Humor 9/21/92: History of Math

Hey,

What have you been up to? I just finished working on a proposal in
Andersen Consulting's New York office. It was quite a long and tiring
project, and I'm really glad that it's over. Now I wait for my next
assignment. For those of you who received my last email, I mentioned
that I was suppose to go to New Jersey for a project, but that got put
on hold. So, I think I'll be assigned to a project in New York City.
I'll let you know for sure when I get there.

This week, my recommendation for a CD, book, movie, or something else,
is a book titled, "First Things First", by Stephen Covey. This is the
same guy that wrote, "7 Habits of Highly Effective People". The book
contains lots of great things on time management, priority setting in
life, understanding the roles you play, etc. For those of you at
Andersen, I highly recommend the "First Things First" one-day workshop,
which also provides you with a copy of the book, the book on audio-tape,
and a nice planner using the First Things First format.

While I'm on the subject of career development, another recommendation I
have is an article written by Tom Peters, "The Brand Called You", in the
August/September 1997 issue of Fast Company magazine. Here's a short
intro to the article: "Big companies understand the importance of
brands. Today, in the Age of the Individual, you have to be your own
brand. Here's what it takes to be the CEO of Me Inc." I think that no
matter what line of work you're in, or even if you're still in school,
this article will be helpful for your career. You can probably find the
article at the magazine's website: www.fastcompany.com. If not, please
email me and I can fax you a copy of the article.

Okay, this week's humor email comes to us from Brian Ibbotson. Enjoy!

-Josh.
____________________________________________________

Teaching Math in 1950: A logger sells a truckload of lumber for
$100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price. What is his
profit?

Teaching Math in 1960: A logger sells a truckload of lumber for
$100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price, or $80. What is his
profit?

Teaching Math in 1970: A logger exchanges a set "L" of lumber for a
set "M" of money. The cardinality of set "M" is 100. Each element is
worth one dollar. Make 100 dots representing the elements of the set
"M". The set "C", the cost of production contains 20 fewer points
than set "M". Represent the set "C" as a subset of set "M" and answer
the following question: What is the cardinality of the set
"P" of profits?

Teaching Math in 1980: A logger sells a truckload of lumber for
$100. His cost of production is $80 and his profit is $20. Your
assignment: Underline the number 20.

Teaching Math in 1990: By cutting down beautiful forest trees, the
logger makes $20. What do you think of this way of making a living?
Topic for class participation after answering the question?
How did the forest birds and squirrels feel as the logger cut
down the trees? There are no wrong answers.

Teaching Math in 1996: By laying off 402 of its loggers, a company
improves its stock price from $80 to $100. How much capital gain per
share does the CEO make by exercising his stock options at $80. Assume
capital gains are no longer taxed, because this encourages investment.

Teaching Math in 1997: A company outsources all of its loggers. They
save on benefits and when demand for their product is down the logging
work force can easily be cut back. The average logger employed by the
company earned $50,000, had 3 weeks vacation, received a nice
retirement plan and medical insurance. The contracted logger charges
$50 an hour. Was outsourcing a good move?

Teaching Math in 1997b: A logging company exports its wood-finishing
jobs to its Indonesian subsidiary and lays off the corresponding half of

its US workers (the higher-paid half). It clear-cuts 95% of the forest,

leaving the rest for the spotted owl, and lays off all its remaining US
workers. It tells the workers that the spotted owl is responsible for
the absence of loggable trees and lobbies Congress for exemption from
the Endangered Species Act. Congress instead exempts the company from
all federal regulation. What is the return on investment of the
lobbying costs?


- Magoons