Yesterday for the first time I was defined as a rational being !! By Prof Shamika explanation of rationality as defined by the Economists, I do qualify for a rational being – most of the time. So all my friends who think I have lost it and am being irrational, I will explain why I am completely rational. But while sitting in the class I also understood the genius of Steve Jobs even more. His unique gift was turning the irrational moments into rational choices !! All those trying to ape him – quit trying, thats a gift and not something you can train for. He got the pot of gold because he was able to spot it one gold coin at a time in people’s wallets and he could conjure up the right trick to take it out from there ! iPod, iTunes, iPad, Macbook….the emotion they generate is irrational, but choice of buying them makes us rational, because we do love them more than anything out there and we consistently love them. The cults also have their roots in exactly this ability to convert irrational moments to rational behavior and convincing the cult members that they are indeed rational.
Just training to view the world through an Economists lens is making 61 bright people do mental gymnastics and deal with semantics. I just think my classmates were just as surprised as I was about being defined as rational beings :):):)
Bhat – just for you, restating what I did in class, “One moment of irrationality on the part of the PGPMAX students landed them in a class on rationality” and ISB of course has managed to convince us that its a rational choice !
I like the irrational side of me… now that I can explain it as rational behavior.
That was well put Bindu…loved reading this:)