Help, I have an immature brain!

Researchers have found that teenagers who engage in more risky behavior may have a more well-developed brain than their more risk-averse peers: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1919663,00.html.

Watching my reckless classmates doing one stupid thing after another as a kid may not have given me reason to be as smug as I was back then, judging from the article. Of course, through my responsible behavior I potentially lowered the probability of me having some serious mental or physical injury today, or of me not existing at all. Regardless of this, the following still holds true: It does not sound good to have an immature brain.

So Where Do the Guys Go?

Can the Gender Wage Gap Be Explained By Differences In Thinking?

One often hear that girls think a lot more than guys about what guys really think than what guys think about what girls really think. I am not writing this because I have seen the terrible movie ‘He’s Just Not That Into You’ too many times, but I have actually made some observations of my own (excluding myself of course to get a sense of objectivity). Actually, the state of a guys mind does not seem to be all the mind of a girl is occupied by. A male friend pointed out the other day that girls seem to care more than guys about other people in the sense that they care more about how other people are doing and what other people think. To sum up: girls seem to spend a lot of time evaluating thoughts and feelings of other people while the guys are doing something else. What???

I can imagine that some of the time may be spent on several potentially wage enhancing activities. Some examples straight from my imagination:

• Read interesting and productivity enhancing literature;
• Learn how to use a new computer program;
• Evaluate news;
• Rewrite the CV;
• Invent the new social media;
• ETC…

Moreover, not constantly evaluating thoughts and feelings of others also make you more focused on what you are working with at any time, something that should contribute significantly to your productivity and the quality of your work. Thus, since gender based differences in thinking potentially have an effect on the choices and performance of activities these differences may be a factor behind the gender wage gap.

The causes and consequences of gender based differences in thinking is a topic that is little explored in the economic literature. This blog will most certainly help filling this gap with future blog posts on the topic.

TO MAKE A POINT

I do not want to view myself as a central part of everyone’s thoughts, but some people may have wondered whether my stories ever have a point. I have reflected over this and I would say to those people who (may) wonder that yes, my stories do have a point. The thing is that I either forgot the point while talking, I never remembered the point while talking, or the point just passed by unnoticed because the other part of the story had grown unproportionately large.

TO DO SOMETHING MEANINGFUL

One thing to think about every now and then may be why I am doing a PhD in Economics. Whenever I get the question, my answer obviously depends on who is asking. Or let me correct that. I have three different answers which are supposed to suit three different kinds of people. However, since my mouth is not to be trusted, it kind of randomizes the answers. I do not suspect any mean intentions from the part of my mouth, but probably it just wants to make my mind happy by some fun let’s-check-the-reaction-of-this-person activity. In any case, the following are the three standard ones:

- I think Economics is so much fun, and I just wanted to learn more and more and more.
- I did not want to grow up and deal with reality.
- I wanted to meet someone intelligent to marry.

Depending on how you see it one may not exclude the other, but something they admittedly have in common is that they do not seem that serious. This bothers me. Especially since I would like to dedicate my life to something m-e-a-n-i-n-g-f-u-l, but am too afraid of other people to become a doctor. Aware of the fact that the three standard answers actually do not imply that I would spend my PhD doing something that is not meaningful I started repeating to myself and others: “I could not ever do any research on anything that does not seem m-e-a-n-i-n-g-f-u-l to me.”

I will think about this.