The promise this year

Experts have told us that this year started a second too late (as though any of the weekend revellers even noticed).

Experts have told us that this year started a second too late (as though any of the weekend revellers even noticed). But not a second too soon do we now have an expert who is game enough to help us make those noble but ever-so-brittle New Year resolutions last. Who is this genius? None other than 2005 Economics Nobel laureate Thomas Schelling. Great, someone who can presumably take care of the most popular Resolutions 3 and 4 (stick to a budget, save more) — unless, that is, P. Chidambaram has other taxing ideas brewing in his mind.

HT Image

A valid question to ask at this point is why turn to Mr Schelling — whose expertise dwells on conflicts between nuclear-powered Nation-States — for the top two beginning-of-the-year aspirations of losing weight and exercising more. He's most likely to suggest that each time we need to visit the ATM, we sprint towards it. So tiresome will be this task that it will eventually result in people starving (sorry, we meant dieting). And the side effects — money remains safe in the bank. There, the top four resolutions kept and broken every new year are taken care of. And working out permutations and combinations within these needs a bit of organisation. Ah well, better four resolutions kept than none.

No joking, even in its most frivolous form, this is actually what Mr Schelling suggests. Sticking to a pre-commitment goes miles in sticking to the resolution. Well, that's a Schelling for his thought.