The Renaming of a Blog

"It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit."
--Harry S. Truman

"He who exalts himself shalt be humbled, and he who humbles himself shalt be exalted."
--Luke 14:11

Having graduated from Wharton, I decided that it was time for a new name for my blog. Welcome to Humblement

Since reading The Post-American World by Fareed Zakaria, I have been thinking a lot about the importance of humble leadership. What I noticed from the book is that most hegemons tend to fall because of leaders who -- because of a successful history -- believes that their nation is invincible. They turn insular and believe everything that is great is only in their company/state. Think of Hitler and Napoleon trapsing into Russia. Think of China closing its borders to trade in the Middle Ages. Think of the British Empire overextending its empire.

I strongly believe in the importance of humble management. Hence - Humblement.

Speaking at Wharton's Graduation

Eurotrip Letters

I sent some emails home about my trip to Europe. Enjoy.

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May 24, 2008 - London, England

We did London in a day:

Hyde Park, Westminster Abby, Buckingham Palace, SoHo, Trafalgar Square, Tower of London, Millenium Bridge, London Bridge, and yes, even Chinatown.

We had a flight cancelled and a flight delayed on our way over, one of our trains nearly hit someone, and we waited on the runway for a plane to emergency land. I also have found out the perils of having no towel and so I have been using my shirt to dry myself off.

We haven't interacted too much with locals, but Puneet has been saying "Cherio" and "Pip, Pip," trying to blend in. We clearly can't afford much here though.

Hopefully I'll get Internet and be able to spam you some more!
Stu

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May 29, 2008 - Paris, France

Bojour!

We have just left France and entered Italy. I can confidently say that out of the two countries we have visited, France is my third favorite. Way to go France! It was everything I expected of France: the people were rude, the food was overpriced, and the baguettes were plentiful. The city was surprisingly dirtier than London with graffiti all over the place. French lovers call the dirt "authenticity;" I still call it "dirt."

We had a really interesting experience at the airport during our fantastic four hour delay. A man was sleeping on the one of the chairs in the airport, and we heard a splattering of a liquid hitting the floor. We quickly realized the man was urinating on the floor in his sleep. Being the good citizens we were, we told security, and being the good Frenchmen they were; they told us it was not our problem to deal with and they promptly did nothing. It was like a microcosm of foreign policy - the overinvolved Americans are chastised by the French for doing too much.

In better news, the hostel in which we are currently staying is providing a towel. Huzzah!

Stu
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June 4, 2008 - Rome, Italy

Bonjourno!

Our time in Italy has come to an end and we are now in Barcelona. Italy was like a more authentic version of Olive Garden - when you´re here, you´re really family.

Our first night here we went to a small Italian restaurant near Trajan´s column. Although we planned to have a nice hour meal, I fortuitously got into a conversation with the eccentric man at the next table. The man was friends with the owner, which meant two things:

1) we were suddenly showered with free wine and
2) we had to talked to this man and the owner for another three hours.

The man pontificated in great length about the indifference of Europeans and lamented the commercialization of Italy. He was also obsessed with the number of ¨cities, towns, and states¨ in the United States of America. He proved to be an expert in race relations; when he saw a Chinese woman in our group, he said two types of Chinese women existed: the strong type (and he made a motion indicating muscular shouders) and the weak type (which he indicated by making a prancing motion). It was an extremely comfortable and natural situation for everyone.

For the second half of our Italy trip, we went on an organized trip of southern Italy. The landscapes were gorgeous with the endless coastlines and crystal clear water. The accomodations were less so. We stayed in what were called 'tent cabins,' which included a bed, sheets, night stand, and light. Notice I did not include a blanket, bathroom, or anywhere to put clothing. My friends' tents even came with complimentary rat droppings. I love camping!

Overall, though, Italy was my favorite of all the countries we have visited, and I definitely want to come back because we missed so much. The sights were out of this world, the food was good, and the women were surprisingly gorgeous. I could have spent the entire vacation in Italy.

We are in Barcelona now, and it is much more low key. I probably won't be sending out any more emails, but I hope you all have a fantastic summer and we can talk sometime soon.

Adios, Au Revoir, Caio, and peace out!
Stu

Sex Appeal Trump Interest Rates

Excerpted from Neuromarketing:

One South African bank trying to boost their loan business...mailed 50,000 customers a loan offer, and used several variations in the direct mail package. First, the offers included a range of randomly selected interest rates - presumably, the interest rate (along with repayment terms) is by far the most important criteria for whether a loan offer is appealing. More significantly for our interests, the bank also included several “psychological features"...

There’s a lot of information in that study, but here’s the part that I found to be most startling:

For the male customers, replacing the photo of a male with a photo of female on the offer letter statistically significantly increases takeup; the effect is about as much as dropping the interest rate 4.5 percentage points… For female customers, we find no statistically significant patterns.

Overall, these results suggest a very powerful effect on male customers of seeing a female photo on the offer letter. Standard errors however do not allow us to isolate one specific mechanism for this effect. The effect on male customers may be due to either the positive impact of a female photo or the negative impact of a male photo.

I find it amazing that the effect of a mere photo of a woman on a loan offer was equivalent to nearly a 5% difference in the loan interest rate - a huge dfferential in the lending world.

Stu Stein and the Bathroom of Doom

You know it's been a while since you've cleaned your bathroom when half of your medicines are expired and the other half have the expiration dates rubbed off. I also stumbled upon a plethora of those time rubber bands the orthodontists give you to straighten your bite. They were scattered about every drawer I cleaned like little bathroom ants waiting to be disposed of.

I also realized that I don't use medicine nearly to the extent I did when I was younger. I came to the conclusion that the vast majority of medicine comes at the beginning and ends of my life. I've heard that the most expensive medical years are the last seven years of your life. So even though I'm tossing my old medicines, I realize the day will come all too soon when I'm stocking up again. I hope to avoid the humiliation of diapers next time.

The Digital Packrat

My mother has set me on the task of cleaning out my room. I am moving to New York soon, and she fears that she will never get another chance to make me clear out all my old stuff (read: crap). And as I have been clearing out my old stuff, it has amazed me how many memories have been (or can be) digitized.

I had entire shelves full of music CD's. Music CD's? I might as well be milking my own cows. CD's are a relic of the past. I can trash them all if I just rip them onto iTunes.

I have an endless supply of trophies for everything from winning gold at public speech competitions to being a field day participant at the Langley School in May 1997. Emailing a list list of these accomplishments can avoid me the hassle of schlepping around the awards forever.

And pictures, pictures, pictures. This is actually a difficult one because in the days of the 35 mm, I had to get them all printed out. I wonder whether there's a service that can more quickly scan them and put them online.

The point is, it's amazing how many of these tangible memories can be digitized. And it makes sense too to digitize them because are they really worth the space they take up when I might only glance at them once?

And yet, it's still a struggle for me to toss them out because it feels like throwing out my childhood.

Oh, and what do I do with my yearbooks?