Proverbs 27 -- Humility Redux
Humility, Signalling, and Peer Review
[1] Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.
[2] Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth; a stranger, and not thine own lips.
One of the powerful lessons of Christianity to me is humility. These two verses are excellent reminders. There is also a signalling issue, to bring us to the intersection of faith and economics. It is more credible to have someone else praise you, particularly if that someone is at arm's length. Notice that verse 2 emphasizes that the praise should come from a stranger, which is consistent with signalling theory.
A challenge in a world of specialization is that people with sufficient professional expertise to judge your work are also likely to be connected to you via a social network. This raises the challenge of finding a credible stranger to evaluate and praise (or condemn) your work. Academic peer review attempts to circumvent this difficulty by the use of "blind" processes where the reviewer is not given the name of the author.
Morning People are Annoying?
[14] He that blesseth his friend with a loud voice, rising early in the morning, it shall be counted a curse to him.
As someone who rises early and is cheerful in the morning, I would appreciate some exigetical assistance on verse 14 from the blog's more theologically adept members. Here's my concern. The verse doesn't condemn loudly blessing my friend at other times of day, so it seems to be something specific to the morning.
[1] Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.
[2] Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth; a stranger, and not thine own lips.
One of the powerful lessons of Christianity to me is humility. These two verses are excellent reminders. There is also a signalling issue, to bring us to the intersection of faith and economics. It is more credible to have someone else praise you, particularly if that someone is at arm's length. Notice that verse 2 emphasizes that the praise should come from a stranger, which is consistent with signalling theory.
A challenge in a world of specialization is that people with sufficient professional expertise to judge your work are also likely to be connected to you via a social network. This raises the challenge of finding a credible stranger to evaluate and praise (or condemn) your work. Academic peer review attempts to circumvent this difficulty by the use of "blind" processes where the reviewer is not given the name of the author.
Morning People are Annoying?
[14] He that blesseth his friend with a loud voice, rising early in the morning, it shall be counted a curse to him.
As someone who rises early and is cheerful in the morning, I would appreciate some exigetical assistance on verse 14 from the blog's more theologically adept members. Here's my concern. The verse doesn't condemn loudly blessing my friend at other times of day, so it seems to be something specific to the morning.
Posted by William T. Bogart on
Tuesday February 27, 2007 at 9:08am