Thursday 1 May 2014

The winning margin

The winning margin

While I was marking exam scripts for time series econometric, I realized that two of these scripts were closely competing in each part of the different questions. Consequently, the highest score in midterm exam was 34.5 out of 40 while the second highest was 34. 

Since the winning margin was just 0.5 mark. I carefully re-examined the scripts but results remained unchanged. The student with 34 marks was not satisfied with marking and requested me to re-mark some questions. I asked why you are so upset for just “0.5 mark”, you can easily manage it in the final exam. The student replied softly ‘Sir when it comes to competition and ‘to win’ then the difference of 0.5 matters a lot.

Seeking excellence and perfection is a good thing. The meanings of these two words are broadly similar. However, struggling for excellence means seeking progress and to struggle for perfection is neurotic.

Successful people are not many times smarter than those of who fail. They may be better by a fraction. For example, winning horse is faster by fraction and sometimes the horse wins the race by nose distance. However, rewards for the winner are much higher than the winning difference.

Point: Little difference matters a lot.

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