đ„°Welcome Back (after a year!)
Reading Time: 4 min
Hi you! I know itâs been a year since I last published my newsletter. I planned on apparently âre-inventingâ the newsletter but the effort was futile and then I eventually procrastinated so badly that it just got out of control. Over the course of the year, so many people reached out to me and asked me to begin writing again which is one of my motivations to be back. However, one other reason is that I have so many new topics to talk about! I miss learning something new and sharing it with the lilâ group of people I have here. So, in the upcoming weeks, I will try to stay consistent and bring some fresh reads!
Also, if you have subscribed this newsletter by accident please unsubscribe from the button at the very bottom of this email.
For starters, here is a short glimpse of my past year:
đI visited IIM-A!
I visited IIM-A for their annual Winter School, a 5-day residential prog. organized by the RTERC of IIMA. I met a lot of inspiring professors and speakers like Prof. Ankur, Prof. Pritha, Prof. Akshaya, Prof. Anil and Prof. Prashant among many others. There are still so many moments from the winter school that have shaped my thinking in ways unimaginable. If you want, I can dedicate a separate newsletter on my whole experience + learnings there.
âđœI won a case-writing comp.!
So, this is a significant milestone for me because it helped me realize that one day I would definitely love to pursue PhD and research on certain topics. Also, the case I worked on was on a Blockchain based startup and if youâre interested, I can share the case doc with you.
There are a couple other things I have done past year, but now I will be sharing this weekâs reads:-
đŸWhy no one wants to host the Olympics?
If you have heard the news, youâd know we have the Olympics, one of the most prestigious sporting events of humankind happening right now in the city of Paris. However, Paris was only one out of two cities, the other being Los Angeles, which applied to host the same. Why? The answer is easy - because hosting brings a lot more chaos and financial loss than the amount recovered by the sponsorships and tourists footfall.
12 cities applied to host the games in 2004 which shortened down to just 2 in 2024. The IOC or International Olympic Committee did something unimaginable this time - it already announced Los Angeles as the host for 2028 Olympics. The IOC was afraid that next time nobody would show up to bid for the hosting opportunity. IOC has had this problem before in 1972 Munich Summer Games, when the terrorists invaded the village and took Israeli as hostages (also known as the Munich Massacre). Later, when 76â Montreal games went over-budget while hosting the games, nobody was willing to step up for the next one except LA. But, LA had several conditions - use the already existing venues, athletes to stay in college dorm among several others.
And the result? The game was a hit and LA made a profit of 235M USD (which is a rare sight in the games today). This sparked a new excitement among the countries to want to host the games again but IOC kept adding more new games and the bids kept getting higher. To compete, the cities began constructing new venues which only increased the costs (not to add the costs of new transportation systems etc). These venues after the games turned deserted and also required additional funds to maintain. Paris and LA promised to âstick to the budgetâ but that ainât the case we see with Paris today. The video suggests for IOC to select a permanent host city for majority of times to come. Hopefully, IOC would improve its strategies.
đșđžWhy US Elections only give 2 choices?
US practices a unique electoral system, often referred to as "winner-takes-all" or "first-past-the-post. In this system, the candidate with the most votes, even if it's not a majority, wins the election. This discourages third-party candidates, as it's extremely difficult for them to garner enough votes to win.
Before I explain, why the 2 party system came up in the US, understand these two things first:
The Plurality System: A plurality vote or relative majority describes the circumstance when a party, candidate, or proposition polls more votes than any other but does not receive more than half of all votes cast.
For example, if from 100 votes that were cast, 45 were for candidate A, 30 were for candidate B and 25 were for candidate C, then candidate A received a plurality of votes but not a majority. In this case, candidate A won.
According to a survey conducted by Gallup in 2023, more than 50% of the US citizens want a third party to contest in the elections. However, they forgot that they in fact they do, but voting for the third party helps the party they least agree with and it is called a âprotest voteâ.
Duverger's Law: It says that in a plurality system, the candidate with the most votes wins, even if they don't have a majority. This creates a strong incentive for voters to support one of the two major parties, as voting for a third party is often seen as "wasting" one's vote. Over time, this leads to a duopoly, where two parties dominate the political landscape.
These two combined have given rise to a two-party system in the US.
That is it for this week guys, I have kept it light for you to get adjusted to reading 900+ words in a sitting. Gradually I will be increasing :)
Once again, if you have accidentally subscribed, please consider unsubscribing from the button at the very end of this mail, however if the topics intrigued you, Iâd encourage you to stay subscribed.
Looking forward to seeing you guysâ thoughts in the comments.
Bye!
Loved Reading your experience! Hoping for the best for you.