PERSONAL JOURNALS: Of Various Topics

Decided put my personal journals up here, they are journals that I have written mainly for a class. Might as well keep up with my blog. Though about deleting it...

Overconfidence

One class I took in college that I thought “This is going to be a cakewalk” was Sociology 101.  In fact I was so confident that I use to show up for that class 20 minutes late. Since I believed this was an easy class I thought that I wouldn’t have to come to class on time or read any of the chapters, basically I treated the course as a “backburner class” (Class that you can ignore). Well, the first test comes around and I get a D on it. Then that overconfidence of the class evaporated and I found myself saying, “I’ve got to make some kind of effort in this class”. So with more investment going into reading the book and paying attention to lectures I overcame the adversity of an overconfident investment and I ended up getting a B in my SOC101 class. To improve this overconfidence of classes I should instead go into the class thinking that it’s hard. Another way to improve is to ask fellow students (who have taken the class) how the instructor and the format is.

Status Quo

My sophomore year I had a decision to either choose UNKNOWN or a new instructor for ECO285. I thought to myself, “Well I really don’t want to take this brad new instructor because she or he might be hard”. So I tried my best to get into UNKNOWN class (even though I didn’t care much for the format). In my eyes I’d rather have an instructor who is known instead of an instructor that was unknown. At least in UNKNOWN class I knew what to expect, so, I could already invest my time into, “How am I going to do my best with the format that he has”. If I took the new instructors class, it would be like investing into a risky stock. For instance, I’d go into the class having no idea what this instructor formats his or her class. So I took the status quo and took the class with less risk (UNKNOWN class) and its unknown if the riskier investment (new instructors class) was a better choice or not. In the future, I should go up to the new instructor and talk to them to see what their philosophy and format is. Instead of following my fellow students, I should do what benefits me the most.

Optimism of a Class

Often I will go into a class with the highest optimism whether I think it’s, going to be easy, exciting, interesting or a good instructor. Many times in those classes I excel greatly in. I find I excel at these type of courses because either the instructor makes the topic interesting or there’s a freedom in assignments, to do whatever you’re interested in. In these optimized courses I excel at greater heights than I would in controlled classes (instructor gives you his favorite topic assignment or the topic is boring). In controlled classes I feel that I am given no freedom so often times I don’t care about the assignments. The result is a product from me that is bland and uninteresting, I don’t put investment in the assignment because, I have no incentive to. In the future I should take every assignment with care even if I dislike it. There are many things in life that many of us don’t want to do but, we have to (like paying the national debt, taxes). The more I try in classes I don’t care about (invest more time and care) the better I will cope with events and jobs I dislike in the future.

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As a student my ethics are bounded and compromised unknowingly by in group favoritism. For instance, in one class I use to receive information about what was going to be on the test. So I knew before hand what was going to be on the test. This gave me an unfair advantage to the rest of the people in my section. If the fellow student did not tell me the material that was going to be on the test, I might have gotten a 79% instead of an 87%. The unfair advantage gave me a better grade and doesn’t affect me now; in fact, I remember more material from that class than any other class. I want to just go on with my degree and finish it. What I should do is not to do that activity again since it gives me an unfair advantage (And maybe tell the instructor of that class about that activity so they know not to give out the same identical test for both sections). Another education related case is with the peer evaluations and class contribution index for a certain class. For the peer evaluation I rate everyone as evenly as possible so I’m not affecting anyone’s grade. However, this compromises the whole point of the evaluation, to give people points for their hard work. This also deceives the instructor by showing him that everyone is on task, when in fact, 5 out of 26 people are slacking off. For class contribution indexes I give everyone in my group and my friends 5’s. This is because I think the class contribution index is bogus and I want to help the “collective”. Grading everyone at 5’s is unfair because, not everyone is putting the same amount of work in, your friend might be texting the whole time in class or your group member starts arguing about something unrelated about the class. What I should do is rate everyone fairly and give points where credit is due. In the future I’m going to have to rate people and I obviously can’t rate everyone at excellent.  However, that is in conflict with my belief that is as a student you should back up your fellow student no matter what. Also if you don’t like the system that is in place then you exploit it (If contribution/participation is 200 points then it would be smart to make a pact to give each other 5’s-even though in reality this never happens!). Like the old saying goes “an eye for an eye”, (You give me a 5 I give you a 5).

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When a salesperson comes up to me and tries to sell something I often go on the defensive. Instinctively I say to myself, “all this guy wants is my money”. So I either walk away or tell him to leave me alone without listening to his sales pitch. The same thing happens with door to door missionaries (religious) they will ask me politely if I want to learn about Mormonism or Christianity and most of the time I shut the door on them. Another instance is with my friends they might argue with me and most of the time I think that their trying to “sell” a point. So I usually go on the defensive and explain why I disagree with them (my point of view). My friends don’t realize that the beliefs I have will never be unbroken (such as the US government being corrupted by Wall Street). They push on and then it gets to a point where it’s a “lose-lose” situation, where both people are mad each other and there is tension. Since most of my friends are religious I constantly find myself in religious conversations where its 5 on 1(me being one). And of course instinctively I have to defend myself from the attacks. This happens because I feel overwhelmed or I feel the person I’m arguing with is trying to sell his point to me. Sometimes I get frustrated with those people who say “why” or “do you have proof” it makes it seem like you don’t know what you’re talking about.

I find myself in escalation of conflict chapter 10 with many of my negotiations. Most of the time, I am trying to negotiate or persuade the FCB that they’re going backwards. For instance, I proclaim that they should have an online program to get more students and make more money (long run). I also proclaim that the structure of class should be uniformed so that students aren’t disgruntled when they take a class with a different style (basing projects on peer evaluations that are or can be subjective). Well what I feel is that I’m not being listened to, that I’m treated as a lone wolf. So I have a hatred for the FCB because, I feel I don’t have a voice. The same for other situations especially group work (although I 100% support groups) sometimes your paired in group where there is already an in group or the group perceives you as a slacker when you’re not. This causes unnecessary stress that no student should go through in college. But, if I think about (understanding that there is a graduation evaluation) if I don’t so anything who will? (There is a slim glimmer of hope that someone will take my gripes seriously). Although I understand that I have to put myself in the other person’s shoes but, here’s a question? Is he putting himself in my shoes? Does he know what I’ve been through? Does he know that I’m not a supporter or a brownnoser of the FCB for legit reasons? Even though I don’t proclaim them as efficiently rather I proclaim them with a “loose cannon” attitude.

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How would you go about a negotiation process for a job offer? What would be your range of acceptance or BATNA?

If I got a job offer I would try my best not to take it right away instead I would negotiate until I found a salary that was reasonable. Afterwards I would look at other benefits that the job such as health insurance, family benefits (college fund), 401K, etc. Then I would look at the job description and ask myself, “What additional duties will I have to do besides the job description, and will it be worth it”. Afterwards, I would look at the company’s reputation (if I didn’t already know beforehand) and weigh my options, if I love the company I will make a concession to try and negotiate a contract with them, if I hated the company I would try and get as much out of the negotiation as possible. My BATNA range also depends on whether or not I am married or single, and if I have kids. Another aspect I would be looking at is advancement training programs they have.

As an employer how would you bargain with an candidate who’s a problem child (journeyman, illness, loose cannon, not loyal, not status quo etc.) but is most qualified and can make you profits (You run a business venture: Bowling Centers)? For some reason you can’t make any profits at a bowling center.

As an employer, I would be willing to pay 90k minimum to 110k maximum because if the candidate is a journeyman he might only manage for a year. I am looking more towards the long term and I want a manager that can be there for at least 5 years to have a consistency of profits. So what I might do is offer him 90,000 with a 5%-10% increase each year of his entire salary if he makes money. Another incentive I could negotiate with this candidate is the chance to go to bowling conventions and letting him have full control of adding value to the bowling center within the operation budget.

As a baseball owner or GM, you are left with a choice of 2 players to fill you 5^th starting pitching spot: You have two choices- Your starters are all similar to Player B in terms of speed of pitches but their more consistent and don’t give up many homeruns.

A player whose 48 years old has 260 wins and 201 losses and has a lifetime 4.01 ERA and can only throw an 82 mph fastball-And is slinky and fragile more prone to an injury, since he is a workhorse. He can fool pitchers with his slow pitches and he will be consistent for the most part with exception of horrible games from time to time and he’s humble.

Player B is 27 years old has 123 wins and 60 losses with a lifetime ERA of 3.67 however, he’s been in trouble with law and has anger management issues, he is durable and has a career high of 280 innings pitched in a season as a starter and has a 99-101 mph fastball. Can give up many homeruns- you don’t know what you’ll get from him and he’s very cocky.

I would Choose Player A because he’s better for the clubhouse, he will get along with the players. Since he’ll be the 5^th starter he won’t be pressured and our pitching staff needs an off speed pitcher anyways to create diversity in the rotation. The contract I would give this old pitcher is 1 year to 3 years max, and I would have a team option in the last year if the contract went to 3 years. I would also throw incentives towards the older pitcher, since, he’s thinking about retiring. So I would tag on a bonus saying, “if you have 100 innings in the season we’ll give you 1 million more”.