I watched Swan Lake tonight – the famous Tchaikovsky ballet, performed by the National Ballet of China. The performance lasted two and a half hours, a bit lengthy, especially with there are kids sitting nearby: left side of me, right side of me, behind me… Regarding my personal preference, I favor the Black Swan significantly more than the White Swan. The Black Swan embodies life and vitality, with her charming smile lighting up the stage, captivating the audience (including the prince), and infusing the performance with energy. In contrast, the White Swan only appears under cold-spectrum light, perpetually wearing a frown (yes, her expressions), and carrying a heavy sense of melancholic sorrow. In my view, these two swans symbolize life and death rather than the conventional notions of pure evil and kindness. They represent different facets of beauty: one epitomizes the enjoyment and ecstasy of life’s celebrations, while the other embodies spirituality and ascension, ultimately leading to the inevitable. ...

Welcome back to the carnival of economic theories! Episode 2: The Diamond Paradox. I love the paper. Diamond’s model revolves around a discrete-time market, denoted as $t\in [T]$, featuring multiple consumers and firms. Consumer Behavior Each consumer possesses a downward-sloping demand function $x(p)$, it decreases as price ($p$) increases. In this market, consumers have a strategic buying plan: they purchase a product in period $t$ if and only if the price is less than or equal to their predetermined cutoff price, $q$. Thus, an individual consumer’s demand function is defined as: $$ x^*(p) = \begin{cases} x(p) & \text{if } p\leq q \newline 0 & \text{otherwise} \end{cases} $$ ...

During a family dinner today, we played a game, more like a question really. It went like this: Imagine you (and everyone else on Earth) have to pick either a red or a blue button. If more than half the people pick the blue button, everyone survives. If not, only those who picked the red button survive. I believe the people who brought up this game remembered it incorrectly. Clearly, the game was meant to present a tricky choice, but this version has an obvious dominant strategy - choosing the red button. ...

Winning in terms of gameplay might be straightforward, but winning in terms of social dynamics is the real challenge.

The Werewolf game is a wildly popular social board game in China, enjoyed by groups of 4 to 10 players. It’s a versatile game that can be played in various settings, whether it’s a post-meal gathering or any other social occasion. The game has gained immense popularity, transcending friend circles. For instance, our orchestra crew delved into intense games of werewolf in the hotel lobby until the late hours during our tour, while the scientist squads (or actually, professors) engaged in a gripping round when they were unexpectedly confined indoors due to a rainstorm during a conference reception. The game, in both its original form and its various adaptations, has become ubiquitous. You can find the original physical cards, limited-edition golden-plated versions, and even online mini-program software on WeChat, making it accessible even when you don’t have the physical cards. ...

Ariana Grande’s “goodnight n go” has an incredibly special place in my heart. It’s not just a song; it’s an emotional journey that I embark on every time I listen to it. At first, I was drawn to its dreamy and beautiful melody, and it quickly became my second favorite song. However, over time, it has come to mean so much more to me. One of the most powerful parts of the song, for me, is the following part, as it reminds me of moments in my own life when I didn’t want to say goodbye to someone I cared about. ...

the roadmap to a collection of interesting historical posts. freshly updated.

October is going to be fun. Nobel Prize will be out in early October and later followed by the Ballon d’Or. Vamos Messi!!!

Another conversation, from one of my early flute lessons.

Following yesterday’s post, as promised, here’s an analysis of the model in the series of papers.