A new definition of hell
Hell has always been a key part of Christian theology and even the Ancient Greeks with their philandering Gods and their pagan rituals had a notion of hell….examples include the punishment of Siphysus who had to keep rolling a boulder up a hill and could never reach the top.
Hell is usually associated with the afterlife as a punishment for a life of sin and licentiousness. Firestone and brimstone.
But it would appear that Belinda Carlisle was only half right. Heaven may be a place on earth but so is hell. It exists in the Cambridge economics computer lab where I will be 24 hours a day for the next two weeks until my econometrics project is due in. I will take momentary breaks to blog just to keep some form of contact with the outside world and prevent Stockholm syndrome, where I start to enjoy myself, setting in.
For anyone who cares my project is on assessing the extent to which low capitalism firms have higher sample mean returns than would be predicted by a Capital Asset Pricing Model
If you think….ooooh finance…sounds like fun let me dispel this delusion. Finance or at least the form taught at university is total applied maths and statistics. They don't teach you any of the useful things like how to perform insider trading without getting caught, or how to pick decent shares (most of the theory relates to a silly belief that markets are completely efficient and thus any attempt to beat the market is doomed to failure), or how to dress the part in the city (pinstripes, braces, hornrimmed glasses, slicked back hair and power shoulder pads), or even how to set up offshore accounts and launder money. Hell they don't even supply for cocaine for that authentic city trader experience. There aren't even any girls around to sexually harass in the great tradition of the City (of course this does mean Im not going to get sued 1 million in a compensation suit which I guess is a good thing).
And forget greed is good. The university researchers who make up all this nonsense get paid sweet FA while the barrow boys who think Beta is what you do to your wife, and assets are found on the upper region of a girls body and a random walk is what you do when drunk earn millions a year
Pah
Back to the grindstone I go
20 Apr 2006 17:25
| 
Comments (6)
| 
Report a problem
Loading…
6 comments by 1 or more people
[Skip to the latest comment]I've never understood how anyone can think markets are efficient when Partygaming has a higher price tag than Sainsburys. Bizarre.
20 Apr 2006, 17:56
The Gorgeous Brunette
So why was it exactly that you decided to carry on studying? In order to to actually decide what it is you want to do (yes I know, something other than a 9–5 but why delay the inevitable?!) and hope you can find pretty tory girls at the same time? Out of interest now that you're at Cambridge do you have any regrets about not reapplying there to do your undegrad?
26 Apr 2006, 21:08
Hmm a series of misconceptions Miss Vain
1. To get Cambridge on my CV: although in this day and age where teamworking and "competencies" are all the rage, Cambridge on its own is no longer a passport to the best jobs
2. To get over the stigma of being an Oxbridge reject: although surveying Cambridge life it is a archaic place with lawns that need trampling on, rivers that need speedboats, academics who need to get laid, and a bureacracy based on medieval China, and students who are constantly trying to prove how clever they are. Reminds me a lot of public school really
3. Girls were far prettier at Warwick albeit too liberal
4. None whatoever
27 Apr 2006, 12:14
The not so vain Miss Vain
If "none whatsoever" replies to you not regretting reapplying 2 oxbridge then I suggest you update your self interview and enlighten us all on what your regrets now are.
27 Apr 2006, 21:28
The self–interview i think you are referring to was written way back, before i went to cambridge, and had romantic notions about what cambridge entailed. Spending over 6 months here has dispelled those notions, and if i could go back 6 months i would have taken a gap year instead.
As to updating my self interview, maybe during the summer.
27 Apr 2006, 22:22
The Stressed Brunette
I'll eagerly await the updated self interview… I'm surprised you're not in the audience for Question Time drooling over the ultimate milf's offspring!
27 Apr 2006, 23:14
Add a comment
You are not allowed to comment on this entry as it has restricted commenting permissions.