Ryu's Blog

I’d two dinners with Bryan Caplan, a professor at GMU, author of The Myth of the Rational Voter, and co-blogger at EconLog, We discussed lots of topics, ranging from why people should have more kids (theme of his upcoming book) to different interests and motivations between man and woman. We also talked about graphic novels, politics, and cultural influences, and academia life. I enjoyed the conversation, though I’m less sure about Bryan as he is way smarter than I’m and has a group of equally smart lunch friends back at GMU. The second dinner (which I initiated), was potentially a proxy to find out how satisfying he finds conversing with me. Since he met me for the second time, I infer that I didn’t bored him too much (or he is just too kind).

Bryan is the sort of people I’d enjoy being around. Two of my undergraduate professors, and many of the GMU bloggers, share similar traits as well. These people have wide range of interests, read a lot, and very open-minded. They also tend to be independent, creative and have a sense of humor (and interestingly most follow the classical liberal tradition). Money is generally not too important to them. As a result these people are generally happy and know how to enjoy life. Whether I do a PhD or not, one of my goals in life is to be like these people.