February 2009
125 posts
Recipe for Disaster: The Formula That Killed Wall... →
It’s funny, in my youthful brilliance I used to question some of my trader buddies as to how they could possibly beat the quants when it came to making smart trades. They always came back at me with a smart response, which was the quants will just optimize themselves to the point where only the humans and their irrationality were making money. What I didn’t consider was the darker...
Rosy Scenario, or the Audacity of Hope? →
In a multi-trillion dollar economy that 6% difference is going to have a marked effect on our countries finances. I think I would prefer to have us do the consensus and then benefit from the upside. Obama has prepared us to take our medicine, but I am not so sure that we’re getting it.
This is Justin Timberlake’s “My...
russell davies: unnotebook →
I love my Behance Action book, it really helps me to organize my thoughts for the day and create a running record of to dos. Surprisingly it is completely analog, but much better than the Evernote app I installed on my iPhone. However it is still not totally customized to me, which is why I find what Russell has done with Lulu custom publishing, really interesting. Setting up my own action book...
Bloomberg Puts Forward a Bold, Transformative New... →
askjerves:
(via sympathizer)
coming soon: pedestrian only Broadway from 59th to 23rd street. huge news for nyc livable streets.
Origami American Style →
This is a great tune.
chriscarlberg:
Phoenix -...
This is “Dice Behind your Shades” by...
Brooklyn’s New Culinary Movement →
More good stuff out of Brooklyn.
“The essence of a humanities education — reading the great literary and...”
– In Tough Times, the Humanities Must Justify Their Worth
Charlie Rose - A conversation with entrepreneur... →
For those readers who are particularly interested in the evolution of a conversation and the how technology and human relationships interlink. Click this link and go to minute 33.
“Netflix streams already rushing past DVDs in 2009? http://ff.im/-1cQ73”
– Twitter / MG Siegler: Netflix streams already ru …
Jailed Billionaires Become New Face of China as...
If China’s richest man knew he was about to become the most prominent casualty of the country’s love-hate relationship with capitalism, he didn’t show it this past August. Huang Guangyu, a peasant’s son who became a billionaire by building Gome Electrical Appliances Holding Ltd. from scratch, outlined plans for continued expansion of the 800-store appliance chain. He told the board members...
This is “Strictly Game” from Harlem...
The 3 R’s? A Fourth Is Crucial, Too - Recess →
This is interesting and completely correlates to G’s experiences in the classroom. When her kids don’t get unstructured time, she finds that structured learning is that much harder to do.
It all seems so logical, but people need to quantify everything and up till now we have not had the sophisticated measurement tools to make a case for recess.
AIG Countdown to Annihilation →
A guy I know tells me that this $60 billion is the real deal. Tough stuff for AIG, but at least as Kedrosky says we have an understanding of the depth of the problem.
New Search Technologies Mine the Web More Deeply →
This deep web integration is important stuff, though the vastness of the dataset makes me wonder how we’ll ever get it out and once we have, what the biz model will be to support it. Interesting questions for sure.
Shelf Life →
As readers of this blog may know, I am rather obsessed with the idea of bringing the richness of analog into our scattered digital lives. I also tend to think that this merging of the analog with the digital is a megatrend that will define much of our consumption in the decade to come. Specifically, I think that what Alison claims is disappearing from bookmaking:
“obscure topics, exquisite...
The Oscars as an indicator of global dreams →
Think this is an interesting insight. Given the movies mass appeal, there is a certain wisdom of crowds happening here. That said, I want to acknowledge that the Oscars are chosen by an elite few, but there is something significant here and I think that significance is in a crowdsourced sense of the country’s mentality.
Being Effective as CEO
I’m a little lazy today on the Tumblr editorials as I’ve been getting crushed. That said, this is a good reminder to specialize, no matter your role.
continuations:
One of the great privileges of being in venture capital is the ability to observe many CEOs in action — not just at a distance, but close up. One of the lessons I have learned from that is that there are different ways...
Why Banks Failed the Stress Test - The basis for a...
Interesting stuff
http://bit.ly/59bbN
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2009-2-22) →
What Bon Iver and Nicholas Sparks have in Common
watching (part of) that made me do one thing: go buy the original song by the Outfield. I kind of felt like I was reading a Shakespeare cover by Nicholas Sparks. Originally posted as a comment by JKP on The Mind of an Independent using Disqus.
I believe that Google Android will be the big...
Google will lose money for awhile bit ultimately the open approach will prevail. Look at the success of Twitter’s rapid evolution. http://twitter.com/elatable/status/1231168696 “Very impressed by passion shown at Android developer meetup last night. People love open, free, hackable, multi-tasking, etc.” - Bradley Horowitz (@elatable)
The Latest Thing They're Smoking in Pipes on...
Looks like I missed this trend by 10 years. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123509294170728733.html
Social Atoms and the Twitter Ecosystem →
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how the Internet mirrors our own human networks and activities.
What Twitter did was strip away all the clutter found on so many social networks and pare things down to their essence. A tweet is like the smallest possible unit of online interaction — the atom of social media (an idea I wish I could claim, but one that appears to have occurred to others...
More on Framing Banking Nationalization →
Clearly the discussion of the coming nationalization is the hot issue for economists. The amazing thing to me is the seeming full intellectual commitment to banking nationalization as the best way forward.
Nationalization or Pre-Privatization →
Think it’s funny that Maxine Waters says “Nationalization scares the hell out of people”, I think Maxine Waters scares the hell out of a lot of people and should focus on policy instead of words.
I guess you’ve got to market this thing, but wow is this scary.
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2009-2-15) →
“If you are not into Los Campesinos! yet I highly recommend them. I then...”
– Michael O’Brien
Awesome samples can make a track. The rapping is...
“Any great nation would worry at closed-up shops and a professional governing...”
– Peggy Noonan
Guitar Hero’s Tragic Fall →
Did Guitar Hero and it’s brethren just reach their maximum market penetration?
Move over Folgers: Starbucks to unveil new instant... →
I understand that Starbucks ran out of room to grow with their original business model, but going downmarket doesn’t mean more business. It means less focus, lower margins and ultimately the utter decimation of a great business story. This is a disaster and it only strengthens my conviction to buy from anywhere but Starbucks.
Chicago Bulls Turmoil - The Saga of What the F... →
Cycle Upper Left: Glories of Gravel and Old Steel... →
My uncle (Zio D) writes a sort of brilliant blog detailing his bike rides in the upper left hand corner of Illinois. It is a source of escapism for me thanks to his vivid descriptions of his journeys. I would encourage you to check him out.