Economics, like life as I am learning, is all about the allocation of scare resources. Whether it's time, money, food, widgets or grades falling either side of the optimal mean somethings in life are just finite. It is how we make choices in how we earn and use these things that defines the kind of life we can lead.
It is the allocation of TIME that plays the biggest role in my life these days. with just 24 hours in each of 7 days in only 52 weeks a year there is literally only so much that can actually get completed. Or even started for that matter. Over the past few weeks I have redefined what I value. What I am willing to put aside for the time and what I couldn't think of doing that to. It was around 5:30 yesterday evening when I got a text message that re-defined how much I really cared about sleep, or work for that matter. See we have a busy weekend. A little something called a decision brief that involves an extensive amount of research, group work and 2000 words of... well I just want to say bull shit but let's call it analysis. Along with that we have a number of math-y sort of assignments and quizzes coming up. So anyway, now that you have some perspective, I got this message at 5:30 yesterday and low and behold, my soulmate and best friend from Australia was going to be in the Vancouver airport for 4 hours. Today. It was instinctual and immediate. The decision to write late, stay up as long as possible and free up my morning. Allocating my resources in such a way that I stay true to my values.
Seeing her this morning brightened my life. Both of us wiped with exhaustion, both a little loss for words at the remarkable serendipity of it all. Though the circumstances were not optimal it was worth every second of not working, writing or sleeping to be with her, even for a few hours.
So economics is all about choices. How do we use what we have to get the most from life? When is the right decision to forgo sleep, money, connection and when is the wrong one? The scarcity in my life has opened me up to a world of possibilities and of gratitude. Morning coffees, periodical runs, an extra half hour in bed, these things are now worth their weight in gold. My values have also become increasingly clear, almost startling so. Connection will always beat out monetary or academic success, surprisingly the later is not faltering from it... at least from what I can tell. The rest finds a balance, give and take across the line of beauty and necessity.
It's all just the allocation of scarce resources. Can I use this as my econ project?
It is the allocation of TIME that plays the biggest role in my life these days. with just 24 hours in each of 7 days in only 52 weeks a year there is literally only so much that can actually get completed. Or even started for that matter. Over the past few weeks I have redefined what I value. What I am willing to put aside for the time and what I couldn't think of doing that to. It was around 5:30 yesterday evening when I got a text message that re-defined how much I really cared about sleep, or work for that matter. See we have a busy weekend. A little something called a decision brief that involves an extensive amount of research, group work and 2000 words of... well I just want to say bull shit but let's call it analysis. Along with that we have a number of math-y sort of assignments and quizzes coming up. So anyway, now that you have some perspective, I got this message at 5:30 yesterday and low and behold, my soulmate and best friend from Australia was going to be in the Vancouver airport for 4 hours. Today. It was instinctual and immediate. The decision to write late, stay up as long as possible and free up my morning. Allocating my resources in such a way that I stay true to my values.
Seeing her this morning brightened my life. Both of us wiped with exhaustion, both a little loss for words at the remarkable serendipity of it all. Though the circumstances were not optimal it was worth every second of not working, writing or sleeping to be with her, even for a few hours.
So economics is all about choices. How do we use what we have to get the most from life? When is the right decision to forgo sleep, money, connection and when is the wrong one? The scarcity in my life has opened me up to a world of possibilities and of gratitude. Morning coffees, periodical runs, an extra half hour in bed, these things are now worth their weight in gold. My values have also become increasingly clear, almost startling so. Connection will always beat out monetary or academic success, surprisingly the later is not faltering from it... at least from what I can tell. The rest finds a balance, give and take across the line of beauty and necessity.
It's all just the allocation of scarce resources. Can I use this as my econ project?
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