Claire's Random Thoughts

If maintaining a good GPA for better chances at employment is not enough of an incentive, maybe Ultrinsic will put your motivation over the top. Conversely, you can even buy insurance to offset negative consequences from lower than desirable grades.

Now available at 36 universities, Ultrinsic sponsors “gambling” on grades using a very basic insurance-like pooling system. Students can choose either to bet on earning a target grade (or higher) or insure grades lower than a desirable threshold. Bets can be placed on individual courses as well as the whole semester’s GPA. Before bets are placed, students are required to enter their GPA’s for risk calculation. This seems like an interesting model, and I placed two small bets on two of my major classes I hope to do well in.

It appears as though the system presently only allows bets relatively small in amount. I entered some numbers, and in this example, it appears as though Ultrinsic will only pay me $29 for an A, no matter how much I want my total incentive to be. For example, if I want to be paid $68 at the end of the semester for an A, then I will have to contribute $39 as a premium, and Ultrinsic will pay the additional $29. If I fail to achieve my target grade, then Ultrinsic keeps my $39. However, if I enter $100 as my incentive, Ultrinsic will still only pay $29 of my incentive while I have to contribute $71. Even at an incentive of $500, Ultrinsic’s contribution remains at $29. Conclusively, if you are going to buy a grade incentive, make sure you figure out what Ultrinsic’s maximum contribution is before betting to avoid paying an extra premium for no extra potential payoff.

One current flaw in the current calculation formula may be that it assumes the same risk for every single class for the same student, neglecting aptitude in specific subjects as well as easiness of professors. No matter which class I place an incentive bet on, it appears as though my premium and Ultrinsic’s contribution are the same, no matter how easy or difficult the class is, and completely disregarding my transcript history in similar classes. In the future, Ultrinsic’s model can definitely be improved by considering factors other than a cumulative GPA (i.e. history in similar classes, different professors)

Wow, my life is so different right now compared to how it was just a year ago. If I didn’t transfer to NYU from SJU, I would probably still be on my old lifestyle.

By the way, I did go back to the Everyman Sleep Schedule. There’s just no way I can get everything done otherwise, especially with my daily commute time from Greenwich Hotel.

For starters, last year, I would probably be either watching a movie or TV or just chatting with Sarah, Athena, Clare, David, and Jeffrey. O’Connor Hall Suite 306 nightly after TV/movie gathering! Or, during the most productive days, we might have a “homework party” which was really just chatting.

Now, I’m reading ahead so I can be prepared for tomorrow’s Financial Statement Analysis lecture. That’s right, I’m reading ahead, something I would have never even considered considering just a year ago.

Just a year ago, I never opened a textbook. Now I’m electing to preview the material before class (for classes I like).
Just a year ago, I slept about 9 hours per night. Now, I’m on the Everyman sleep schedule.
Just a year ago, I thought my 9:10 am class twice per week was ridiculously early, and I often missed it when I couldn’t get up. Now I have no trouble making it to 8:00 am classes Monday through Thursday and 9:30 on Friday.
Just a year ago, virtually all time outside of class became free time. Now it’s networking, presentation, seminar, or group project time.
Just a year ago, I would hang out at Montgoris Dining Hall for hours with friends. Then, we would go back to the dorms and continue. Now, I grab something to go and eat while working on group projects.

Finally, just a year ago I had fun…now…

Well, it’s safe to say that I’m adapting to the typical life of an NYU Stern student. Sometimes I still miss my old laid back life with actuarial science major classes as the only thing requiring work. I just couldn’t keep it simple, continue with my full scholarship, and be an actuary, could I? Well, I value prestige, so I guess it’s prestige I’m getting and working for. I also have the reputation of making everything more complicated than necessary, and that’s definitely what I’m doing now.

I define the “All or Nothing” concept as the curse that makes me either not do anything at all or go “all out” but never in between. I also believe that this is why it is often difficult for me to start an assignment or studying for a test. Before I start to focus, it’s very difficult to get started. Once I start to focus, I continue until the project is perfect and complete or I think I understand the material on the test completely (provided I have at least some interest in the topic). My philosophy is to “either do something right or don’t do it at all.”

Why is it so difficult to focus on many things in life but each of them in moderation? I know that once I get into one thing, I drop the previous “addiction” and move onto the next. Right now it’s at posting on online forums and blogging. Of course these “addictions” always come second in priority after spending time with family/friends (mainly friends, because I’m in college now and living away from my family). If I ever become indulged enough in something like World of Warcraft and choose that thing over hanging out, somebody shoot me (or maybe just give me a shot of reality). If I started playing such a game, I would probably just farther prove the “all or nothing” concept, but I definitely don’t want an addiction like that lol.

Now that I’m getting back into the groove of blogging, I understand why it was so addicting before. Yes, I think it should be safe to call myself a blogger again at this point in time, because I have been posting fairly regularly for a while. It seems like whenever I’m doing anything, I’m constantly thinking, “Hmm…is this bloggable?” Whenever I think of anything, I start a blog post for it. My reaction to everything is, “Let me blog about it!” I typically have an average of about 10 drafts at any given time that I started when I thought about a “bloggable” topic. However, I would say that fewer than half of these drafts are actually finished and not eventually deleted after being deemed blog unworthy or never finished and out of date for publishing purposes. Anyway, now I understand why I used to post so much when I first started my blog. When I kind of stopped, I couldn’t only post occasionally. I just posted once in a blue moon. I guess this might also explain why you can find so few personal blogs that have consistent posts every week or two. They typically either update every couple days or very infrequently altogether.

I remember a while back when I was obsessed with paid to post online forums and spent many hours per day posting on them, even though the pay was definitely not worth the time I spent on them. After a couple weeks on such forums, I stopped posting altogether, because I felt like the discussions that took place on them were not the highest in quality, since people just posted to earn forum “points” that they would get paid for. I somehow reminded myself of these forums again and started posting on a few of them. Fortunately, this time around I only check each forum a few times per day. Maybe this is just because I’m a busier person right now than I was the first time I signed up for such forums.

Previous addictions included chess-live (an online chess server that is now dead) that I was convinced was the secret to my downfall and Guitar Hero that I played way too much last semester, because I had no job and no challenging classes. I don’t spend my time on either of these two things anymore, because once I got over the addiction, I ceased to waste time on them completely. As far as I’m concerned, this is probably a good thing, because I should be able to find a more useful addiction. Just think about how great it would be if I got addicted to studying for actuarial exams.

All in all, living under the “all or nothing” concept could either my greatest strength or my greatest weakness. I could argue for it to be my greatest strength, because I make sure to get things done properly once I get started. I just need some interest and motivation to spark my initial focus. In a working environment, this could prove to be a valuable asset, because I would put in my best effort to finish my projects as long as they are worthy of the effort and not out of date. This is similar to me finishing blog posts that might potentially be worth reading while deleting my outdated drafts that are no longer appropriate for publishing at a later day. Even blogging can be a good addiction, because it can become a way for me to exercise my coherency, express myself, and eventually get paid when I can get this blog approved for paid posts. As long as I can become addicted to the right thing, my “all or nothing” motivation will push me to finish what I started with top quality. The problem, however, lies in focusing on the wrong things, such as chess-live or Guitar Hero. If I can find some way to improve my selection process, the “all or nothing” concept could greatly work to my advantage.

This purpose this post serves is mainly to remind myself of what I’m supposed to be doing. Maybe it will help me get my work done, so I can enjoy my “reasons to be cheerful”

Let’s start with things to be cheerful about. I’m trying to be an optimist, since they seem like the happier people. It wouldn’t hurt to be one of them, would it?
1. I get to go home for Thanksgiving! I miss home. I’ve been away since the end of August, so it’s only natural to want to go back.
2. It’s almost the end of the semester. Then, I get a break for about a month. Maybe I should try to get a job this time, since I have been unemployed for a while.

Now, what not to look forward to:
1. My scientific article project
This isn’t due until Tuesday December 2, but my flight’s coming in at about 6:00 am that morning, so I will have no time to work on it that day. I’m also going home for Thanksgiving break and don’t want to have to bring my laptop and articles with me, so my personal deadline for this is before I leave on Wednesday. I have to find 15 scientific articles and tease scientific terms out of them from a predetermined list the professor gave us. Then, we have to summarize the article while embedding the term. I was supposed to be working on this all semester, but I chose to wait until the very end. It’s much more difficult to find suitable articles than I had anticipated, because they not only have to be suitable for certain scientific terms but also have to be related to the environment. Since I only have to
2. My business law final. It’s probably not too big of a deal, because it’s just going to be multiple choice and fairly general, but I still need to review my notes. And, it’s on the same day the project is due, when my flight comes in at 6 am. I’ll be exhausted that day, sigh.
3. Studying for my calculus 3 final that will take place on December 9. I can’t say I fully understand vectors at this point. I can just follow examples and do problems. If I can get over this hump, I’m not too concerned about my other final exams, since this one is the most difficult.
4. Oh yeah, my final section of my accounting annual report project is due tomorrow too. Maybe I’ll skip this one and spend the time working on the scientific article instead (I say that, but I’ll probably just be wasting time on the internet). It’s only one section out of 10, and the whole project is only worth 10 percent of our grade. So, I’m only losing out on one percent of my final grade if I don’t do it. I’m glad the previous test had extra credit that was definitely worth more than 1 percent of the final grade. I’m probably going to end up doing the assignment tomorrow morning anyway, because accounting actually somewhat interests me.

I guess compared to some of my friends with majors with classes that require multiple term papers that each have to be pretty long in length, I’m lucky. Theoretically, I can concentrate on the scientific article project before I leave on Wednesday for Thanksgiving break and do a little looking over my business law notes. After that, I can then shift my focus to Calculus 3, since my grade is not in jeopardy in any of my other classes. The key word here is theoretically, which will only work if I am able to keep up my plan.

It’s funny how all the things to be cheerful about are directly related to one of the things not to look forward to. In other words, in order for me to enjoy anything I am looking forward to, I have complete one of my dreaded tasks. In order to enjoy Thanksgiving break, I have to get my scientific article project out of the way. Otherwise, I’ll have to go through great inconvenience to bring home all the materials I need to do the project and take time out of the few days I have there to do my project. In order for me to enjoy winter break, I have to get a decent grade in Calculus 3. Otherwise, a bad grade in that class will bother me throughout the break.

Other things to do:
1. Talk to another dean (not the one who was being as “unaccomodating” as she possibly could) so I can declare a minor in math (hmm…ideally, I can’t fail calculus 3 too badly if I want to do this, either. Otherwise a minor in math wouldn’t make much sense, would it?). I know that it’s allowed, because other people with my same major are doing the same thing, but it just seems like I always speak to the wrong people.
2. Redesign my stepmania site

So, I had an absolutely miserable calculus 3 test last Thursday. I didn’t mention it earlier, because it was before I resumed blogging. In fact, the test was so long and miserable for most of the class, that the professor let us take one problem home to do, the problem that asked us to find torsion for a vector that got more complex every time you derived it. I wasted a lot of time and frustration after dinner last night attempting to do the problem without one simple piece of information that I forgot to copy down, a simple t=0 (Thank you again, Sarah).

Do I think the majority of the population will really care about this? Probably not, but I feel like ranting, and I’m getting back into blogging, so think of anything that happens as “potentially bloggable”. Don’t worry if you don’t understand any of this problem either. As far as I’m concerned, this isn’t exactly the most useful kind of math. In fact, I can’t wait for vectors to be over, so I can get back to practical use math that I might actually need for anything Actuarial Science related.

Math with numbers is so much easier.