About

One day I quit my job to go to Costa Rica, I started this blog to give the cubicle monkeys I left behind a window into the big world. When my traveling ended I kept writing, not because I had anything worth saying, just because I felt like it.

Since then I have returned to the workforce and left it again, this time for academia. Sometimes I wish I had an overiding theme topic for Working’s For Suckers, but it’s really just my ramblings.

I live in San Diego and I’m somewhere in the neigborhood of 30 years of age.

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I Read & Enjoyed…

Dolphin markets in everything, Gresham's Law edition November 4, 2009
I enjoyed this story: Kelly has taken this task one step further. When people drop paper into the water she hides it under a rock at the bottom of the pool. The next time a trainer passes, she goes down to the rock and tears off a piece of paper to give to the trainer. After a fish reward, she goes back down, tears off another piece of paper, gets another fi […]
Tyler Cowen
How to improve basketball October 29, 2009
Tim Miano writes to me: I am a longtime MR reader. I have a hypothesis about how basketball could be much more exciting, and I can't for the life of me figure out why people who are into sports haven't widely considered it (as least as far as I know).Here is my simple thought: games should be played as best 4 out of 7 periods -- perhaps 7 minutes e […]
Tyler Cowen
The coin toss: not 50-50 after all October 25, 2009
Using a high-speed camera that photographed people flipping coins, the three researchers determined that a coin is more likely to land facing the same side on which it started. If tails is facing up when the coin is perched on your thumb, it is more likely to land tails up. How much more likely? At least 51 percent of the time, the researchers claim, and pos […]
Chris Blattman
Motorcycle helmet externality of the day October 13, 2009
Our estimates imply that every death of a helmetless motorcyclist prevents or delays as many as 0.33 deaths among individuals on organ transplant waiting lists. Here is the paper and I thank Brent Wheeler for the pointer. So should we mandate or tax the use of such helmets?
Tyler Cowen
Sobering Reality September 28, 2009
From Bill Easterly's, Can the West Save Africa.Hat tip to for the link and table to Hit and Run.
Alex Tabarrok
The McFarthest spot September 27, 2009
Strange Maps reports:Somewhere in South Dakota is the McFarthest Spot, the place in the US geographically most removed from the nearest McD’s...If you started out from this location, a few miles north of State Highway 20 (which runs latitudinally between Highways 73 in the west and 65 in the east), you’d have to drive 145 miles to get your Big Mac (if you co […]
Tyler Cowen
Teacher Absence in the United States September 24, 2009
Yesterday I looked at teacher absence in the developing world, highlighting India where a quarter of teachers may be absent on a given day. Teacher absence isn't that high in the United States but it is still shockingly high. On a typical school day, 5-6% of teachers are absent, i.e. equivalent to an absence once every 20 days!Bearing in mind that the […]
Alex Tabarrok
Competition and Concentration in Health Insurance September 17, 2009
Many people have bandied about numbers suggesting that the market for health insurance is highly concentrated. Here is the President:Consumers do better when there is choice and competition. Unfortunately, in 34 states, 75% of the insurance market is controlled by five or fewer companies. In Alabama, almost 90% is controlled by just one company....But these […]
Alex Tabarrok