Author Archives: Khaled Hal Saad

Khaled Hal Saad The price of a product is only one component of its overall cost. A “search cost” is the cost of finding the product you want at a competitive price. Search costs comprise of the time and resources it takes to figure out the fair price and true quality of a product. The […]

Khaled Hal Saad An “experience good” is a product or service whose true quality and fair price are only apparent until after you buy it. Products like a tri-tip sandwich at Farmer’s Market or cell phone service are both experience goods. Even if you’ve done a load of research, you’ll never know how good the […]

Khaled Hal Saad Zoologists study this concept called the Evolutionary Stable Strategy (ESS). It turns out that, through evolution, an animal population will adopt a survival strategy that will always be immune from encroachment from another strategy. For instance, if we classified fighting strategies in polar bears as either a hawk or a dove, then […]

Khaled Hal Saad In our late teens, we’re required to pick a major of study and apply to the universities that offer them. This decision is fraught with difficulty; some students are simply too young or inexperienced to know what topics engage them. But it’s amazing how one’s choice of a major carries with it […]

Khaled Hal Saad Registration for winter quarter began last Thursday. If you’re like me, you have a list of web bookmarks at hand: one for POWER, Half.com … and Polyratings.com. Conceived by fellow computer scientists, Polyratings is the premier source for professor evaluations, and indispensable when choosing classes. But this little tool has major implications […]

Khaled Hal Saad Eighty-eight years ago to the day marks the height of the Russian Revolution and the beginning of a long slog to Russian superpower status. Often ignored, was the raw intellectual and tireless contributions of one of Russia’s early leaders. Leon Trotsky showed up at Lenin’s door in London when he was 21 […]

Khaled Hal Saad The new academic year ushered in fresh marketing campaigns for student initiatives aimed at captive freshmen and the rest of us. There are drives to go greek, join campus clubs and other well-meaning organizations. A disturbing trend among many of these drives is the lack of creativity in building a unique message. […]