Our theme for the month of October was selected by readers and is a format challenge: write a post completely in dialogue.
A while ago a few friends and I took a class that turned out to be much easier than expected. We spent most of the class time electronically messaging. Here’s the transcript (with most of the boring parts redacted) — friends on left, me on right:
hi guys we can now annoy eachother all class
“each other” is two words
thank you tony
you’rewelcome
getit?
twowords
asoneword
hahaahahaha
hahahahahaha
thatwasthreewords
weareancientromansnowapparently
fvn
get it?
cuz their “u”s look like “v”s
I read this paper
do I need to watch a demonstration
if u r a dum undergrad u do
is it optimal to just bid your valuation?
if it’s a second-price auction
oh it’s first prie
gotta shade your bid if it’s first price
oy very
why is he presenting basic stastitcs?
“oy very” is like “oy vey” but more so
oh damnit
dave is a smart dude who cares about epistomology
are you assuming the bit at the end from his glasses?
no, he and i used to work in the same lab
but also yes
For the next day of class we thought it would be fun to play economics Dungeons & Dragons.
“you enter a tavern. the draconian government regulations prevent you from buying alcohol on a sunday. also it’s sunday in this fantasy world. the bartender says ‘i’m sorry i can’t serve you today.'”
Friend 1: Uncharacteristically, my normally peace-loving humanoid character decides to slay the bartender
Friend 2: I call police
“the police are publicly funded and government operated. they are inefficient and don’t arrive in time.”
<Friend 1> roll a d20
1
“critical failure.”
“the bartender stops you from trying to kill him. he is sad that you tried to kill him.”
“he begins crying.”
Friend 1: I bottle his tears
bartender tears have great power
Friend 2: I apologize to bartender, and try to explain to <Friend 1> that the man is only a cog in the system
“do you have a bottle in your inventory? if not, you have to get one.”
“<Friend 2> roll a d20 and add your charisma modifier.”
Friend 1: I don’t know we didn’t really do character creation
yeah… we jumped into this too fast.
Friend 2: <Friend 2> =100 in charisma
8
“ok, with your enormous charisma modifier, that is a success. the bartender is consoled.”
“but he is still oppressed. by the government.”
Friend 2: I explain government systems to <Friend 1> to get him to not kill people randomly
i gotta go in like five minutes
we’ll pick this up later.
We didn’t pick it up later.
Friend 1: I can see at least one guy watching the champions league
i’m v good at stock marketing
buy! buy! sell! sell!
(that’s just one example of stuff that i know to say)
Friend 1: Extremely ballsy guy in front of me has headphones in
Friend 2: oooh typing that seems to have shamed dude to taking them out
#causal
The last day of class.
Friend 3: i even got sick of PT hw
Friend 1: How can you get sick of prospect theory homework?
(price theory)
Friend 1: need a new acronym for price theory
Friend 3: can you really claim PT for prospect theory exclusively?
I think so physical therapist might have a beef with that
i think some*
Friend 2: umm i think Physics Theory
already has it
*poop theory
Tony graduated in 2012 with majors in mathematics and economics. He now lives in Chicago and is pursuing graduate study in economics. He also has a very good cultural trivia podcast called “Here’s My Number, So Call Me Ishmael” available on Libsyn, iTunes, and Google Play.
