Confessions of a researchaholic

When I was a kid my parents were very persistent in nudging me towards the desired behaviors.
Recently I have applied the same persistence in nudging them for taking covid vaccines.
🙂

Since my arrival at the US in 1996 I have been asked the same question many times: where did you come from?
Most of the inquirers were benign, especially those also from other countries.
For probably once or twice that were otherwise, my response was simply asking the same question back: where (the f***, via facial expression) did you come from?

Except for native Americans, we were all coming from different places, just at different times.

During a dream earlier this morning I recalled an event that happened earlier in my life.

One day, during my college freshman year, I was waiting at a bus stop.
A woman approached me asking me to do a survey, selecting from a list of things most important to me in a prioritized order.
I put money as the third or fourth option, and she asked: is money really that important?

You wouldn’t even bring up something for discussion if you really don’t care about it, right?
In retrospect (also happened in my dream), I realized that what really happened is that the woman has been trying to convince herself that money is not important because she didn’t think she has enough of it.
(Lying to oneself is even worse than lying to other people.)

Like everything else, the importance of money is not binary; one cannot live without it, and yet one probably wouldn’t trade his/her life for it.

A few discoveries I have during the pandemic lockdown include:

Podcasts, some of my most favorites include NPR Planet Money, the (Wall Street) Journal, Economist Radio, Freakonomics Radio, and HBR IdeaCast.

A lot more hiking in nearby natural spaces.

A lot more home cooking.

How lucky I am to have bought the right home and married the right person.

Ever since I accidentally dined in a very high-end sushi restaurant (lack of judgement caused by time rush), I have been receiving these (complementary) magazines advertising luxury products and life styles.
The contrast between fancy design and unnecessary consumption is always a wonder to me, and I guess perhaps this is the entire point of luxury goods.

I was sitting on the fence to decide whether to join the reopening preparation efforts for a studio that I have been a member of; on one hand I like to volunteer in a community service, but on the other hand it isn’t the best use of my time (opportunity cost).
Then, today, a session was canceled at the last minute without on-time notification that put me waiting for nothing, and thus resolved my moral dilemma.

Once upon a time, a conversation happened between two paper co-chairs for an upcoming conference:

It is great to hear that you would be one of the papers co-chairs.
I am rather stretched with commitments over the next year including a startup and hence I would be much happier to take on this role knowing my co-chair is willing to share the load equally which I hope you are.

Forcing me to invest in your startup can be a good way to incentivize me to put in enough effort for EGSR. (Otherwise, you will have to spend more time on EGSR, which means less time on your start-up, and eventually less return of my investment.)
😈

That is a brilliant idea 😀
I might take you up on that for the next round of funding 😉

So the Oscars were invented to glamorize the movie industry when it was looked down upon during its infancy, which begets a question: is it wise to care about awards, especially in our own professions?