Don’t try to watch the Olympics with a group of engineering students. It’s just not pretty. As I sat carefully trying to balance watching the men’s figure skating programs with my Behavioral Economics readings, I hear this:

TV Announcer: He did his triple axel 3 seconds too early. He would get extra points for doing it in the second half of the program.

Housemate #1: They get extra points for jumps in the second half? Why don’t they do all their jumps in the second half then?

Housemate #2: They get extra points because they’re more tired in the second half.

Housemate #3: They can just skate in a straight line for the first half, and then do all their jumps in the second half!

Leave it to engineers to turn a sport that’s a combination of athleticism and artistry into an optimization problem. *sigh*