When Hyperbolic Discounting Attacks!
Back in January, the question of whether to declare the last day of instruction here at U.C. Berkeley--May 12--part of reading period and cancel the class is a no-brainer. the students are good, enthusiastic, and well prepared. There are oceans of material to cover. The syllabus has just been hacked with a chainsaw--the half-week unit on contemporary Chinese monetary policy has just bitten the dust--and I don't wan;t to have to cut any more. And the question of whether to extend the semester and have another meeting on May 14 is also a no-brainer: it wouldn't be fair to grab normal course time for review, would it?
But today it is May 12, and this is the 44th time I have trudged into this particular course's classroom this semester. And my heart sinks at the thought that I have to do it again...
This is not to say that this has been a bad course: these are good kids, they were well-preoared, and they have learned a lot.They are still pestering me with questions about John Hicks's IS curve and John Taylor's monetary policy reaction function (which I have no covered at such length that I guessed they have to be on Friday's exam). But my marginal disutility of lecturing all of a sudden feels very high...
On a related issue, I have never been gladder that my real gradebook is in paper in my backpack then when I see this:
