August 2021

Here Are Some Links For Your Weekly Reading – August 8th, 2021
Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.

Lighter Links:
- The Coming "Hyperactive Battlefield": Why Information Itself is the Killer Weapon of the Future. (NationalInterest)
- Robots May Be More Like Animals Than Humans. (BigThink)
- What Was I Thinking? Kahneman Explains How Intuition Leads Us Astray. (PsychologicalScience)
- First Transgender Athlete to Medal at Olympics Wins Gold. (Mashable)
- Why Bronze Medalists are Happier Than Silver Winners. (Scientific American)
Trading Links:
Tesla Paid Elon Musk $6.7 Billion Last Year – The Biggest CEO Pay Package In History. (CNW)

Here's How Much You Need to Earn to 'Be Rich' In Every State. (GBR)

Dallas Cowboys Named Most Valuable NFL Franchise For 15th Straight Year. (FoxNews)

Startups Formed During the Pandemic are Rewriting the Rules for How New Companies Work. (Marketplace)

What's Behind the Big Hype and Billion-Dollar Aggregator Start-Ups Buying Amazon Seller Brands? (CNBC)
August 8, 2021
The History of Innovation Cycles
In today's environment of rapid change, innovation is a topic worthy of increased thought, action, and discussion

Here are some articles worth a look to get started:
Too often, people view Innovation through the lens of today (meaning, they evaluate where things are in relation to their hype cycle or adoption model. While helpful, these methods focus on shorter-term trends. Sometimes, a longer view helps too.

Let's look at the pace of innovation, and how the long waves of innovation are truncating faster.

via Visual Capitalist

The theory behind these long waves of innovation is based on creative destruction. To summarize a complex theory, as markets are disrupted, a few key clusters of industries have a major effect on the economy and the future structure of society.

An easy-to-understand example is that as railways proliferated, urban growth happened around stations. To a lesser extent, it happened with aviation as well.

The most recent example would be the transition of businesses online. I think it's likely that the COVID pandemic moved forward the timeline for the 6th wave considerably, as individuals get used to a new normal.

Despite the pain and challenges of new technologies, each of these waves brought economic growth and improved living standards.

ESG and green tech are becoming more important (and, perhaps, a driver of the 6th wave). Nonetheless, I think the major movers will be AI and the decreasing divide between digital and physical.

In many respects, I believe AI will terraform the world similarly to how electricity (or the Internet) did – but in much less time.

What do you think?
August 8, 2021
Speaking At The 13th Annual Rocky Mountain Economic Summit

The Rocky Mountain Economic Summit is one of my favorite events to attend each year. It is hosted by the Global Interdependence Center and the Bronze Buffalo Club just outside Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Major media outlets like Bloomberg, Forbes, and Reuters cover the event live.

This year, some of the key speakers included Paul Ryan, Megan Greene, David Kotok, John Silvia, and Paul McCulley.

I had the pleasure of speaking during their session on Cybersecurity and AI. The Global Interdependence Center also recorded our session, so I'm thankful to share it with you here. Let me know what you think.

The mood was pretty optimistic and bullish. As you might expect, there was a growing interest in crypto and blockchain … and a growing sense of “us versus them” directed at China and Russia. We live in interesting times!

If you want to download my presentation slides, you can do that here.

August 1, 2021
Here Are Some Links For Your Weekly Reading – August 1st, 2021
Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.

Lighter Links:
Trading Links:
Amazon Now Employs Almost One Million People in the U.S. or 1-In-Every-169 Workers. (NBCNews)

Could You Live Without Bacon? Bacon May Disappear in California as Pig Rules Take Effect. (USAToday)

Tokyo Olympics Primed to Lose $30 Billion With No Way to Recoup Losses. (NYPost)

Robinhood's Flop Could Be a Turning Point In Wall Street's Biggest IPO Year Ever. (Forbes)

Airlines Like United and American Are Dedicating Billions of Dollars to Fly a New Type of Aircraft that Won't Require Pilots. (Insider)
August 1, 2021
Tracking Ransomware Attacks
At the beginning of July, a ransomware attack on IT management company Kaseya's VSA systems by REvil, became big news after influencing over 1500 companies and millions of devices.

It took 19 days before they had a solution that they received from a "trusted third party." It's believed that Kaseya got the decryptor either from paying the ransom or from the US or Russian governments.

Unfortunately, ransomware attacks are becoming more common. To see more data on various known attacks, Information is Beautiful put together a great interactive visualization.

via Information Is Beautiful

It's impossible to protect yourself completely, but there are a lot of simple things you can likely be doing better.
- Use better passwords… Even better, don't even know them. You can't disclose what you don't know. Consequently, I recommend a password manager like LastPass or 1Password who can also suggest complex passwords for you.
- Keep all of your software up to date (to avoid extra vulnerabilities)
- Don't use public wifi if you can help it (and use a VPN if you can't)
- Have a firewall on your computer and a backup of all your important data
- Never share your personal information on an e-mail or a call that you did not initiate – if they legitimately need your information, you can call them back
- Don't trust strangers on the internet (no, a Nigerian Prince does not want to send you money)
- Hire a third-party security company like eSentire or Pegasus Technology Solutions to help monitor and protect your corporate systems
How many cybersecurity measures you take comes down to two simple questions … First, how much pain and hassle are you willing to deal with to protect your data? And, second, how much pain is a hacker willing to go through to get to your data?
August 1, 2021