Surf’s Up – Cody’s Second Board and Tube Talk

Cody is a surfing penguin who is preparing for a big competition. He’s already broken his first board and his mentor Big Z is trying to break his second one. Cody doesn’t have a lot of time left for the big competition, so he’s focused entirely on getting this board finished. Time is one of our scarce resources, and requires us to make decisions about how to properly allocate them to get the most out of what we’re doing. When Big Z goes on a memory trip about riding a tube, Cody can only focus on how many points that would earn him in the competition. His focus on limited time and maximizing points is frustrating Big Z.

Thanks to Amanda Mandzik for the scene recommendation.

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Surf’s Up – Building a Surfboard

Cody is getting ready for his first big competition with his mentor “Big Z,” but it turns out to be more difficult than he thought. Cody has gotten his hands on some koa board, the very best wood for building surfboards. In this scene, Cody is frustrated with how long it’s taking Big Z to build the board. Time is one of our many scarce resources, and Cody doesn’t feel like he has time to waste by slowly building this surfboard. He’s running out of time and needs to get it done much quicker.

Thanks to Amanda Mandzik for the scene recommendation

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Surf’s Up – All You Need is a Board

Cody is a surfing penguin who wants to win a big surf competition. When he first started out, he thought the only things a surfer needed were a surfboard and some waves. In the beginning, he has little concern for the quality of his surfboard, but after meeting legend surfer “Big Z,” he learns the importance of a well-crafted surfboard using the best material available, koa wood. As Cody matures in the movie, he realizes that becoming a better surfer requires him to be more selective about his board and the scarce resources (including time) needed to build it.

Thanks to Amanda Mandzik for the scene and summary!

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Surf’s Up – Wasted Day

A surfing penguin currently riding the wave of success enters his first professional competition. In this scene, Cody Maverick (Shia LaBeouf) spends his day making a board that he thinks will help him win the contest, but things aren’t looking too good. His mentor reminds him it’s supposed to be fun, but Cody reminds him know he doesn’t have time for fun. We all face a limit on our resources, which economists refer to as the scarcity principle. As a result, we have to make decisions about how we allocate those resources.

Thanks to Amanda Mandzik for the scene recommendation!

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WSJ: Drive-Thru AI Chatbot vs. Fast-Food Worker

In this video from The Wall Street Journal, senior personal tech columnist Joanna Stern examines the performance of an AI chatbot versus a fast-food worker. Are these two inputs clearly substitutes or are their complementarities that could be exploited by companies? If the goal were only to produce the same amount of food as before with lower costs, we might expect to see a reduction in fast-food workers. However, this technological improvement may end up increasing output and subsequently requiring more tech and more labor.

Thanks to John Raby of Thorton Academy for the clip suggestion!

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Ally Bank – Predicting Savings Rates

In this commercial for Ally Bank, Nobel Laureate Thomas Sargent is asked to predict what CD rates will be in two years—and is unable to do so. If he can’t do it, no one can. It’s a great opportunity to teach about risk sharing and diversification.

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Air – Creating the Air Jordan

Air tells the story of Nike’s partnership with Michael Jordan and the creation of the Air Jordan brand. Nike beat their competitors in the race to sign Jordan to an endorsement deal by agreeing to a partnership rather than a standard endorsement deal.

In this scene, Matt Damon (Sonny Vaccaro) explains the idea of creating a brand around a player to Mather Maher (Nike Shoe designer Peter Moore). This business model was revolutionary and has been imitated by numerous companies.

Thanks to John Kruggel for the clip and summary!

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Air – The Deal

Air tells the story of Nike’s partnership with Michael Jordan and the creation of the Air Jordan brand. Nike beat their competitors in the race to sign Jordan to an endorsement deal by agreeing to a partnership rather than a standard endorsement deal.

In this clip, Matt Damon (Sonny Vaccaro) negotiates with Viola Davis (Deloris Jordan) over Michael Jordan’s contract. Vaccaro explains that players don’t get to keep a cut of the sales, but Jordan’s mother emphasizes that the Jordan brand will utilize her son’s name, image, and likeness and he deserves to profit from that use.

Thanks to John Kruggel for the clip and summary!

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Dodgeball – I Know You

An event is considered common knowledge among a group of agents when each player knows the information, each player knows that the other one knows it, and so on. Common knowledge is the limit of a potentially infinite chain of reasoning about knowledge. In this scene from Dodgeball, White Goodman (Ben Stiller) is trying to assert that common knowledge exists between himself and Pete LaFleur (Vince Vaughn).

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Ted Lasso – Common Knowledge

Warning: this scene does contain explicit language

In this scene, Beard and Roy are trying to decide how to use their new star player in a match against a former coach from their team, who is familiar with their tactics and players. This creates a common knowledge problem because both Beard and Roy need to make a decision based on what they think the other person knows, what they think the other person thinks they know, and so on.

The problem is that neither Beard nor Roy can be certain about what Nate is thinking or planning, and this uncertainty can make it difficult to make the best decision for the team. In other words, they need to have common knowledge of each other’s intentions and strategies in order to make an informed decision. This common knowledge problem is an example of how information asymmetry can create challenges in decision-making.

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