Dan is right, J. Bradford DeLong is funny:
“My feet hurt. These marble floors are hard. I want to go sit down.”
“But here comes David Laibson, the master of hyperbolic discounting. If we stay here, we can talk to him.”
“But then our feet will hurt worse later on in the afternoon.”
“Ah, but right now we don’t care: you see, we are hyperbolic discounters, and so underweight future pain relative to present pleasure. It’s true that later on we’ll regret the fact that we spent so much time standing around and did not sit down. However, right now the benefits of discussing hyperbolic discounting with David Laibson are irresistible!”
“But if we stay here, we’ll be doing the wrong thing…”
More niche humour from James, yesterday:
“Two atoms were walking down the street. One turns to the other and says, “Oh, no! I lost an electron!”
The other responds, “Are you sure?!?”
“Yes, I’m positive!”
» J. Bradford DeLong: The Non-Work Side of the American Economic Association’s Annual Meeting
Petafloptimism 