Silver

[duckrabbit]

One thing I learned from the Swarthmore psychology department is that winners of bronze medals are happier than winners of silver. (That was the most memorable of Schwartz's Thinking, Judgment and Decision-Making lectures last fall. Lisa and I were primed for innuendo from the discussion of "peak-end theory," so by the time this topic came up we

Comments

[hahorim]

When you win a silver medal, you think - I could have had it. When you win bronze, you're just glad you placed.

I never thought of it this way, but it is so true! But since you are aware of it, you should be able to overcome the disappointment... It is a SILVER after all!

And speaking of this being the day of silver medals, we just got a call from WUSTL that Netta was the runner up for the summer program scholarship, so she is getting $200 gift certificate for art supplies (to make her feel better about not getting $2700 scholarship, I guess...)

[hahorim]

Nice icon, btw...

[abenn135]

"Anatomically Deviant Kangaroos"? Did I ever see that one?

[duckrabbit]

No, it was my sophomore year Semantics paper about the truth conditions of counterfactual statements. The full title was "Truth Conditions and Anatomically Deviant Kangaroos," and was based on the famous example counterfactual, "If kangaroos had no tails, they would fall down."

[kid_prufrock]

Gosh, I didn't know you wrote a paper on the semantics of counterfactuals! What did you say?

[duckrabbit]

That counterfactuals don't have truth-conditions, they have assertability-conditions, because they express an aspectual committment rather than a committment to the truth of some fact or another.

[_swallow]

Hm: I think that one of the things I have been getting better at as I get older is appreciating silver medals.

[philthecow]

I imagine it is a sign of maturity to be able to appreciate silver medals.

Ronni, at least you're a duckrabbit!

"swarthmore taught me humility", etc.

[_swallow]

-- Or, I keep wanting to return to this for some reason, stopping thinking of them as medals at all.

Re: "swarthmore taught me humility", etc.

[duckrabbit]

Well, the only reason I put it into those terms was that I felt a certain sort of disappointment that seemed analogous to the kind that Barry Schwartz described in terms of olympic medals. In the case of Ling I didn't even really come in "second" to anybody; it's just that I'm feeling disappointed about having fallen short of some higher standard instead of being proud of what I did accomplish.

[kid_prufrock]

It's super-impressive you came in second for the essay prize, anyway--I've never seen a non-senior win it.

[duckrabbit]

Thanks! :)