Message Number: 397
From: "Lisa Hsu" <hsul Æ eecs.umich.edu>
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2006 21:39:18 -0400
Subject: Re: Fairer Favors
------=_Part_609_10019169.1151631558447
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: inline

the thing that really sold me on the yootles idea is the anecdote danny had
in his faq from dave...that sometimes he and exes have been at odds over
something, and he "won" the argument when it really mattered much less to
him than her, whatever it was.	i think there is always room for
spontaneity/generousity, but there are times where one of us wants something
(pizza) and another wants something else (thai food) and we need some medium
of arbitration...so i think it would be cool for my fiance and i to try
yootles.

a concern though, that i didn't think of until i saw melanie's email and
danny's email, is that then you might feel you get "owed" yootles for being
generous.  like, if one day i just felt like making him his favorite food,
and he didn't act sufficiently grateful ;), then i'd feel like he should
have given me a bunch of yootles...hmmm...and eventually i might stop
offering spontaneous gestures...??

i'm just thinking out loud here.

i used to be concise and eloquent, before i became a full time engineer in
college.  somehow, james has managed to keep his linguistic gifts, lucky him
:).

lisa

On 6/29/06, Daniel Reeves   wrote:
>
> I'm getting responses offline indicating mass misunderstanding of
> Bethany's yootles mechanism.	I encourage you all to spam the group
> (reply-all) since it's really no problem for people to just ignore/delete
> the whole thread (as long as you don't change the subject line).
>
> The main question is "what good is a yootle?"  The answer is, as
> established by precedent, about a fiftieth of a ride to the airport.
> Yootles are not meant to be exchanged for money.  Nonetheless, if you
> acquire yootles you will, in a real sense, get positive utility out of
> them.  In fact, I personally guarantee it.  If you can't find anything
> else to do with them I will give you cash for them.  Seriously, they're
> very useful to me for things like influencing family decisions or getting
> out of doing the dishes.  Or getting out of tasks my boss assigns (I kid
> you not -- ask him; he's cc'd).  Which perhaps means I shouldn't be
> allowed to buy yootles -- that question is still under debate.  The whole
> yootles thing is still brand new.  It would be great to get input from you
> all.
>
> The other question about Bethany's airport auction people are asking is,
> why are people who aren't even in Michigan bidding thousands of yootles?
> Yes, it would be very dumb for me to fly to Detroit to take Bethany to the
> airport to fly to New York to visit me.  But my bid just reflects that if
> for some crazy hypothetical reason she needed one of us to drive her at
> any cost, that's roughly what the cost to me would be.  The auction
> mechanism now uses that information to decide that, yes, it would be dumb
> for Danny to do it!  And, as you can see, I'm fortunately losing the
> auction.
>
> One anonymous person (ok, fine, my grandfather) has opined that this is an
> awful idea and that people should arrange exchanges of favors with no
> explicit tracking system.  The yootles system, he says, undermines the
> spirit of magnanimity in favor-giving and fairness in decision-making and
> is bad for society.
>
> How's that for a gauntlet throwdown?	Let's hear some side-taking...
>
> Danny
>
> --- \/   FROM Daniel Reeves AT 06.06.29 12:13 (Today)   \/ ---
>
> > Oh, wow, airport rides are a great example.  I've more than once wished
> I
> > could respond along these lines:
> >  "I could but it's at a bad time.  But I'd rather take you than leave
> >   you high and dry.  So, um, could I just pay for your cab?"
> > But of course that's not an option.
> >
> > So, yes, we're making far from socially optimal decisions about rides to
> the
> > airport.  Bethany's idea to auction off the favor is a really good one!
> >
> > If you could humor us and put in a bid even if you can't realistically
> do it,
> > that would really help get a feel for how this system might work.
> > Like I put in Y$2000 estimating that's how much it would cost to get a
> last
> > minute flight to detroit, rent a car, and drive Bethany to the airport.
> >
> > Ooh, and let me sweeten the deal:  if you take Bethany to the airport
> you can
> > use her car while she's gone.  It's technically still my car, so I can
> say
> > that. :)
> >
> > Danny
> >
> > --- \/   FROM bethany soule AT 06.06.29 08:35 (Today)   \/ ---
> >
> >> Inasmuch as fairer favor tracking and better group decision making
> >> improve the world, I'd like to open this up for discussion:  Can
> >> people make better decisions when they can explicitly compare their
> >> utilities for the different options?
> >>
> >> Or, more specifically, can I identify from among my friends, who would
> >> least mind taking me to the airport tomorrow?  Let's find out:
> >>
> >> http://www.editgrid.com/user/bsoule/taxi-cab
> >>   Or the view-only version since the above is browser-picky:
> >> http://www.editgrid.com/user/bsoule/taxi-cab.html
> >>
> >> (Getting 50 yootles should be plenty to get your own ride to the
> >> airport from me or others later.  More at yootles.com.)
> >>
> >> Bethany
> >>
> >
> >
>
> --
> http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/dreeves  - -	search://"Daniel Reeves"
>
> "Life may have no meaning -- or even worse, it may have a meaning of
> which I disapprove."
>
>

------=_Part_609_10019169.1151631558447
Content-Type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: inline

the thing that really sold me on the yootles idea is the anecdote danny
had in his faq from dave...that sometimes he and exes have been at odds
over something, and he "won" the argument when it really mattered much
less to him than her, whatever it was.	i think there is always
room for spontaneity/generousity, but there are times where one of us
wants something (pizza) and another wants something else (thai food)
and we need some medium of arbitration...so i think it would be cool
for my fiance and i to try yootles. 
 
a concern though, that i didn't think of until i saw melanie's email
and danny's email, is that then you might feel you get "owed" yootles
for being generous.  like, if one day i just felt like making him
his favorite food, and he didn't act sufficiently grateful ;), then i'd
feel like he should have given me a bunch of yootles...hmmm...and
eventually i might stop offering spontaneous gestures...?? 
 
i'm just thinking out loud here. 
 
i used to be concise and eloquent, before i became a full time engineer
in college.  somehow, james has managed to keep his linguistic
gifts, lucky him :). 
 
lisa	On 6/29/06,  Daniel Reeves  < dreeves Æ umich.edu > wrote:  
I'm getting responses offline indicating mass misunderstanding of Bethany's
yootles mechanism.  I encourage you all to spam the group (reply-all) since
it's really no problem for people to just ignore/delete the whole thread (as
long as you don't change the subject line).
  The main question is "what good is a yootle?"  The answer is, as established
by precedent, about a fiftieth of a ride to the airport. Yootles are not meant
to be exchanged for money.  Nonetheless, if you
 acquire yootles you will, in a real sense, get positive utility out of them. 
In fact, I personally guarantee it.  If you can't find anything else to do with
them I will give you cash for them.  Seriously, they're
 very useful to me for things like influencing family decisions or getting out
of doing the dishes.  Or getting out of tasks my boss assigns (I kid you not --
ask him; he's cc'd).  Which perhaps means I shouldn't be
 allowed to buy yootles -- that question is still under debate.  The whole
yootles thing is still brand new.  It would be great to get input from you all.
 The other question about Bethany's airport auction people are asking is,
 why are people who aren't even in Michigan bidding thousands of yootles? Yes,
it would be very dumb for me to fly to Detroit to take Bethany to the airport
to fly to New York to visit me.  But my bid just reflects that if
 for some crazy hypothetical reason she needed one of us to drive her at any
cost, that's roughly what the cost to me would be.  The auction mechanism now
uses that information to decide that, yes, it would be dumb
 for Danny to do it!  And, as you can see, I'm fortunately losing the auction. 
One anonymous person (ok, fine, my grandfather) has opined that this is an
awful idea and that people should arrange exchanges of favors with no
 explicit tracking system.  The yootles system, he says, undermines the spirit
of magnanimity in favor-giving and fairness in decision-making and is bad for
society.  How's that for a gauntlet throwdown?	Let's hear some side-taking...
  Danny  --- \/   FROM Daniel Reeves AT 06.06.29 12:13 (Today)	 \/ ---  >
Oh, wow, airport rides are a great example.  I've more than once wished I >
could respond along these lines: >  "I could but it's at a bad time.  But
I'd rather take you than leave
 >	you high and dry.  So, um, could I just pay for your cab?" > But of
course that's not an option. > > So, yes, we're making far from socially
optimal decisions about rides to the > airport.  Bethany's idea to auction
off the favor is a really good one!
 > > If you could humor us and put in a bid even if you can't
realistically do it, > that would really help get a feel for how this system
might work. > Like I put in Y$2000 estimating that's how much it would cost
to get a last
 > minute flight to detroit, rent a car, and drive Bethany to the airport.
> > Ooh, and let me sweeten the deal:  if you take Bethany to the airport
you can > use her car while she's gone.  It's technically still my car, so I
can say
 > that. :) > > Danny > > --- \/   FROM bethany soule AT
06.06.29 08:35 (Today)	 \/ --- > >> Inasmuch as fairer favor tracking
and better group decision making >> improve the world, I'd like to open
this up for discussion:  Can
 >> people make better decisions when they can explicitly compare their
>> utilities for the different options? >> >> Or, more
specifically, can I identify from among my friends, who would
 >> least mind taking me to the airport tomorrow?  Let's find out:
>> >>  http://www.editgrid.com/user/bsoule/taxi-cab  >>   Or
the view-only version since the above is browser-picky:
 >>  http://www.editgrid.com/user/bsoule/taxi-cab.html  >> >>
(Getting 50 yootles should be plenty to get your own ride to the >>
airport from me or others later.  More at 
yootles.com.) >> >> Bethany >> > >  -- 
http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/dreeves   - -  search://"Daniel Reeves"
  "Life may have no meaning -- or even worse, it may have a meaning of which I
disapprove."	 

------=_Part_609_10019169.1151631558447--