Tweets and Giggles

Being a (fairly quiet and largely ignored) part of the Twittersphere has been an interesting experiment so far. I am regularly supremely jealous of people who are able to sit at home on a week day and work on their romantic novels. I am even more jealous when these romantic novelists mention their gardens. This lunchtime I saw that Wayne Rooney has had his hair transplant (or whatever the treatment it is he’s flogging for oodles of cash). Rio Ferdinand proceeded to rib him about hair extensions. Yes, it is slightly embarrassing that I follow them, but it is all in the noble name of research. And apparently Twitter can predict stock market movements (according to an article in the Economist's Technology Quarterly - you have to subscribe to see online). If you’re feeling anxious and you tweet it (clap your hands?!) then you contribute to the ‘mood’ statistics that seem to lead market trends. It’s a whole world - one microcosmic second at a time.

Lumps of labour

Economists are good for some things. One is coming up with concise explanations (and catchy names) for concepts that kind of make logical sense, but it would take a course of in-depth research to prove why they do. Such is the case with me and the ‘lump of labour’ fallacy. I discovered this fallacy this morning after experiencing it dancing just beyond my comprehension for about a week, unable to properly explain why I thought something was wrong, but knowing nonetheless that it was.