain though comes to you, write it down if you feel there is a tinge of creativity .Even if you are not convinced, play safe ,still write it down, and get the post it notes stuck to your brain the next time you are out for your fitness regime.
Personally I feel that ever since I started using Einstein factor , my ability to correlate and draw connections has increased considerably. Like all things, it is slow, and takes time , because you are effectively building new neuron connections which do not exist yet, but once they do your ability to think, create and build increases three dimensionally.
Stay tuned for more creative food ! And listen to bozo’s , they are there for a reason, for they tell you, where should your creative energy go .
~
ek
If you meet a strong resistance ,you are trying to change something fundamental. Keep up the good work.
Earthen pot or the brass pot :Which one are you ?
Posted by: ekta1007 on: March 17, 2009
There is this story about the earthen pot and the brass pot, where the brass pot proposed to the earthen pot one day that they go out in the world together. Fragile that it was, the earthen pot was reluctant, claiming that he would be safe by the fire. But the brass pot convinced the earthen pot to come along.
But the earthen pot could not survive the companionship and cracked after the ten steps that they took together.
The fable ends there, but here it just begins.
Are you the earthen pot, what’s keeping you from plunging out in the world?
Are you just excusing yourself believing that you are fragile, and torn.
I was just reading Lance Armstrong’s “Its not about the bike. My journey back to life” . In an instance, Lance asked his Mom if her job was going nowhere, and she could outdo it any day; why dint she just quit.
To which she said …”Son, You never quit.”
Simple as it may sound, but this one liner was so power packed that all through his battling with the testicular cancer, a career that had just begun and was on the verge of a complete loss, and his fight for life, Lance kept reinforcing this and determined not to loose to the death and the odds of his survival.
And he DID WIN !
The point?
Simple, if you are weak, go put fire, burn yourself in it and come out with an astonishing stamina, for you can never win any battle when you have already lost it in your mind.
The sculpture is already inside stone, go morph it !
~
ek
If you want to build a ship, don’t herd people together to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.
The Secret Part Two
Posted by: ekta1007 on: March 12, 2009
Yesterday I met a collegue in the elevator , and whilst both of us were rushing to catch the evening shuttle, he exclaimed ” I missed it , already !”
To which I quoted ” If you think you have, you have..”
For a moment he stared at me, for although we happen to sit on the same floor, I have hardly had any interaction with him.And he wasn’t expecting to be overheard as he made this “decalration to self”. To wind things up, I just closed it with ,”Have you read “The Secret “, I will tell you about it tomorrow”
This morning I sighted him at the coffee corner.Excited that I was, I asked him, if he could catch the shuttle yesterday. He did !
So here’s all that I wanted to tell him and you ..
The Secret finishes with the Law of attraction and the power of the principle of reinforcement.i.e your thoughts become things, for everything happens to you twice ,once in your mind, and once when you Do it .
The book closes with the reinforcement of the belief that you get all that you truly DESIRE. So if you are not getting all that YOU want, give it a second thought, are you being skeptical that “will I get it?”, or do you simply BELIEVE. Believe that somehow everything will fall in place and you will be OK.
After I read the book, open as I am to trying out new things , I convinced myself to replace every negative and self-doubting thought by a positive affirmative thought , I will get it .
Because “Thoughts become Things ..”
To substantiate :
As you work out in the gym with the thoughts of a positive, toned , heathier you, you no longer bother about the muscles and ligaments that hurt ,for your mind has tutored your body, to be patient, and to persist, because YOU want to be fit, build your stamina. These muscles which used to cry out claiming you were rude, persist and support you. This is the power of mind.
I belive why you get what you think, is because you make your mind stronger enough for this desire to turn true, and you subconsciously take actions to commensurate it. So take that firm belief,see yourself as holding that object that you desire,palce that you wanted to go to, or the education and information base you wanted to build and you will ACT. And more so, you will enjoy it, because it no longer looks ACTION to you, it looks something that enables you to reach there faster .
This morning I read Becky’s wonderful post on “Reinventing the self..“ If you must make that one change today, work out on your thoughts, for they morph into reality .
And don’t wait for that pink slip to do what you have always wanted to, do it right way, if you should.
Like everything else, it is not easy, and you will run , want to wander, just put , and you will be fine eventually, ROME wasn’t built in a day .
To begin, create it in your mind, and STICK on !
Here is a related awesome post that you will LOVE : Running to finish..
~
ek
Ask, believe and you will receive..
Killer Idea: The creative fuel ..
Posted by: ekta1007 on: March 11, 2009
Every time you write a blog, a book, a note, you want to outdo yourself vis a vis the last one. True with every thought that you share, you need to get better, organized , put in more refined thinking process at work.
But there are times, you run out of the creative fuel, and although you keep the thoughts alive and sparkling, you don’t quite think it is creative enough given what you wrote last.
And then you run skeptical, if what you would contribute, would add value to what your readers already know.
A book has 250 pages, because the author wants you to know the pretext, and because it is not a fairy tale, so don’t SKIP that page, it is there because someone wants you to know something. Something that matters to him, inspires him to create something that goes beyond its function of facts and data, and is beautiful.
Idea begets idea, thoughts beget though..to get a killer one..a hunded need to be done ..
That said.. Keep writing ..
~
ek
If there is no meaning in what you think and do, one one, if you cann’t find one, create one..
ekta1007