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When You Win a Nobel and They Can't Reach You at Home

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Re: When You Win a Nobel and They Can't Reach You at Home

#141
post #58
post #45

Berkeley gives you a parking space if you work there and win a Nobel. They even have signs "Reserved for Nobel Laureate". As far as I know, Stanford does not. Doesn't Google had the leaders in auction theory now? Would someone please devise a way to run a stock market as a repeated clocked auction, so that prices change, say, once every 5 minutes and high frequency trading doesn't work.

> Berkeley gives you a parking space if you work there and win a Nobel. The rich get richer. I remember filling out school and early job applications. I was struck by how my list of awards and recognitions was kind of a sham—most of them were each a consequence of some earlier achievement, and so on. It felt like getting a check and being able to cash it more than once.

You were on the previous level and didn't stumble or make a complete mess, so it makes sense to invite you to the next one. See Peter Principle.

Re: When You Win a Nobel and They Can't Reach You at Home

#142

When you and your neighbor both win Nobel. I mean I'd love to have such a neighbor instead of the single mother that lost control of her 5 yo boy who screams atop of his lungs.

If you earn a lot of money, you can move into a gentrified city like Stanford. The city approves a small fraction of the new housing that is needed to keep up with demand, so prices are inflated 500%. Single mothers and young people cannot afford to live nearby and must commute 3 hours a day to their jobs. Enjoy your old rich neighbors and traffic.

Re: When You Win a Nobel and They Can't Reach You at Home

#143
The probability of my ever receiving a Nobel Prize is pretty much ZERO. Coincidentally, that is almost the same probability of anyone being able to reach me at 2:15AM, unless they come pounding on my door (and I still might not hear it). I value my sleep and I have set all of my phones and devices to automatically go into DND mode sometime around 11PM. If it were you, would you rather have a good night of sleep and be pleasantly surprised in the morning (before facing the press), or would you rather be a zombie?

Re: When You Win a Nobel and They Can't Reach You at Home

#145
post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you don’t pick up the phone, the ceremony continues without you. The public announcement comes at noon. Why don't the Nobel people just wait until you've been successfully informed before telling anyone else? Where does this self-imposed deadline come from?

Because normally they have hundreds of journalists and scientists onsite a ceremony and don't want to make them wait.

Too bad the winner isn't one of them.

Re: When You Win a Nobel and They Can't Reach You at Home

#146
post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Europe is not that serene as you may think. I get plenty of spam calls from entities I'm in a relationship with - like my mobile operator or my bank[0]. It's one of the reasons my phone is on silent during the day[1]. The problem with those is the usual fake "market choice": every mobile operator and bank is pulling this crap, so I don't abandon mine, because alternatives are no better. Then there are occasional rand…

> mobile operator or my bank Yeah no, these companies should NEVER be calling people, period. It's way to easy to phish people for information by calling them and claiming to be their bank. Too many people will fall for it: "Hi, this is SomeDude from Bank of America, and we noticed some suspicious activity on your account. Before we go further I would just like to confirm your identity. Could you please provide your…

I've had my bank call me, wanting to talk about something important (I think it was loan payment that didn't go through or something of that sort) and the first thing they said was: "This is Bank XYZ and I'm calling to inform you of something. But before we do that you have to prove your identity. Can you tell me what your account number is?"

I said: "I'd be happy to, but first can you prove your identity to me? After all, you're the one that called me"

What followed was a hilarious discussion where they were unable to prove anything to me (for example, telling me something about my account that only I would know) because they're not allowed to tell anything to me until I proved who I am.

Finally I told them that I'd be happy to call them back and I asked them where I can find the number to call. I was obviously not going call a number the person would give me. They didn't know how to find the number to the customer service, so I found it myself and called back.

When they answered, I explained the situation but obviously there was no way to actually get in touch with the person with whom I had spoken earlier, and the person that I did speak to didn't know what the topic was. I asked them to call me back.

Well, they did eventually called me back, but what was the fist thing they asked after they did? "We need you prove your identity, can you tell me XXXX?"

They've stopped doing this now, and the mest recent thing they called me to inform me about something they just went to the point right away. I wonder if I've been flagged as someone who doesn't need verification or if they changed their policy.

Re: When You Win a Nobel and They Can't Reach You at Home

#147
post #49
post #45

Berkeley gives you a parking space if you work there and win a Nobel. They even have signs "Reserved for Nobel Laureate". As far as I know, Stanford does not. Doesn't Google had the leaders in auction theory now? Would someone please devise a way to run a stock market as a repeated clocked auction, so that prices change, say, once every 5 minutes and high frequency trading doesn't work.

Berkeley has a denser campus therefore parking spots are probably more valuable there.

I'm sure Stanford will claim there's just too many laureates to bother with special parking designation.

Re: When You Win a Nobel and They Can't Reach You at Home

#148
post #141
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Berkeley gives you a parking space if you work there and win a Nobel. The rich get richer. I remember filling out school and early job applications. I was struck by how my list of awards and recognitions was kind of a sham—most of them were each a consequence of some earlier achievement, and so on. It felt like getting a check and being able to cash it more than once.

You were on the previous level and didn't stumble or make a complete mess, so it makes sense to invite you to the next one. See Peter Principle.

I have generally resisted further advancement, well aware of my level of competence. Also, the next level up is often not a level where the required skills are the same. Right now, I do stuff. At the next level up, I'd be required to do some stuff, but mostly coordinate other people's stuff, which is a very different skill set.

Re: When You Win a Nobel and They Can't Reach You at Home

#149
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I put my phone in airplane mode at night. Don't a lot of people do that? What are they thinking?

I don't. I considered it, but I decided that the remote risk of there being a real emergency outweighs the even more remote risk that I'll get an unimportant call in the middle of the night. (If I ever did get an unimportant call in the middle of the night, the person on the other end would get an earful.)

I’m reminded of my favorite Simpsons moment, when Homer gets a robo-dialer. It calls everyone in Springfield.

It keeps waking up Flanders and his wife. After, like, the third time he picks it up, his wife says, “why don’t you just unplug the phone!?”

And Flanders yells, “it could be my mother!!”

To which Homer shouts from next door, “would you shut up!? People are trying to sleep!”

Re: When You Win a Nobel and They Can't Reach You at Home

#150
post #45

Berkeley gives you a parking space if you work there and win a Nobel. They even have signs "Reserved for Nobel Laureate". As far as I know, Stanford does not. Doesn't Google had the leaders in auction theory now? Would someone please devise a way to run a stock market as a repeated clocked auction, so that prices change, say, once every 5 minutes and high frequency trading doesn't work.

What’s the value in making HFT not work? What harm is it causing?

HFT can increase market volatility and exagerate trends. They are not beholden to and can run counter to the idea of an "affirmative obligation" to help keep the market operating orderly. Hence the occasional flash crash or more minor blips.
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