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Inner Economist podcast
By me (who else?), interviewed by the ever-acute Russ Roberts (who else?), get it here.
Among other things, I let on which is my favorite art museum and why, and what is wrong with the National Gallery of Art. And how I have rediscovered my Austrian subjectivist roots. And which remark in the book I meant as a joke, but everyone took seriously.
Get the book here.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on September 10, 2007 at 07:53 AM in Books | Permalink
Comments
As far as leaving movies, this does not appeal to me. When I am in a bad movie I often think about what I would do differently in the movie. I think about what other movies have had a similar premise and what choices they made. I often learn more and am entertained more by critiquing a bad movie (to my own standards) than a decent movie which is forgettable.
Often, the way I watch movies is to set aside a period of time to relax and give myself an out. I watch more not to be doing something else which is not movie watching. It is incrediably freeing to be in a dark room where there is a sufficent cost placed on disturbing others such that I am reasonably sure I will not be bothered. I find that leaving a movie half-way would destroy this motivation for going which has little to do with the quality of the movie. I also like the air-conditioning. Maybe in a bad movie I spend more time day dreaming about other things. In a really good movie I would be captivated by every move of the director of photography and the storyteller.
I see the point that Dr. Cowen is making if there were a whole range of movies that I wanted to see, or if I only had a little time to watch movies and there were many choices. Being that movies for me are a package of relaxing, critiquing, imagining a world view different from my own, or imagining what else I would have done to make the movie better; I doubt I would ever walk out on a movie. This assertion always struck me as odd.
Posted by: mthomas at Sep 10, 2007 12:02:04 PM
Interesting point by mthomas above. I agree with him(her?). However, I do agree with Prof Cowen that today when the most valuable thing is our time, it is pointless to waste time of cultural experiences that don't quite measure up. That said mthomas's point raises the valid question just what exactly are consuming when we go to the movies or opera house. Prof Cowen' strategy makes sense for those who are really into enjoying the experience for the sake of it and primadoonas like me who are primarily interested in it's signalling value and more importantly as a way to meet interesting people(read: pick up a date).
P.S Prof Cowen, your book has been quite a hit here in India, although as you can imagine most people are discussing it for signalling.
Posted by: sa at Sep 10, 2007 12:44:58 PM
The Marginal benifit of sitting through a bad movie an additional minute certainly deminishes as time passes. However, if you think about your fellow man, you will see the entire movie, even if it is aweful from the get-go. The sunk costs up to the point at which a cinema parton loses interest are quite large (deciding what to watch, driving to theater, and so on). If you see a bad movie through, you will no doubt complain loudly to all those who will listen, thereby giving them good reason to not invest their own time ( x many friends=lots of savings). Now I understand that even if you dont see the end, you might still complain, but your claim that the movie "sucked" will be less valuable to the person to whom you are complaining, thereby making them skeptical. Would you take a reviewer to heart if he said, "I saw the first thirty minutes and walked out. It was bad". (I would, but I have a feeling that other people may want to see it through and make their own judgement)
Posted by: Ian Blincoe at Sep 10, 2007 11:22:54 PM
It has been pointed out to me that I am not being fair to Dr. Cowen's argument as it pertains to sunk costs. I am not accepting the premises as they are narrowly defined. If the only relevant vector is constrained to quality then once the quality is known to be less than acceptable then staying only because you have bought the ticket would be falling prey to the sunk cost fallacy. By expanding the argument to include other relevant vectors I am changing the premises of the argument as it pertains to sunk costs. My understanding of the assertion initially was that the statement was being implicitly more general than narrowly defined sunk costs, but since this is not explicitly stated I am not being charitable to the author.
As the example gets more general, I feel that the other considerations listed above are very important.
Posted by: mthomas at Sep 10, 2007 11:26:22 PM
"And which remark in the book I meant as a joke, but everyone took seriously. "
You mean the rest of the book was meant to be taken seriously? Whoops, silly me. I thought the whole
thing was meant as, if not a joke, at least a giggle. I'll have to go back and re-read in light of this
new information.
Posted by: Steven Donegal at Sep 11, 2007 4:55:28 PM
Im curious about the joke but not at all willing to listen to the whole thing. I would appreciate if someone would write it in the comments.
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