Works Cited

A firm whose behavior was consistent with a myopic pricing strategy [a strategy involving maximizing current profit even if it results in strengthening competitors in the long run] was the Reynolds International Pen Corporation. Reynolds was one of the inventors of the ballpoint pen. Starting in 1945, it sold its ballpoint pen for between $12 and $20, while unit cost was only 80 cents. In response to this high price, a hundred competitors rushed into the market. By 1948, Reynold's market share was zero! However, it made off with considerable profits over that three-year period.

W. Kip Viscusi, et al Economics of Regulation and Antitrust

The Last Question

Jacob linked to this Asimov story. I enjoyed it.

Works Cited

The working of the emotional mind is to a large degree state-specific, dictated by the particular feeling ascendant at a given moment. How we think and act when we are feeling romantic is entirely different from how we behave when enraged or dejected; in the mechanics of emotion, each feeling has its own distinct repertoire of thought, reactions, even memories. These state-specific repertoires become most predominant in moments of intense emotion.

One sign that such a repertoire is active is selective memory. Part of the mind's response to an emotional situation is to reshuffle memory and options for action so that those most relevant are at the top of the hierarchy and so more readily enacted. And, as we have seen, each major emotion has its hallmark biological signature, a pattern of sweeping changes that entrain the body as that emotion becomes ascendant, and a unique set of cues the body automatically sends out when in its grip.


Daniel Goleman, Emotional Intelligence