Comments for Secular Homeschool.eu

Comment on slowly by Beta

Beta — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:19:41 +0000

ahhh, I’d never read that essay, although I am familiar with the idea. And much as it is giving me a twitch in my right eye, I’m trying to appreciate his fascination and let it run its course. But it’s not easy!

Comment on slowly by JJ Ross

JJ Ross — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 21:47:31 +0000

Have you read Pam Sorooshian’s explanation of the economics of scarity yet?

The “extra” utility you get from having “one more” of something, is called “marginal utility.”
And – marginal utility goes DOWN as you have more and more of the same thing.

Even if you chose different flavors for each of your ice cream cones, you’d have chosen the highest-utility flavor first and so subsequent cones would provide lower and lower marginal utility.

This way of looking at choices is applicable to almost everything we do.

What’s your favorite thing to do? Watch movies? Read a book? Garden? Go to Disneyland? Why don’t you just do that all the time and nothing else? I mean — if it is your favorite, then doesn’t it give you higher utility than anything else? Why do you ever stop doing it?

The answer is that as you do more and more of something, the marginal utility of doing even more of it, goes down. As its marginal utility goes down, other things start to look better and better.

Comment on slowly by JJ Ross

JJ Ross — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 21:42:53 +0000

There’s a cure for that kind of deep intense focus on one interest, you know. Satisfaction!

Comment on number play by JJ Ross

JJ Ross — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:34:59 +0000

Comment on oh, the irony by Lynn

Lynn — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:16:18 +0000

I bought Bob books on the recommendation of another homeschooler who said the books give beginning readers a sense of accomplishment that other books may not. When I received the books by mail I thought I had made a mistake, but my daughter loved them. Go figure. Maybe there *is* something magical about them!

Comment on getting there by Beta

Beta — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 20:37:28 +0000

we love that one as well!! And what burns apart from witches??

I think maybe we watch way too much television…

Comment on getting there by JJ Ross

JJ Ross — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:06:48 +0000

In honor of witches and movie quotes:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrzMhU_4m-g&feature=related]

Comment on getting there by Beta

Beta — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 08:03:23 +0000

ahhh… loved the Glinda reference. You’re very good at tying it all together! We still have a long way to go before this is a comfortable fit — “we” being Alpha and myself, of course. But this weekend really opened my eyes to how it can work.

Glad you enjoyed the Vinny reference — it seems like our conversations are always liberally peppered with movie quotes. No matter what the situation, there’s always a perfect quote to go with it!

Comment on getting there by JJ Ross

JJ Ross — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 01:07:30 +0000

Oh -- and chess is a WAR game! [tongue sticking out icon] So I loaded this new chess program for kids . . . Computer program to take on Jeopardy

Comment on getting there by JJ Ross

JJ Ross — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:35:41 +0000

Getting there you are indeed! Take it from an old hand, who like Glinda the Good Witch knew you would have to discover this for yourself before it would work.

And btw, you must have a lot of US-origin resources there I didn’t know about, if you can so brilliantly quote My Cousin Vinny.

dead-on balls accurate (it’s an industry term).