Capitalogix

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back - Still Leads to Progress

Here is a photo of the Capitalogix team noting a successful test release.

 

 

When you play a big enough game ... the journey is long ... and it can't just about the final result. 

On a day-to-day basis, it is about sucking less, measuring progress, moving forward ... and remembering to celebrate along the way.

Remember, the tip of the iceberg is only part of the story.

  

The Iceberg Illusion by Sylvia Duckworth, (Flickr CC license).

 

The Iceberg Illusion reminds us that when you see a company killing it - most of the time, all we got to see was the success part at the top, not the struggles and failures it took to get there.

Here's to the focus, learning, resilience, and patience that got us here!

Onwards.

Here Are Some Links for Your Weekend Reading

Oh well, the hour we lost this weekend was the one I planned to use to go to the gym.  Maybe next year?.

 

via Someecards.com.

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

 

Lighter Links:

• Tomorrow's Advance Man. Marc Andreessen’s plan to win the future. (NewYorker)
• Want Your Children to Survive the Future? Send Them to Art School. (Medium)
• Uber Teams Up with Airbus for On-Demand Helicopter Service. (TPG)
• The 'Hidden Airport' Travel Hack Could Save You As Much As 80% On Flights. (TI)
• A Spanish man didn’t report to work for six years, and no one noticed until he won an award. (National Post)

 

Trading Links:

• The Exchanges Are Eating Your Returns. (Bloomberg)
• Artificial Intelligence Market Worth 5.05 Billion USD by 2020. (MarketWatch)
• What Does This Mean?  IBM Revenue Fell for 15th Straight Quarter. (Fox)
• Why Are Corporations Hoarding Trillions? (New York Times)
• China's $34 Trillion Experiment Is Blowing Up - Kyle Bass. (ValueWalk)

Caring Digitally ...

My son, Ben, gets married next weekend.

As you might know, he has been working as a Presidential Innovation Fellow with the White House. So, this letter may not be a big surprise (or even signed by human) … Nonetheless, I thought it was kind of cool.

 

 

So is this article about the P.I.F. Program in FastCompany Magazine (see if you can spot my son ... It is like "Where's Waldo").

Regardless of what I think about Obamacare.  I like thinking that Obama cares.

Here Are Some Links for Your Weekend Reading

A reminder ... Every morning you have two choices: continue to sleep with your dreams, or wake up and chase them.

 

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

 

Lighter Links:

• Michael Bloomberg Could Make Donald Trump President. (Slate)
• Why People Are Confused About What Experts Really Think. (NYTimes)
• "Memory Hackers" Shows The Future Of Memory Manipulation. (FastCo)
• Malcolm Gladwell: This Is How You Develop True Expertise. (Inc)
• Artificial Intelligence. Computers are being taught to learn, reason and recognize emotions. In these talks, look for insights -- as well as warnings. (TED Playlist)

Trading Links:

• VC Expects that Most Companies Will Eventually Pay an Amazon 'Tax'. (Insider)
• The Hottest A.I. Companies Making Waves Across Industries. (LTP)
• U.S. Budget Deficit Falls to Lowest Level Since August 2008. (WSJ)
• How Soon We Forget: Investors Lost $1.78 Trillion In Year's First Six Weeks. (Time)
• A Financial Road Map For 2016: "The Potential For Chaotic Fluctuations Is Greater Than Ever". (ZeroHedge)

The Boy Who Sees Without Eyes

Innovation comes in many forms. I often challenge my research team to come at the edge-finding process differently. For example, how can you tell what’s happening in the stock market (or in your portfolio) without looking at the market?

As an example, I might ask how we could determine the number of people in a room, without using sight?  To answer, you could: ask; use heat signatures; detect the number of heartbeats, etc.  The point is, there is usually a way if you want it badly enough. 

The story and video below captured my attention … and admiration. 

Hope you enjoy it.

 

Diagnosed with retinal cancer at the age of two, Ben Underwood had his eyes removed at the age of three.

Still, he was able to detect the location of objects by making frequent clicking noises with his tongue. He used it to accomplish such feats as running, playing basketball, riding a bicycle, rollerblading, playing football, and skateboarding.

Check out the video.

 

 

 

Via CBS News.

He died just before his 17th birthday; but his life is still an inspiration.

For more, watch this.

What Knee Surgery Reminded Me About Technology

This week, my son had knee surgery.  It made me remember my knee surgery from three years ago ... And, it reminded me about what technology makes possible.

Before my knee surgery, I wasn't enjoying the prospect of the needles, the knock-out drugs, the cutting, or the recovery process.  Frankly, I was scared.

 

 

History is littered with tales of once-rare resources made plentiful by innovation. The reason is pretty straightforward ... scarcity is often contextual.

Imagine a giant orange tree packed with fruit. If you pluck all the oranges from the lower branches, you are effectively out of accessible fruit. From that limited perspective, oranges are now scarce. But once someone invents a piece of technology called a ladder, the problem is solved.

Here is a picture from inside my knee (unlike years ago, they didn't have to rip me open to gain access for the picture or the repair). Less damage, less time, less drugs, less recovery.

 

 

Bottom-Line: I walked over 2,500 steps the day after the surgery.  This time, my son and I had a burger on the way home from his surgery.

Whether it is minimally invasive surgical instruments, or linking big data and elastic computing ... Technology is a resource-liberating mechanism. It can make the 'once scarce' the 'now abundant' (or 'readily accessible') ... and a lot less painful.

Pretty Cool!

2015 Was an Amazing Year for Science [Video]

Lots of people thought last year was tough.  

There were lots of great things too.

Here is a quick video highlighting some of the amazing breakthroughs achieved in science and technology.

Fun to watch ... Lot's of innovative ideas.

 

 

 

via Yahoo News.

Happy New Year

Best wishes to you and yours.  JibJab nailed my resolutions for the year!

 

 

JibJab via YouTube.

Looking forward to a great 2016!

Here Are Some Links for Your Weekend Reading

Google is good for a lot of things.  Watching the auto-complete choices is often fun.  According to this, PDF might be the fourth most popular religion.

 

 

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

 

Lighter Links:

• How Machines Learn (And You Win). (HBR)
• How an F Student Became America’s Most Prolific Inventor. (Bloomberg)
• Forget Humans vs. Machines: It’s a Humans + Machines Future. (Singularity)
• The 5 Biggest Rip-Offs Consumers Face Today.  (Fortune)
• Why It Was Easier to Be Skinny in the 1980s. (The Atlantic)

 

Trading Links:

• Goldman Sachs Bought a $21 Million Stake in HFT Network Company. (Bloomberg)
• U.S. System Designed to Prevent Financial Crisis ‘Likely to Fail,’ Say Experts. (MarketWatch)
• Wall Street is Under Attack from Hackers. (Business Insider)
• Short Interest: Dispelling Another Market Myth. (See It Market)
• Stop Listening to These Clowns: Economists’ Bad Ideas Have Been Damaging Our Economy for Years. (Salon)

Here Are Some Links for Your Weekend Reading

Just like Ben Carson theorized ...

 

via Bizarro.com.

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

 

Lighter Links:

• How to Scale Things That Don't Scale. (Buffer)
• Fifty years of Moore’s Law. (Timeline)
• Singularity or Civil War? The Future of Artificial Intelligence. (Breitbart)
• How to Never Get Angry: 3 New Secrets From Neuroscience. (Time)
• The Dark Side of Empathy. How caring for one person can foster baseless aggression towards another (The Atlantic)

 

Trading Links:

• The 40 Most Exciting Innovations of the Year - Tech Insider. (TechInsider)
• Skype Co-Founders Prep Self-Driving Robot Package Delivery. (USAToday)
• Google Says It Could Make Drone Deliveries Happen by 2017. (MarketWatch)
• The Psychology of Risk and Reward. (Farnam Street)
• The Stock Market is a 'Dangerous Casino' That's Disconnected from the Real Economy. (Business Insider)