Externalities

I am now reading Super Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner. The book introduced the term "externalities" which refers to a situation that unintentionally induces unpredictable effects.

I was a loyal music student to a particular music school for 14 years. Personally, I didn't think I was that good, but eventually I got to the top-most class in the nation (or perhaps above national level).

Being in the top-most class is not easy. I'm not talking about the effort, but... well, externalities.

The objective of top-most class is understandable: gathering the most brilliant students to make them more brilliant, as well as offering them career opportunities. Obviously, the school is happy to get its top students to demonstrate their abilities, which contributes to its good reputation (and eventually profits). Therefore, the objective of the top-most class has shifted. In contrast to regular class that pursue merely knowledge, top-most class rather pursue fame, respect, and money.

The other classes work in a similar way as a regular class in a regular school. The students attend such class to pursue knowledge (or for the sake of their parents, whatsoever). For the relationship within the students, the only challenge underlying is just the competition on pursuing knowledge: who is the smartest of all, who got a better marks than the others. This is okay. Although there might be some that are more ambitious than others, it is possible to build a healthy relationship this way.

What if we add money into the objective of the class?

Flawed my logic could be. I would say that money brings a sense of insecurity: what should I do to earn more, how do I get better career than him, what if he performs better that I might be losing my career. This insecurity is what keeps the gap. Not just the students can never have pure trust with each other, but also they are urged to step on one another.

It is ironic that, in my case, this class gave me friends that I want to have for a life time. Yet, along the way, the money-driven (and fame-driven) competitions broke our friendship.

This externalities may not be representative, or even may not be true at all. One thing I can say, now that I have left the school for 1,5 years, I realized that it was nothing personal. Our friendship is perfectly fine. It's just nearly impossible for us to build a healthy relationship in the money-competitive society.

History

I just read my older blog posts and I think "Whoa. That was my writing?"

I used to have some blogs and delete the posts frequently. But now I don't. I believe everything I thought and wrote in the past, makes me who I am today. I know it's sometimes embarassing to read my thoughts in the past, but I found it's magical to see the transformations of the past-me to the present-me. It's historical.

3 months and a half

Woke up at 3 am for no reason.

It's been 3 months and a half since I finished my high school studies. Yet, I still have two months ahead to start college.

What do I do? That's the question people keep asking.

I travelled. 3 times, to at least 8 city. From Semarang to Lasem, from Bali to Jember. Two of my mom's fasctinations are travelling and taking photos. So we accompany her pursuing her passion.

I spent 3 months waiting for THIS college result. I've studied hard within the first 2 weeks, but I failed the test. I've done another tests at two different universities, I got them, I want this college so badly that I dare to risk those university offers. Good thing, I'm finally accepted to SMU Bridging Programme. The announcement was just 2 weeks ago. So basically I waited in most of my time.

I try to be more financially productive (and experienced) by teaching a 9-year-old piano student. His name is Raphael. He got the potencial of playing music by ear; however, this ability has not been developed by his former music teacher. So I challenged him to figure out the notes of the grandfather's clock in his house, and give him reward afterward. We started it off simple, I hope he can do much more later.

I produce songs. I've been composing several random pop songs since late last year. I had the ideas in my mind but I didn't have much time to make them happen. It's just last week that I found a website named Soundcloud and honestly, it brings my spirit back.

I spend time with my friends (because that's what we do, right?) through whatever: social media, chatting, meeting. Meeting was pretty intensive back then. But now that fate has destined us to live where we should be living and time has taken us apart from each other, it is something precious.

You see, I'm moving. I'm not like any couch potatoes out there. I'm just not living in routine.




Last word: I'm not afraid of moving forward.

buat kamu

buat kalian yang udah mewarnai hidupku selama umm... at least 1 tahun terakhir ini :)

Terima kasih, Angie Andriani dan Prameswari Noor Andytaputri :*

 

...pup, kalian <3