为什么要做硬的人,立硬的规矩

ADS博弈论的第一章第五节。顺便这本书推荐所有对博弈感兴趣的看一看。
Avinash_K._Dixit,_Susan_Skeath_Games_of_Strategy

D. Why Professors Are so Mean?
Many professors have inflexible rules not to give makeup exams and never to accept late submission of problem sets or term papers. Students think the professors must be really hardhearted to behave in this way. The true strategic reason is often exactly the opposite. Most professors are kindhearted and would like to give their students every reasonable break and accept any reasonable excuse.The trouble lies in judging what is reasonable. It is hard to distinguish between similar excuses and almost impossible to verify their truth. The professor knows that on each occasion he will end up by giving the student the benefit of the doubt. But the professor also knows that this is a slippery slope. As the students come to know that the professor is a soft touch, they will procrastinate more and produce ever-flimsier excuses. Deadlines will cease to mean anything, and examinations will become a chaotic mix of postponements and makeup tests.

Often the only way to avoid this slippery slope is to refuse to take even the first step down it. Refusal to acceptany excuses all is the only realistic alternative to accepting them all. By making an advance commitment to the “no excuses” strategy, the professor avoids the temptation to give in to all.

But how can a softhearted professor maintain such a hardhearted commitment? He must find some way to make a refusal firm and credible. The simplest way is to hide behind an administrative procedure or university-wide policy. “I
wish I could accept your excuse, but the university won’t let me” not only puts the professor in a nicer light, but removes the temptation by genuinely leaving him no choice in the matter. Of course, the rules may be made by the same collectivity of professors as hides behind them but, once made, no individual professor can unmake the rule in any particular instance.

If the university does not provide such a general shield, then the professor can try to make up commitment devices of his own. For example, he can make a clear and firm announcement of the policy at the beginning of the course. Any
time an individual student asks for an exception, he can invoke a fairness principle, saying,”If I do this for you, I would have to do it for everyone.” Or the professor can acquire a reputation for toughness by acting tough a few times. This may be an unpleasant thing for him to do and it may run againsthis true inclination, but it helps in the long run over his whole career. If a professor is believed to be tough, few students will try excuses him, so he will actually suffer less pain in denying them.

@wingsky,翻译一下。

把博弈论用来解释实际生活。很好的书。另外,我经常说我不在乎别人怎么理解,我不入地狱谁入地狱。其实,我一点也不想用强硬的手段。现在总得有个人要入地狱,那么就让他是我好了。如果系里讨论在现有的规则上修改细则而且把难以执行的部分也执行起来,那么就让我来做大家的对立面好了。

现在对你要求严格,监督你的研究进展,是为了你将来的成就。能理解我就理解,不能就以后慢慢理解,实在不能就发发牢骚,但还是要接受规则先。我对大家基本上一视同仁,包括万宝惠和张晶。我想你们慢慢会明白我为什么要对你们有这样的要求。

包括系里其它的事情也好,都可以不关我的事情。但是,如果有些事情确实必须推动,还要有人花很大的力起来推动,还要得罪人,那就让这个人是我好了。

管理学、系统科学、经济学,制度设计:一个例子

统计物理学的标度齐次函数:Y=F(K,L,Other),具有性质aY=F(aK,aL,aOther),或者更一般地a^{d}Y=F(a^{x}K,a^{y}L,a^{z}Other)。我们只讨论前面的形式。

经济增长理论也假设生产函数具有齐次性aY=F(aK,aL,aOther)。很多其它的结果基于这个假设。这说明,如果一个生产单位把劳动力总数,资本总量,以及其他因素,都扩大两倍,则产量也扩大两倍。这个假设很有问题。制度设计与管理的核心价值就是能够在固定资源、成本的条件下,通过内部结构调整,实现更高的效率。考虑一个只有10个人,100块钱的公司,那么由于人少钱少,生产模式只能用手工搬小石头。当然数增加到100人,1000块钱的时候,协作方式,工具都不一样了,或者由于组间竞争导致员工的主动性不一样了,可以搬动不仅仅是小石头的10倍的大石头,而是更大的石头;或者由于组间摩擦,只能搬动小于小石头10倍的大石头。这两种情况都会破坏齐次性。当然,如果假设石头里有玉,越大的石头有高质量玉的几率越大,而且超过正比(别管我这个假设是否合理,总找得到满足我这个假设的情形),那么齐次性也会被破坏。

总之,结构性的改变,关系的改变,产品质量内在的提升,制度的设计,也就是说相互作用,都会改变齐次性。这些方面就是管理学、系统科学能起作用的地方。

尽管我一直说我不喜欢用“1+1大于2”来描述系统科学,在这个问题上,倒也合适。

Novak的概念地图

最近在看Novak的概念地图。非常简单明确的一个概念,容易实现,很好用的一个工具。整理概念之间的关系,使得大脑之中对概念的认知按照概念自身的关系来组织。这对于概念的学习、教学、评价都有非常大的作用。除了教育学领域,这个方法在企业管理、只是创新等方面也已经得到初步的应用。

关于这个概念地图的想法,Novak最初要研究学习,尤其是小学生对科学概念的学习这个问题中作为整理学生的学习效果(哪一些概念和哪一些概念间的联系真的学会了,通过面谈调查,然后绘制概念关系图然后与专家的概念关系图比较)的工具提出来的。这个项目Novak小组做了12年。

我在去年打算做科学学研究的时候,从复杂网络研究的角度提出来,以为是新的。没想到,人家Novak已经做了这么多年的深入研究,而且已经从教育界走到了更广泛的领域。

不过,这方面的研究应该说还是在比较初级的阶段。还有很大的空间来做基础研究、交叉研究、应用性研究、实际应用。推荐两个材料:

Moon etc, Applied Concept Mapping
Novak, Learning, Creating, and Using Knowledge: Concept Maps As Facilitative Tools in Schools and Corporations