The Grilled Cheese

1. Many gyms are in basements and have no windows. Mirrors are simply replacements.
2. Weight lifters need to keep a close eye on their form.
   
3. A major reason people work out is to make themselves look better. The more they can see themselves looking better...the better.
4. Mirrors make checking other people out slightly more discreet.
5. Not enough posters demonstrating stretching, exercises, and muscle groups have been printed yet.
   
6. Stucco is ugly.
7. To keep membership prices down, gyms only use one security camera per room.
8. Gyms are part of the power silver-backed glass lobby in Washington.
   

Dan Ariely, behavioral economist and author of Predictably Irrational, ponders the effect of wearing knockoff designer sunglasses on cheating behavior. The simple premise is that since the wearer knows the glasses are fake, they are more inclined to cheat in other circumstances. Similarly, wearing fake glasses causes them to think that other people are cheating too.

Cool stuff. But here's my question. Ariely reminds us throughout the video that the wearer knows the glasses are fake, but nobody else does. What if other people did know? On one hand, knowing that other people know may validate their cheating behavior, increasing their likelihood to cheat in other situations. On the other hand, knowing that other people know may change how they categorize their own behavior. Instead of cheating, wearing fake glasses may become an honest money-saving tactic, so subsequent cheating behavior would not be affected.

I think the difference would be less ambiguous for how the wearer perceives others' behavior. Since his cheating is public knowledge, he would be more inclined to expect others' cheating to be public as well. Therefore he would imagine people cheated less often than in the original experiment.

Knockoffs and fakes are incredibly interesting thought experiments. For example, my aunt once bought a real Louis Vuitton purse, but told people it was fake. She then told my mom that she told people it was fake.

The best Spanish teacher I ever had, Ernesto, once taught my class about no fault constructions. In situations where you don't want to assign blame, you can use the word se to avoid committing to anything. For example, instead of saying perdi tu dinero (I lost your money), you can say a mi se me perdio tu dinero (your money was lost of me). See this for a more complete explanation, and forgive the lack of accent marks.

I always liked that Spanish has a built-in blame removal system. Linguistically, Spanish speakers can live mistake-less lives. How cool is that! I tried thinking of examples where that happens in English, but I didn't get very far. But just a few days ago, I realized I had been looking in the wrong place. English doesn't have a set construction to relieve ourselves of blame, but English speakers manage to accomplish the feat nonetheless.

This moment of insight came while reading a story about Brett Favre's injury last year. Apparently, Favre had an injury towards the end of the season that the Jets failed to report against NFL rules. The Jets' GM took the blame, admitting that they should have listed him as probably. But the trainer wasn't quite so admirable. (And of course I can't find the actual quote: just trust me.) He said that Favre had an undetectable strain when he examined him. Yeah right. More like undetected.

One of my favorite examples is a phrase used often by soccer commentators -- not the awful American idiots ESPN hired to do the 2002 and 2006 world cups, but the awesome, loquacious British guys and their American counterparts that Fox Soccer channel hired. ESPN has since thankfully poached a few of these guys away from FSC -- when the ball changes possession after a players was dribbling. Instead of saying "...and Mesi loses the ball" (which never actually happens, by the way), they say "...and Dempsey is dispossessed" (which always happens; Dempsey you suck).

These are just a couple examples. Are there any more?

The Partners + Napier building is just as cool as the other sweet ad agency offices I've been to. Plenty of red brick peaking out around white open cubicles and door-less offices. Examples of work everywhere.

Our orientation consisted of an introductory agency video, a 20 minute description of the internship program, and an indian poker-esque icebreaker similar to the one in Inglourious Basterds (I was Enron). The meeting got me really excited about the internship. Everything about it is just...legitimate. I'll essentially be a real employee, doing real work and contributing to real accounts and projects. No coffee runs. The whole thing is geared towards giving us the best opportunity to succeed. I'm pumped.

And they started making good on that promise right away. Our first project is to produce a video that introduces ourselves and BrandCamp to the advertising world. That is due at the end of next week, but the first draft of the creative brief (basically the strategy for the video) was due at the end of the day. Most of us stayed till four or so working on it, and then the other planning intern and I worked on it some more (the creative brief is the main responsibility of account planners). I'll post the video when we're done with it, along with a summary of the thinking that went into it.

Right now, I'm looking forward to Monday, when the internship officially starts. I'm hoping to write about each week at BrandCamp in addition to any other posts I make, so be sure to look out for those.

Oh, and I bought a bike!

A couple weeks ago I finished my application video to BrandCamp in Rochester, NY and posted it on youtube. I am excited to say that I have been accepted! Shortly after receiving that happy notification, I went to work finding a flight and a place to live in Rochester for 3 months.

Yesterday was my flight. I had a four hour leg from SFO to Chicago O'Hare, where I had a three hour layover. I payed $6.95 for wireless. The last leg from O'Hare to ROC took a couple hours. I spent most of my non-internet time reading Waiter Rant by Steve Dublanica. I'm about halfway done so far, and it's been fantastic (thanks Liz!).

The taxi took me to the apartment I had found online. It's pretty small, with a shared bathroom and a minimal kitchen. There's no oven. Instead, the fridge is below the two burners and the sink.

I spent the morning doing a few things. First, I made a weak attempt to beat the time change, getting up at 7:30 am pacific time. Next I checked out the shared bathroom with a shower. Water pressure: not bad. Then I ventured out to visit the rental office to get my keys in order. They weren't in, so I continued along Monroe street to get some groceries and other small essentials.

I ended up walking the wrong way back to my place after buying groceries, so a 6 minute walk turned into a half hour trudge back and forth carrying three heavy plastic bags (sorry Jay! but that's all they have) through the humidity. Thankfully I had my new camelback with me, so I stayed well hydrated!

Tomorrow I have an orientation meeting at the office. In the meantime, check out these pictures of my apartment!

(download)

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My_first_day_in_Rochester_NY.zip (3.25 MB)