Word: selfishness
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...moved her to the common room couch, where he normally sleeps. There he waited, lights off, listening for the amorous racket to die down. It’s nights like these when he wondered (and still wonders) whether the Ph.D. is really worth it. Whether it’s selfish of him to put her through this. Whether he should just e-mail the House, his lab, everyone to say that he’s had it. She’ll never be six again...
...know Adam Smith for his "invisible hand," the mysterious force that steers the selfish economic decisions of individuals toward a result that leaves us all better off. It's been a hugely influential idea, one that during the last few decades of the 20th century began to take on the trappings of a universal truth...
Lately, though, the invisible hand has been getting slapped. The selfish economic decisions of home buyers, mortgage brokers, investment bankers and institutional investors over the past decade clearly did not leave us all better off. Did Smith have it wrong...
...chance. Most of the book is an account of how we decide whether behavior is good or not. In Smith's telling, the most important factor is our sympathy for one another. "To restrain our selfish, and to indulge our benevolent affections, constitutes the perfection of human nature," he writes. But he goes on to say that "the commands and laws of the Deity" (he seems to be referring to the Ten Commandments) are crucial guides to conduct too. Then, in what seems to be a strange detour from those earthly and divine parameters, he argues that the invisible hand...
...When our offense plays together, everyone is moving the ball, and we just follow the game plan,” Smith said. “Nobody is trying to be selfish or do it themselves—opportunities pop up. Dean and Jeff and Jason are all very opportunistic players, and when they get those opportunities, good things will happen...