Alex Pegher 11/22

Today in class we were split into four groups and tasked with the challenge of producing four different items that represented food, shelter, education, and resources. However, no one group had enough materials to suit that need, and trade was required in order to supplement the needs of the group. The winning team would receive bagels on Wednesday so the stakes were high. My team, which was given resource allotment "1" had many of the crucial things that we needed. The only things that we ended up requiring were "wave paper" and "polka dot paper", both of which were much easier items to trade for than scissors or a pen. This abundance however, let to one teensy-weensy tiny little but ever so soul crushing problem...

HUBRIS

To present an anecdote of my groups performance imagine the following: a sick and twisted version of the tortoise and the hare, in which the hare, us, is ahead in the race but halfway through gets mauled by a mob of people, other teams, who he boasted to the previous day. They beat him long enough for the tortoise, winning team, to get ahead and win the race.

In being somewhat ahead and being not so secretive about it we drew the ire of the other three tables. Negotiations broke down and although we almost got the prize at the end, our measurements on the house came up short and we were unable to secure the bagels.In hindsight, we had a very good shot of getting those bagels, and if we had just calmed down and negotiated with a smile on our faces, we probably could be eating bagels on Wednesday. We did not succeed, we failed hilariously. The activity taught me and my group one thing about the American dream: you can work as hard as you want, but if you see yourself at the top, you're probably very far from it. We were given what could be called a "silver spoon" to start with, but we squandered it.