In grad school, I got footnoted in a couple of labor economics articles. Since it was my first (and ultimately only) year in grad school, getting footnoted was a big deal . . . enough of a big deal, in fact, to get a bitchy comment from the TA.
So why write about it? Cuz I owe that footnote to playing Dungeons and Dragons.
D&D and grad school: Labor economics is all about mathematical models: functions that describe labor supply and demand, or which model the elasticity of the labor market, or combine all the factors (in a weighted relative, interacting fashion) making up labor decisions. This is probably true for all economics.
Anyway, a labor econ class has a lot to do with walking through these formulas. The prof puts it up on the screen and explains each factor, the math being done to or with it, and gives citations and articles backing up each number and variable. During one of these classes, I caught two mistakes (which were later called refinements in the article). A few of the students, including the pissy TA, were somewhat mystified.
How’d I do it? THACO and D&D formulas.
THACO is the most basic formula in Dungeons & Dragons. It stands for “To Hit Armor Class 0″ and it’s a complex enough math model to be the source of my greatest academic success (a footnote!) in grad school (before I quit, of course, I’m sure greater successes lay ahead had I stuck it out). So let’s dissect:
Armor Class 0 — that’s a person who has no armor, no defensive skills in combat. Armor Class -1 (AC-1) is a person who has the flu and is even easier to hit than usual. Adding armor, or taking theraflu improves, or adds points to AC, while drinking alcoholo or going to sleep in a combat situation decrease points.
To Hit — now we get into dice rolls and probability. If I’m a butch guy, with fighting skillz, I’m very likely to successfully hit a person with AC0. If we describe that as 75% likely, D&Ders will turn that into a dice roll: roll a 20 sided die (d20), and if I get 1 – 15 (75% of the possible rolls) I hit the person. Like the recipient’s AC, the TH can be altered, sickness can reduce my likelihood of landing the punch, steroids can increase if not the likelihood, the power of that punch. If I’m a spaghetti arm, I have THACO of 1, 1 chance in 20 of hitting the guy.
How simple, but rich, is that? We have a model that describes all combat interactions between two people. Labor economics models some basic forces: the likelihood of hiring, the likelihood of taking a job, and attaches a zillion factors to it. Having learned the basics of modeling behaviors, understand the different impacts of multiplication, division, addition and subtraction, and how to use coefficients as amplifying or diminishing forces, I had the basic tools for grad school economics.
D&D, along with typing, AP English, debate, and learning to program the TRS-80 were the most important things I got out of high school.
Bah, non-first-edition rules. Everyone knows that AC 10 means no armor. Lower armor classes are better. Padded mail is AC 9. Padded mail with shield, AC 8. Leather armor, AC 8. Leather armor with shield, AC 7. If you’re a real stud you can get plate mail, AC 2 with shield. This is all from memory and I have not played for at least 20 years.
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