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On political correctness

Sometime ago, when he was the president of Harvard University, Larry Summers got fired for comparing intellectual abilities of men and women. He said that on average, women and men have the same intellectual ability, but the standard deviation is much higher among men, and so there are more geniuses and more morons among men. For some reason, this innocuous remark got twisted, there were street protests and Summers got fired.

The University became very politically correct, appointing Drew Gilpin Faust as the first female president. As a historian who has recently written a book on the American civil war to rave reviews, she was unlikely to make any remark on standard deviations.

The University ran an endowment fund of $36bn, whose long run performance was second only to Yale. For nearly 14 years, it was run by the brilliant Jack Meyer, who was hounded out by old Harvard alumni as he paid himself too much (too less, given the fund´s performance). Meyer left to create a hedge fund, and Mohammed El Erian became the new Chief Investment Officer. In the only year he ran the fund, he made nearly twice as much as Yale, a better performance than even Meyer.

Then Harvard combined its political correctness and its endowment and hired a woman, Jane Mendillo to run its endowment. Mendillo´s performance as the CIO of Wellesley´s $1bn fund was poorer than average. But this university did not want to speak of averages and standard deviations when it comes to women, anyway.  

The results are here. In just four months (Harvard´s fiscal year starts on July 1), Mendillo has lost $8bn or 22% of the fund.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, December 4th, 2008 at 11:26 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

16 Responses to “On political correctness”

  1. sacredcow Says:
    December 4th, 2008 at 12:27 pm

    avataram is a fucking bore
    Sack him Nilu

  2. Chetan Says:
    December 4th, 2008 at 1:08 pm

    Your penchant for weaving an engrossing narrative from bits and pieces of information is truly amazing. In fact, you are so good at communicating factual information in the form of absorbing tales, complete with gossip and insinuations, that you make the reader temporarily forget that the events mentioned in the tale have actually taken place and that the reader can use extraneous information not presented by you in the tale to analyse the events and come to different conclusions than the ones you offer.

    I know this was more of a flippant post. However, this characteristic is something that comes across consistently in your writing and I thought I should leave a note of appreciation towards the craft.

  3. Ritwik Says:
    December 4th, 2008 at 1:20 pm

    It’s amazing. One day, you call him Larry ‘women can’t do math’ Summers. The next, you defend him. Without so much as acknowledging that you may have shot off the hip earlier. Such intellectual weakness?

  4. Anon Says:
    December 4th, 2008 at 2:26 pm

    Vandhuttaan vallaarai keerai. Dei Ritwik, poi pozhappa paaruda.

  5. ? Says:
    December 4th, 2008 at 3:04 pm

    Nothing to do with the state of economy?

  6. Sriram Says:
    December 4th, 2008 at 9:46 pm

    I request you to start a Sriram Fund. Thank you.

  7. Anon Says:
    December 5th, 2008 at 1:52 am

    Pehla nnu oru blog. Dil chahiye (or something like that) pidicha padam. Neeyellam uyiroda irukkardhe paavam. Idhula paaraattu vere. Ezhavuda.

    Nilu, madras kku vadakke ulla inaya mugavarigalai indha valaithalathil thadai seyyumaaru kettu kolgiren.

  8. avataram Says:
    December 5th, 2008 at 11:58 am

    chetan: thanks. it is called called narrative fallacy by taleb.
    ritwik: first comment was made before reading summers speech.
    anon: more winners, as always. but i miss kodumai kodumai.
    ?: definitely. but even in a bad market, that loss is incredible.
    sriram: yes, but which sriram should i send the cheques to?

  9. kodumai kodumai Says:
    December 5th, 2008 at 1:06 pm

    hmm. nikka vechi vayithuku keezha sudanum da unna ellam.

    the species of the avataram kind should be annihilated. the one’s who eat at tratorria for lunch, the one’s who go nehru centre to listen to Sahasrabuddhe, the one’s who speak of Wittgenstein and herbert simon and Minsky and gaitondae mayirupundae to some loser tifr prof, the one’s who don’t even think about the futility of writing about politically correct or incorrect thinking.

    ngtoha. you are fuked up man.

    ellam andha nilathevediya payanaalae. mudhalla avana koluthunum.

    maangathevdiya payan started writing this blog to hit on some girls. first he started with some chooth whose name i forgot. then Tilo. then some other chooths like shoefiend etc. haahem. onnum correct aagala. avanum ennanamo panni paathaan. camus’la irundhu derrida varaikum. david lynch irundu fincher varaikum. konja naalu Wantre’va irundhu paathan. oru mayiru Simone deBeavoir’um set aagulae.

    paavam. apuram TON vesham pottan. adhuvum work out aagala. indha avarathakoodhiya vuttu edhavadhu ularae sonna appavadhu edhavadhu maatudhaanu paatha adhuvum aagalae. paavam

  10. kodumai kodumai Says:
    December 5th, 2008 at 1:12 pm

    anybody listened to that ’sharoja’ song by those cbe boys. 50 cents copy.

    here is the lyrics.

    ‘dei dei dei dei dei
    thirumbi paar da
    thevdiya payaa

    thedi paar da
    thevdiya payaa

    thadavi paar da
    thevdiya payaa

    nethu oru itetha paathanae
    avala vidiya vidiya oothanae
    nethu oru itetha paathanae
    avala vidiya vidiya oothanae

    dei koodhi
    nethu oru itetha paathanae
    avala vidiya vidiya oothanae
    nethu oru itetha paathanae
    avaluku mudugu konjam thechanae

    item koodhi
    aaluku paadhi

    dei koodhi
    nethu oru itetha paathanae
    avala vidiya vidiya oothanae
    nethu oru itetha paathanae
    avaluku mudugu konjam thechanae

    item koodhi
    aaluku paadhi

    thirumbi paar da
    thevdiya payaa

    thedi paar da
    thevdiya payaa

    thadavi paar da
    thevdiya payaa

    …
    …

  11. Nilakantan Rajaraman Says:
    December 5th, 2008 at 7:07 pm

    Kodumai — I can always give you a login and make you stupid. So, beware.

  12. Anon Says:
    December 5th, 2008 at 10:04 pm

    Kodumai, edho bastard endru solluvadharkkagave comment adikkara maadhiri irukke. Konjam pulithu poi vittadhu. Ungalukku indha paadalin muzhu vadivam thamizhil vendum endral, Charu Nivedhita vin valai thalathukku sellavum. Andha valai pakkathin inaippai thara viruppamillai, indha paadalai thavira mattradhellam ‘fucked up man’.

  13. kodumai kodumai Says:
    December 6th, 2008 at 4:38 am

    @Anon,

    soltaaru pa, thevdiya pullae.

    @Nilu,

    if you want some phone numbers of girls, ask me directly. ithuku poi oru logina pottu, naan blog panni, adhu vaziyae oru ponnu sikki, adhe naan unnaku thandhu.. why touching the nose surrounding the head ma?

  14. Sriram Says:
    December 6th, 2008 at 6:46 pm

    I am Sriram. I want login.

  15. kodumai kodumai Says:
    December 7th, 2008 at 7:43 am

    I am Soriram.

  16. Arun Says:
    December 9th, 2008 at 8:58 am

    Very well written!! I agree with Chetan.

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