If you're so smart, then why aren't you
1 min read

If you're so smart, then why aren't you

I feel angry because my econ professor marked me down for not calculating log(2)/log(1.1) and 1000(1.1)^50 on a test. I talked to him afterwards and he said he wanted the values and that we could have used our phones if we forgot to bring a calculator. I feel like it should have been ok and I didn't feel the need to clarify during the test. The professor is also the kind of person who mentions how chatGPT is so useful every class. Wouldn't that be the kind of person who would be ok with the exact values and the phrase "use technology" written afterwards?

I'm also annoyed because there's this pattern of me feeling like I'm right and he's wrong. On another quiz, a question was: Fred plays tennis after work even though he says he would rather be working longer hours. What would economists say about his behavior? My answer was: "Fred has a preference for tennis over work at the times he plays tennis" because his revealed preferences means he values tennis more. The correct answer was: "Fred is irrational because he is not doing what he says he wants to do." I think his actual behavior reflects his preferences at that time more than what he says he prefers! But when I brought this up to my professor, he said he likes the idea but it's out of the scope of the class. D:

I'm trying to not let this ruin my day. I feel like it's really important to recognize what matters and to regulate my emotions. As I was walking, I remembered the twitter thing where people say, "if you're so smart, then why aren't you rich," or "if you're so smart, then why aren't you happy." This hits me hard because sometimes I think I'm so smart and better than everyone, but in reality I overestimate myself and can't do the things I want to do.

If I was actually so smart, things would be actually very different.