A Beautiful Blog

Finished A Beautiful Mind today. Great book. I highly reccomend it. I've never taken an economics course and didn't even really know the definition of economics before I delved into the book and now I want to minor in it!! haha. I think I just have to pick a minor. Then I'll be OK because I know I am capable of falling in love with whatever I pick because I am interested in basically every field of study so it is just a matter of committing to one.

John Nash was a really eccentric, brilliant, reclusive, focused intellectual. I almost felt like I was living his life while I was reading the book. I definitely put myself in his shoes for most of the book. Sometimes I put myself in Alicia's (his wife), but mostly his. I'm curious, is this what everyone does when they are reading a biography? Or do they read it like an outsider looking in?

I found a sequel to the biography. It's called A Beautiful Math and while A Beautiful Mind focused on John Nash as a person , this one focuses on his math. The former is essentially a product of the latter. I read the first two chapters of it today (I can't believe I am choosing economics over Colbert!) and, among other, things, it introduced the concept of game-theory and the philosophies of Newton (the God of physics), Smith (the God of economics), and Darwin (the god of natural science). The order in which these three bodies of knowledge emerged was
1. Newton's philosophies about physical sciences (ie. gravity)
2. Smith's theories about ends and means - economics (invisible hand of govt., free-market economy)
3. Darwin's theories about human development (evolution, survival of the fittest)

I think it's ironic that Darwin theorized that only the strongest will survive (a theory that permeates essentially all life realms) AFTER Smith theorized that a govt. should play a minimal role in market affairs because Smith was theorizing about human behavior while Darwin was theorizing about humans themselves. The order seems a bit out of wack and when you look at the underlying principles that guide both smith and darwin's work we can see that they are the same.

off to yoga.

more later.

I love John Nash <3<3<3


and sushi <3<3<3