During my student days at a UCLA economics department
faculty/graduate student coffee hour in the 1960s, I was chatting with
Professor Armen Alchian, probably the greatest microeconomic theory
economist of the 20th century. I was trying to impress Alchian with my
knowledge of statistical type I and type II errors. I explained that
unlike my wife, who assumed that everyone was her friend until they
prove differently, my assumption was everyone was an enemy until they
proved otherwise. The result: My wife's vision maximized the number of
her friends but maximized her chances of betrayal.
My vision minimized
my chances of betrayal at a cost of minimizing the number of my friends.
Alchian,
donning a mischievous smile asked, "Williams, have you considered a
third alternative, namely, that people don't give a damn about you one
way or another?" Initially, I felt a bit insulted, and our conversation
didn't go much further, but that was typical of Alchian — saying
something profound, perhaps controversial, without much comment and
letting you think it out.
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