All-inclusive Randomness

Couple hours ago, the Nobel prize for economics was announced and it went to two game theory dudes — Thomas Schelling (U.S.) and Robert Aumann (Israel). Game theory is neat (as an anthropologist, I have to reserve some suspicion for it, but I did attend a wonderfully bizzare conference once that put economists, who were excited about rational choice theory and the like, in the same room with other social scientists, who were more aware of ‘cultural relativity’, and then threw in a mix of humanities folk, even including full-blown philosophers. I loved it.)

On a related topic: For all those of you who would like to win one of these babies one day, there is a handbook out there by Peter Doherty, an Australian Nobeler, featuring much wisdom, such as the following:

“Good habits start early: eat and drink moderately, take vacations, don’t smoke or over-use recreational drugs (alcohol included), take regular exercise, avoid extreme sports, and seek professional help for suicidal thoughts,” Doherty says.
And don’t be a dilettante. “Bright people who hop around from one topic to another often achieve very little,” he writes.
You will also need a good education. Doherty recommends growing up in an intellectual and supportive family in the United States, Europe, Japan, Canada or Australia. But he adds: “Sometimes the idiosyncratic outsider will rise to the top”.

For those who don’t care, or would settle for an Ig, let’s drink beer and be happy (and healthy too).