Capitalogix

Here Are Some Links For Your Weekend Reading - January 20th, 2017

With technology becoming more ubiquitous ... perhaps Tweeting shouldn't be ... 

  

 

 

Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.

 

Lighter Links:

• Ringling Bros. Circus to Close after 146 Years. (Washington Post)
• Why Your Brain Makes New Year's Resolutions Impossible to Keep. (Popular Science)
• When the Picky Eater is a Grown-Up. (New York Times)
• Your Dog Knows Exactly What You’re Saying. (National Geographic)
• Nestle Claims a Scientific Breakthrough and Chocolate Will Never Be the Same Again. (Inc)

Trading Links:

• The End of Cloud Computing. (A16z)
• Rethinking Global Finance. (Wired)
• All World Maps Lie. So Which One Should We Use? (FastCoD)
• Why Rich People Set up Trust Funds for Their Pets. (Flipboard)
• Apple Sells Nearly 400 IPhones Per Minute, and Other Insane Stats. (Insider)

The Time Value of Time

In many senses time is relative. 

You don't have to be a rocket scientist to understand this quote from Einstein.

"When you are courting a nice girl, an hour seems like a second.  When you sit on a red-hot cinder, a second seems like an hour.  That's relativity."

It is about more than perception.  Here is something that highlights the relative value of time.

 

The Value Of Time:

• To understand the value of a year, talk to a student who has failed an important exam.
• To understand the value of a month, talk to a mother who has given birth to a baby a month prematurely.
• To understand the value of a week, talk to the publisher of a weekly newspaper.
• To understand the value of an hour, talk to a couple in love who are separated and want only to be together again.
• To understand the value of a minute, talk to someone who has just missed their train or plane flight.
• To understand the value of a second, talk to someone who has lost a loved one in an accident.
• And to understand the value of a millisecond, talk to someone who won the silver medal at the Olympic Games.

Time waits for no one.  So it is important to remember to make the best use of the time you have.

 

That Doesn't Mean Time Is Scarce Or Has To Be A Constraint:

Time is often thought of as a constraint or a scarce resource. There are lots of phrases that highlight this type of thinking.  For example: I don't have enough time; I'm running late; I'm up against a deadline; There are only 24-hours in a day; or, I’m going as fast as I can. As you might guess, that list goes on further.  Yet, time does not have to be that way ... it can be a tool instead.

So, I started to think about how I used time.  Was I making the most of it ... or taking it for granted?  It didn’t take much introspection to notice a few of the ruts I fell into.  I'm going to talk about one of them, here, because a small shift had a massive impact.  The thing we changed was our pace.

 

A Change of Pace:

When I jog, the beginning and the end are the hardest for me. Yet, after I find that initial pace and I settle into a comfortable rhythm, the majority of the run is relatively painless. My mind and body switch to an nearly automatic mode and I have time to think about many things.

Work is similar in many respects. Once a team gets in a rhythm, work and progress are somewhat automatic. Breaking inertia is a challenge; but people recognize that it's a challenge. The more insidious problem is to fail to recognize that the work rhythm that's comfortable, and which produces progress, is still a rut. It doesn't stretch and challenge the team to strive for more. Yet, this stretching is what drives innovation. It's the thought we haven't had yet … and a new perspective that changes everything.

Changing your pace can be an incredible catalyst to make that happen for you. For example, imagine that we put together a new portfolio in two weeks, on a wholly new tech platform, with new markets, and using new techniques. Then we tested, re-balanced and rebuilt that portfolio in one week. What we did, or the time in which we did it, wasn’t important. The important part is that it caused the team to work at a radically different pace than before. It was a sprint.

Moreover, this sprint caused us to re-think what we do, and more importantly, how we do it.  Many of the innovations and new distinctions that we discovered through this process will work their way into other areas of our work,  and will act as a catalyst for us to re-evaluate the way we do things.

 

A Challenge For You:

I challenge you to consciously change the pace of something that you are already comfortable doing a certain way. The pace can be faster, or the pace can be slower ... it doesn't matter.  Then notice what comes up for you, and what new opportunities and possibilities you discover.

Time is a valuable resource. Take this opportunity to re-examine how you can best view and use time to make the most of it.

You Just Dodged a Bullet: The Holidays And Cardiac Mortality

On Christmas, I saw Rogue One with my family, and was impressed at what Disney had done to bring back the likenesses of Peter Cushing and Carrie Fisher. 

Peter Cushing played Grand Moff Tarkin, a character who they couldn't just cut from a movie featuring the Death Star so heavily (despite Cushing being dead since 1994).  In addition, the likeness of Carrie Fisher was brought back to play a young Leia.

At the time, I didn't know Carrie Fisher would be dead 2 days later, from heart attack complications.  Only a few days later, her mother, Debbie Reynolds died as well (presumably due to a broken heart).

Here is a chart showing cardiac mortality around the holidays.

  

via the American Heart Association.

Good news – if you are reading this, you are on the right side of the daisies.

Let's keep it that way!

What Are Your New Year's Resolutions?

I got my yearly physical a couple of weeks ago, and while it went largely without any surprises, my doctor recommended a more thorough cardio workup.

  

  

Good news, the tests went well – and I'm not pregnant (even though I'm pretty sure I saw the baby move).

Clearly time for some New Year's resolutions about becoming more healthy, fit, and vital.

What about you?

Feeling Thankful is a Weak Substitute for Being Thankful

Thanksgiving is a holiday where we're encouraged to feel thankful for all the bounties in our life – and to appreciate those around us. 

I enjoyed spending time with my kids, watching the Cowboys win, and eating too much.

  

 

That's a great start; but, feeling thankful is different that being thankful.

Think of it as the difference between passive voice and active living.  

It reminds me of an idea called "Tikkun Olam" (or – healing the world).

Even if you're not Jewish, I think we can all agree the world needs a little of that. 

For example, instead of just feeling thankful, what could you do to make the life of someone around you better?  Likewise, how can you let others know that you're thankful for them?

Transformational change is often easier than incremental change (because you don't have to drag the past forward).

So, what can you do that would trigger 10X results?   Will you?

My Son Is Disgusting ...

This Thanksgiving, my son Zach made a stupid bet with himself – that he could gain 10 pounds in one day.

His mom and I both tried to tell him not to do it;  but we forgot a golden rule: Never tell a Getson they can't do something. 

The image speaks for itself.

  

 

He gained over 13 pounds.

Even considering the weight normally gained on a Thanksgiving, that's "disgusticating" (worthy of a made-up word).

Hope you enjoyed your holiday too!

 

Here Are Some Links For Your Weekend Reading - November 20th, 2016

Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.

Lighter Links:

• The Myths Democrats Swallowed that Cost Them the Presidential Election. (NW)
• You Can Have Emotions You Don’t Feel. (Nautil)
• Dalai Lama: Behind Our Anxiety, the Fear of Being Unneeded. (NYTimes)
• For the 4th Time in American History, the President-Elect Lost the Popular Vote. (LATimes)
• Dear Democrats, Read this If You Do Not Understand Why Trump Won. (Medium)

Trading Links:

• Clinton Lost the Economic Argument. (Slate)
• Peter Thiel Joins Donald Trump’s Transition Team. (TheVerge)
• How the Market Responded to Trump's Win Shows Wall St. Learned a Fundamental Lesson. (BI)
• Here’s How the Fed and the ECB Will React to Trump’s Victory. (Fortune)
• Hedge Funds Run by Trump Advisors Made the Most Money off His Election Win. (FB)

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.

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.

 

Lighter Links:

• 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)

 

Trading Links:

• 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)

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.

 

 

 

The Gorilla Foundation via YouTube.

 

 

Regardless of whether the editing was intense or Koko's handlers led the conversation ... it is compelling to watch.

  

Related articles

How Human Should A Gorilla Be?

On TV: KOKO: THE GORILLA WHO TALKS