[Tango-L] Getting educated (restated and expanded)

[Stephen.P.Brown@dal.frb.org]

Jake Spatz wrote:
>>What, in the first place, does the drive-to-excel have to do with 
/pleasure/?<<

My previous comments confused to some degree the pursuit of pleasure with 
the pursuit of excellence.  Let me try to clarify.

I think it's fair to assume that most people attend milongas to enjoy 
dancing with others--not a drive to excel

Some people may attend milongas to show off their dancing skills to feed 
their ego or to advertise themselves as teachers.   For these people, 
showing their superiority may be more important than enjoying dancing with 
any particular partner.

Let's start with the proposition that we looking at the people who attend 
milongas for pleasure to enjoy dancing with others.  The enjoyability of 
dancing with someone might be regarded as a function of the skills of both 
partners:

E = f(B,L)

where E represents enjoyment, B represents the skills of the better dancer 
and L represents the skills of the lesser dancer.  One specific functional 
form might be:

lnE = lnA + w lnL + (1-w) ln B

where w is A is a constant, and w is a weight (1 > w > 0).  As shown in 
this function, Increasing one's own skills increases enjoyment but at a 
decreasing rate.  Balanced growth in the skills of the two individuals 
allows for the greatest increse in enjoyment.  Furthermore, based on some 
of the comments on Tango-L, there seems to be a perception that the weight 
that many dancers give to the skills of the lesser dancer increases with 
experience, practice and own's skills.  Other things being equal, a 
relatively inexperienced dancer seems to enjoy dancing with a more skilled 
dancer than the skilled dancer seems to enjoy dancing with an 
inexperienced dancer.

Suppose our person starts working to develop skills, total enjoyment from 
tango becomes

TE = n avgE - g(D)

where TE represents total enjoyment from tango, n represents the number of 
tandas, avgE represents the average level of enjoyment from dancing given 
one's own skills and those of the dance partners in the community, and D 
is the individual development cost.

The typical individual quits developing skills when they find that the 
additional enjoyment from having better skills is exactly offset by the 
cost of doing so.  Moreover, the return to developing skills increases as 
the quality of one's potential partners increases--which encourages the 
individual to further develop skills.  A person with lower development 
costs may pursue the development of skills further but still reaches a 
point where the additional cost of development outweighs the gains.

Let's look at some group dynamics, as suggested by Jeff Gaynor's comments:
In established communities dominated by mediocrity, a number of 
individuals seemingly have stopped their development at a relatively low 
level.  Maybe these communities suffer from high development costs.  Maybe 
they are mired at a low equilibrium created by group dynamics--and the 
view that everyone dances with everyone.   Remember each rational 
individual thinking of their own enjoyment from dancing stops developing 
skills when additional enjoyment from developing those skills just offsets 
the additional cost.  Each person acting individually bears their own 
development costs but only gains a portion of the improved dance 
experience.  Some of the benefits are distributed to their partners.  If 
self-interest dominates, individuals will not pursue the development of 
tango skills to the point the community would like.  Consequently, each 
member of the community would like everyone in the community to develop a 
higher level of skills, but no one individual acting alone has an 
incentive to do so.

What happens if an individual chooses to work on development with a 
partner?  The development costs may be reduced somewhat, but the enjoyment 
in dancing at milongas may not be improved enough to encourage a 
substantial increse in skills because the effects of both developing 
skills are diluted when they dance with others.  For the individual, total 
enjoyment from tango becomes

TE = m highE + (n-m) avgE - g(D)

where m represents the number of tandas with one's partner, and highE 
represents the more enjoyable dance experiences with one's partner.

As m increases to n, the returns to development with a partner are 
increased, but social acceptability tends to push m down toward 1, as 
people revile the couple for not contributing to the community when they 
dance with each other rather than everyone in the community.  No one cares 
if the inferior dancers keep to themselves.  It's only better dancers 
keeping to themselves that people don't like.

The idea of a forming a larger practice group is that it could further 
reduce development costs and at the same time push the ratio of m to n 
upward.  An increase in the number of better dancers in a community may 
also stimulate others to develop their skills because the return to doing 
so increaes.

With best regards,
Steve (de Tejas)