Thought this was clever. It shows how different capabilities combine to form specialties.
via Drew Conway.
The second diagram adds one element (and some descriptive 'color') to the combinations.
via Joel Grus.
I think this helps explain a lot.
Ideas
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Here Are Some Links for Your Weekend Reading Enjoyment – October 15th, 2016
A little iconic wordplay. Let’s call this “Trump Has A Potty-Mouth”.
Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.
- Dogs Are Better Than Humans at Resisting Peer Pressure, Filtering Bad Advice. (BigThink)
- Human Brain vs Machine Learning – A Lost Battle? (Data Science Central)
- Why the Best Leaders Want Their Superstar Employees to Leave. (WSJ)
- Here’s How Quantum Computing Will Change the World. (Forbes)
- Jon Huntsman and Other Republicans Call on Donald Trump to Drop Out of the Race. (HuffPost)
- Singapore’s Nugit Raises $5.2M to Make Sense of Big Data Using Artificial Intelligence. (TC)
- Algorithmic Trading Computers Blamed for Sterling’s ‘Flash Crash’. (QuantNews)
- Mohamed El-Erian: Deutsche Bank Not a ‘Lehman Moment,’ but Still a Big Risk. (HITC)
- 3D Printing Grows Up: Scientists are Using the Tech to Make an Earthmoving Machine. (Wired)
- President Trump’s First Term. (NewYorker)
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What Does A Hurricane and Market Crash Have in Common?
Hurricane Matthew hit the east coast this week. It was the strongest storm we've weathered in 12 years (with 125 mph winds).
As a trader, I've often thought that weather and market conditions share similarities. As a result, the techniques used to understand and predict them are similar.
Have you heard the term "Eye of the Storm"? Well, in the context of Hurricane Matthew, it went directly over a weather buoy (Station #42058).
The chart is interesting. Imagine being a person observing the storm. It builds, and builds until you don't think it can get much worse. Then, it appears to stop. You can breathe. You can see. You relax … Then it comes back faster than before. Your nerves and reserves were already diminished. So, it is worse.
via NDBC.
Similarly, it's easy to mistake the eye of the storm (in a major market move) for a sign of safety and opportunity.
I remember 2008. Storms like that caused many to buy wrong and sell wrong.
Humans see clear skies and walk outside. Perhaps we can teach the computer to know better (or at least to measure and recognize what is happening better).
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Can You Control Brain Waves With Your iPhone?
Managing stress and controlling mental states are important components of being successful personally and in business. I know that I operate and respond better when I am in flow, or "in-the-zone." So, I value tools and techniques that help me get there.
One of these tools is called Holosync. It is still incredibly useful to me, even though I've been using it for over ten years.
It induces relaxation and meditative states without any effort or technical know-how. Simply put on the headphones and listen to seemingly normal music. The sounds are specially encoded to do all the work.
The basic premise is that soundwaves can affect brainwaves .
Bill Harris has built a business around figuring out the brain wave patterns for meditation, creativity, compassion, etc. – and finding a way to send tones through headphones to help guide your brain waves into the chosen pattern.
I reconnected with him at a Biohacking conference last week and shot this video.
Bill was a musician and has made sure that the scientific stuff is well-hidden beneath, nicely arranged musical scores and relaxation sounds.
My heart rate calms down, my head clears, and in a few minutes, I'm in a measurably better state. How do I know? Because I have a biofeedback device that measures my pulse, heart rate, galvanic skin response, and other readings to help me learn to relax better.
I have tried various breathing and focus techniques, with varying degrees of success. However, without fail, I simply put on the headphones, and I relax.
Not just me, though, either. I've demonstrated this to skeptical children, friends, and even my wife. All of them experience the same thing. We hook them up to the biofeedback machine, we put the headphones on them, and they relax.
I use it several times a week, and almost every time I travel. I find myself using Holosync mostly at night. However, our portfolio manager uses it at the beginning of the day. He claims that it helps him concentrate and it puts him a better state to do his job.
You be the judge, though. Bill has a free trial at his website. Here is the link. All in all, this is certainly a technology worth investigating.
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Here Are Some Links for Your Weekend Reading – September 25, 2016
At least in Pro Wrestling, there is usually a 'Hero' and 'Villain'
via Cagle
Are you going to watch the Debate?
Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.
- Wells Fargo Just Became the Poster Child for When External and Internal Values Don’t Match. (QZ)
- The Value Driven Product Roadmap – a New Approach. (OmriZiv)
- Mossberg: Apple, the King of Tech Taste and Daring, Takes a Breather. (TheVerge)
- The (Not So) New Data Scientist Venn Diagram. (KDNuggets)
- CIA Using Pokemon Go for Mass Surveillance. (USAPoliticsNow)
- Traders Watching for More Volatility. (CNBC)
- New Kind of Correlation Spotted in Factors Obsessing Wall Street. (Bloomberg)
- Wave of IPOs Could Hit Global Markets within the next 12 Months. (ValueWalk)
- AOL Co-Founder Steve Case: Third Wave of Tech M&A Coming…. (FoxBusiness)
- Apple’s Tax Avoidance Illustrates Gap between Law and Economics. (WSJ)
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Here Are Some Links for Your Weekend Reading
At some point, it becomes more important to focus on what you want … rather than what you don't want.
Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.
- AI Comes to Work: How Artificial Intelligence Will Transform Business. (BND)
- Princeton Tops List of 2017 U.S. News Best Colleges Rankings. (USAToday)
- iPhone 7 Plus Vs IPhone 6S Plus: What's the Difference? (Forbes)
- Scientists Followed 5,000 Genius Kids for 45 Years — Here's What They Learned about Success. (Insider)
- It’s Now Possible, in Theory, to Predict Life Success from a Genetic Test at Birth. (ResearchDigest)
- One Year Later, This is What Would Prompt Another "Risk-Parity" Blow Up. (ZeroHedge)
- Competition to Reinvent the Car is Getting Fiercer. (Wall Street Journal)
- The Fed's Next Move Will Impact Oil Markets. (OPEC)
- America Has Leverage over China Because It Owns So Much US Debt. (Trump)
- “Complacency” Indicator Implies Market Top. (SocGen)
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iRobot: Artificial Intelligence … or Artificial Stupidity?
We often think of Artificial Intelligence as a relatively recent creation – but that's not necessarily true.
Of course, to compare A.I. of the past with what create now would be unfair. Nonetheless, A.I. has affected thought since Greek mythology.
Stories of golden robots, homunculi and Golems have fascinated for generations.
More recently, a 240-year-old doll was found that can write any custom text up to 40 letters long using a goose feather and has eyes that follow what it writes. Imagine what the creator of that gadget could do with the tools we have today.
Seems pretty simple in comparison to all the different applications of A.I. we have today.
But as smart as Artificial Intelligence has become, it doesn't take much to thwart its purpose.
For example, iRobot's Roomba seems like a pretty cool piece of technology, right? It'll vacuum for you, learn where your furniture is, etc.
Unfortunately, it's not smart enough to tell when your pet has left a "present" on the floor for you … in which case, it just might spread poop over your whole house.
Yup, that's a real Roomba story, worth a chuckle while you read it here.
This image shows A.I. isn't always a substitute for lack of the real thing.
via Facebook
People claim that they fear Artificial Intelligence … I think artificial stupidity is pretty scary too - even when it doesn't result in smearing poop across your carpet.
One of the biggest challenges in automated trading is how quickly we can recognize when things aren't going right, and get back to doing the right thing again. It isn't just about making money, it's about making and keeping money, consistently.
As for the iRobot, they are aware of the automated poop-spreading issue and are working on a fix.
Onwards.
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Size Matters: Comparing the U.S. to the Rest of the World
This week, I saw a chart that ranks countries by the number of Olympic medals won in relation to their GDP and population.
Sometimes it helps to employ unconventional perspectives when thinking about the size of things.
So here's an interesting map from the American Enterprise Institute that shows how massive and productive America's $18 trillion economy is on a global scale.
The map compares the gross domestic product of U.S. states with the national GDPs of other nations.
America's largest state economy is California. In 2015, the Golden State's GDP was about $2.46 trillion. As a separate country, California would have been the 6th largest economy in the world last year (just behind the U.K. and slightly above France's GDP of $2.42 trillion). But France's population is about 66.48 million, while California's is only about 39.14 million — meaning California produces about the same as France – with about 40% fewer people.
America’s second largest state economy is Texas. In 2015, the Lone Star state's GDP was about
$1.59 trillion. This would have ranked Texas as the world’s 10th largest economy last year. To compare, Canada’s GDP last year was $1.55 trillion. However, to produce about the same amount of economic output as Texas required a workforce in Canada (18 million) that was 50% larger than employment in the state of Texas (12 million). That is, it required 6 million more workers in Canada to produce the same output as Texas last year.Check out the rest of the states in the map below:
via AEI.
Based on population, the US is the third-largest country in the world.
To put that in perspective, below is a a map that renames each state with the country that has the closest population to it.
via Business Insider.
The map, below, is interesting in a different way. I'm sure you've heard that "a picture is worth a thousand words." Here, a couple dozen words capture the world.
by Michael Tompsett via Fine Art America.
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Wolf Pack Leadership
I'm a city boy (and decidedly not an expert on wolves), and the following leadership parable might be more instructive than true … Regardless, it's a lesson worth sharing.
So, what can this picture of a wolf pack teach us?
The first 3 are the older or sick & they set the pace of the group … They are pushed forward by the pack. If they weren't, they would be left behind and lose contact with the pack.
The following 5 are the stronger wolves supporting those older wolves.
In the center follow the remaining members of the pack. And, towards the back, are a group of 5 more strong wolves as protection.
Last, alone, follows the leader. It controls everything from the rear.
That position can control the whole group, decide the direction to follow & anticipate the attacks of opponents. The pack follows the rhythm of the elders & the head of command that imposes the spirit of mutual help not leaving anyone behind.
As an entrepreneur, it's easy to want to be on the front lines. The company and its employees are your responsibility … So, you must manage them hands on. Right?
In reality, that's not the case.
If you surround your people with strong leaders, you can invest your time on the company, instead of in the company, stopping in to provide the occasional directional encouragement.
Building a team you can trust not only frees you up, but strengthens the weaker people as well.
What do you think?
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The Voice of Nature: Words of Wisdom from Koko the Gorilla
Jennifer and I traveled to the Roaring Lion Ranch in Hamilton, Montana last week.
It was an amazing few days in the High Plains … Especially since there was a major forest fire there just a few weeks ago.
Many fires, like this one, could be avoided with some common sense.
You don't have to be a rocket-scientist to understand the issues.
Koko (the gorilla is that can talk with humans using sign language) was recently informed about some nature-related issues. Then, supposedly, she was allowed to improvise.
This video is the result.Regardless of whether the editing was intense or Koko's handlers led the conversation … it is compelling to watch.
