tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-53167242011-04-21T18:20:31.367-07:00Vahid V. MotlaghHomepageVahidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15065253615889404625noreply@blogger.comBlogger261100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5316724.post-1114621638818526682005-04-27T10:02:00.000-07:002005-08-19T11:34:50.146-07:00Patience strategy, a game-theoretic analysisRecently I created a game to better analyze the patience strategy in certain strategic decision situations. It is called "Rug-or-Carpet Game".There are two Persians in a bazaar. A man who has two rugs approaches them. He says:” I want to offer these two rugs to you. If both of you accept the rugs, I’ll go and will not come back. If at least one of you Vahidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15065253615889404625noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5316724.post-1106063434685371732005-01-18T07:49:00.000-08:002006-03-19T20:56:20.583-08:00 Problem ReproductionA problem lying with another problem is just like a man laying with a woman. When they begin to make love they will certainly give birth to many more problems. So never ever let a problem lie with another problem.Vahidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15065253615889404625noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5316724.post-1102611162495709342004-12-09T08:50:00.000-08:002004-12-09T09:23:58.596-08:00How to prioritize the combined objectives hierarchy Dear Ralph, Currently, I am involved in a project as a decision analyst. My employer is a respected Iranian architecture consulting company. Mr. Kazemi, the CEO, has found Value-Focused Thinking very much helpful in making decision about alternative courses of actions. The company is in charge of preparations for an architecture design Vahidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15065253615889404625noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5316724.post-1091113534874035162004-07-29T07:59:00.000-07:002004-07-30T03:33:40.156-07:00Harvard University Press and Copyright Issues Dear Vahid Motlagh, I hope you are well. I am bringing records up to date and see that we have not yet received the final payment for this book.  $180 is due.  Could you please let me know when we can expect the money? Many thanks for your assistance with this inquiry. With best wishes, stephanie vyce subsidiary rights manager harvard Vahidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15065253615889404625noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5316724.post-1086504507539214862004-06-05T23:44:00.000-07:002004-06-05T23:56:16.943-07:00Chaos Absorbers Dear Ralph, I have an interesting insight from my experience of VFT exercises in my own life. I have now conceived that my values can play their role as “chaos absorbers”. Before applying VFT in my decisions I had some discomforting experiences. Often I confronted very dynamic situations in which there were a bunch of really appealing alternatives but their attractiveness was Vahidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15065253615889404625noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5316724.post-1085239150828778802004-05-22T08:16:00.000-07:002004-05-22T08:19:10.826-07:00Cognitive science? Many but not all who consider themselves cognitive scientists have a functionalist view of mind/intelligence, which means that, at least in theory, they study mind and intelligence from the perspective that these attributes could perhaps (at least someday) be properly attributed not only to human beings but also to, say, other animal species, alien life forms or particularlyVahidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15065253615889404625noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5316724.post-1081063622196904432004-04-03T23:27:00.000-08:002005-04-16T11:06:23.523-07:00Who is really Evil?Correspondence with the author Dear Vahid:Thank you for your thoughtful comments on my paper on evil. I don't know the work of Rumi and will certainly take a look at it when I have the time. (At the moment I'm swamped with several deadlines facing me.)Of course, I am not a religious person and am trying to deal with the problem of evil as a scientific question, staying withinVahidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15065253615889404625noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5316724.post-1081063480638263572004-04-03T23:24:00.000-08:002005-04-16T11:07:52.483-07:00Value Systems Definition by a world-class expertDear Ralph,I need to use a clear and comprehensive definition for the term “Value Systems” in some arguments. No doubt those definitions, which address a company’s or an industry’s value chains, are not relevant to my inquiry. In fact I am interested to have a definition that encompasses value structures and value models as they provide clues to an Vahidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15065253615889404625noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5316724.post-1073678960172566042004-01-09T12:09:00.000-08:002004-01-09T12:11:04.200-08:00My Strategic Objectives ----------------------------- Maximize my quality of life 1.Enjoy life 2.Shaping the future of Iranian Society Other Societies 3.Helping people My Mother My Brothers and Father Close Friends Others 4.Be Spiritually Fulfilled 5.Be Intellectually Fulfilled My Fundamental Professional Objectives -----------------------------------------------Vahidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15065253615889404625noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5316724.post-107008338029601662003-11-28T21:23:00.000-08:002004-04-04T04:41:42.293-07:00Good Value Trade-Offs, Correspondence with the author ------------------------------------------------------- Dear Ralph, I just read your article on “common mistakes in making value trade-offs”. It was really interesting and helpful. However, I have some unanswered questions about making value trade-offs. First, I think trade-off issue is a culture dependent one. You know in my homeland Vahidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15065253615889404625noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5316724.post-1069408599091304952003-11-21T01:56:00.000-08:002003-11-25T09:19:19.200-08:00Preface to Farsi version of Handbook for Active Decisionmakers by Robert T. Clemen and Robin Gregory `Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?' said Alice. `That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,' said the Cat. `I don't much care where--' said Alice. `Then it doesn't matter which way you go,' said the Cat. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll Vahidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15065253615889404625noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5316724.post-1068650227053040622003-11-12T07:17:00.000-08:002003-11-12T07:17:33.403-08:00Creative People Creative people are very much productive. They usually give out many ideas most of which are poor ones. However, quality emerges from this considerable quantity. Creative people try to relate some irrelevent elements and think about novel combinations between seemingly unrelated objects. Creative people are not necessarily intelligent or smart. They notice things which are Vahidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15065253615889404625noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5316724.post-1066238625183297192003-10-15T10:23:00.000-07:002003-10-15T10:23:45.146-07:00Dear Vahid, I had a chance to glance through your paper, "Value-Based Recruiting" and have a couple suggestions. First, I think that the ideas you outlined in the first three sections can form the basis of something quite useful for identifying better candidates to work for an organization. Naturally, I think values matter, and selecting individuals whose values match the needs of an Vahidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15065253615889404625noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5316724.post-1064124176230424962003-09-20T23:02:00.000-07:002003-09-20T23:10:04.016-07:00The little and the great man First Act The little man has a book in his hand. He covers his head with a cloth for he wants to see just the words of the book. He sweats a lot although it's winter and very cold. A drop falls from his armpit and goes down up to his waist. His skin streches and his heart beating fast.It's getting dark. The little man closes the book and goes to roof. He lies down Vahidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15065253615889404625noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5316724.post-1063690095118630222003-09-15T22:28:00.000-07:002003-11-04T09:53:51.186-08:00Dear Ralph, Translation of "Smart Choices" into Farsi language is about to be finished within weeks by some of my friends. They have done an excellent job in this project. Today I saw manuscript of the book. I think Farsi readers would not possibly notice that this may be a translation since they have changed the names, characters and situations of many examples according to Iranian culture. IVahidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15065253615889404625noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5316724.post-1059329434091544222003-07-27T11:10:00.000-07:002003-07-27T11:14:12.593-07:00Perpetual Loop of Love It was gloaming. I wasn't asleep, she wasn't awake either. I called her. She didn't answer. I called her again. She didn't answer again. I put my hand on her hair. She didn't wake up. I was afraid of her fading to death. No, her breath was still warm. I got up and looked at her face. She was deeply asleep. I put my lips near her eye and took her eyelashes between my lips Vahidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15065253615889404625noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5316724.post-1059038096046786582003-07-24T02:14:00.000-07:002003-07-24T02:14:56.250-07:00To be or to be To be alone or to be lonely this is my problem!Vahidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15065253615889404625noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5316724.post-1056906088586042232003-06-29T10:01:00.000-07:002003-06-29T23:49:52.883-07:00What makes a man a man is power and what makes a woman a woman is anything but powerVahidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15065253615889404625noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5316724.post-954044272003-06-07T04:17:00.000-07:002003-12-16T12:48:43.610-08:00Man and Reasoning I have a friend in Frankfurt who often chat with me. She is also one of my Farsi weblog readers.You know, she has a good appetite for discussion and reasoning. Sometimes she get irritated from my attitude to cut the discussion when I say "you're correct" or "you're right". She think I'm not trying to listen to her reasoning so by saying such things I'm not willing to respect Vahidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15065253615889404625noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5316724.post-940957112003-05-10T00:05:00.000-07:002003-05-10T00:06:44.000-07:00I heard some guy has said " to be upset over what you don't have is to waste what you do have" but the point is when one get rid of have's and not have's then there could be no more pain and no more grief since the nature of man is full of joy and these earthly possessions make him upset per se.Vahidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15065253615889404625noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5316724.post-937076232003-05-03T08:33:00.000-07:002003-05-03T11:06:01.000-07:00I am terribly sorry for the people of Tehran who will have to endure the presence of a closed-mind fundamentalist as the head of their municipality management.Vahidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15065253615889404625noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5316724.post-936103692003-05-01T12:10:00.000-07:002003-05-03T11:12:24.000-07:00Sometimes change is a matter of choice for man, sometimes it's mandatory, sometimes we feel delighted to change the way we live sometimes we get depressed of it . But I am thinking about another aspect of change and that is how fast it should be. Do we need to change something within weeks when it will normally do by itself within years. I don't know . After all the idea seem to be appealing , Vahidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15065253615889404625noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5316724.post-934836472003-04-29T12:40:00.000-07:002003-04-29T12:51:02.000-07:00To be a pioneer is a great experience. When you make a new path through giant mountains people admire it and try to imitate and follow your steps. I congratulate myself for this success and hope this little step would result in large steps by officials to reconcile after these too long dark years.Vahidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15065253615889404625noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5316724.post-933292812003-04-26T22:07:00.000-07:002003-04-26T22:07:04.533-07:00When I walk on the earth I hear her voice saying that I am proud of myself to have your feet on my back.Vahidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15065253615889404625noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5316724.post-932588262003-04-25T13:01:00.000-07:002003-04-25T13:15:20.000-07:00Doing business with Harvard was not as hard as I supposed. However, I am very astonished at their attitude. They didn't hesitate to consider us trustworthy. When I told the subsidiary right manager that we are going to have a print run of about 3000 copies with a price of 4 dollars ,she just accepted it from me as truth and didn't bother herself to figure out who am I and whether I am telling herVahidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15065253615889404625noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5316724.post-932336852003-04-25T04:08:00.000-07:002003-04-25T13:13:13.000-07:00It's a new day for capturing the beauty of life. When thikning about what happened to me through this 24 year long journey I get amazed . Is it true , is it real or just a shadow of what might be real. Looking backwards I see a fool boy who zigzagged all the way to today,Without no aim, without any determination. But I am just wearied from all these wandering, I need a goal , I need to have my Vahidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15065253615889404625noreply@blogger.com