Saturday, May 23, 2020

The Forces of Change...

"An understanding of the forces driving change is crucial to comprehending the opportunities and the risks that change creates. But in our search for understanding, we must be prepared to dig deep, for the forces that matter are rooted in the very nature of things, and in the processes used to create them. What we see around us is not the result of some deus ex machina working outside of our influence or control. Human beings, working as individuals and in groups, create the new technologies, the new forms of organization, the new products and markets. To be sure, the consequences of their actions are not always intended or even anticipated. But the" things" themselves - the tangible objects, the devices, the software programs, the production processes, the contracts, the firms and markets - are the fruit of purposeful action. They are "designed."

Hat tip ~ Design Rules - The Power of Modularity, Carliss Y. Baldwin & Kim B. Clark

Saturday, May 2, 2020

Saturday ~ May 2, 2020

To live content with small means;
To seek elegance rather than luxury,
and refinement rather than fashion;
To be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not rich,
To study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly;
To listen to stars and birds,
to babes and sages, with open heart;
To bear all cheerfully, do all bravely,
Await occasions, hurry never.
To let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious,
grow up through the common.
This is to be my symphony.

(William Henry Channing, 1810 - 1884)

Friday, April 17, 2020

MPT assumes that there are no structural Changes...


"Nothing changes so you just punch in the data and you optimize A robot can compute Markowitz. That's what consultants have been doing for 40 years, optimizing for the correct portfolio. But tht's wrong, Brock says. Instead, you need to constantly change the portfolio to keep it in lone with the structural changes going on in the world.

Tuesday, April 7, 2020

The Times Are Changing...

Whatever it is, coronavirus has made the mighty kneel and brought the world to a halt like nothing else could. Our minds are still racing back and forth, longing for a return to "normality" , trying to stitch our future to our past and refusing to acknowledge the rupture. But the rupture exists. And in the midst of this terrible despair, it offers us a chance to rethink the doomsday machine we have built for our selves. Nothing could be worse than a return to normality. Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past .....

Tuesday ~ April 7, 2010

Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.

(Naomi Shihab Nye, b. 1952)

Monday, April 6, 2020

IT's the Environment Stupid!

Valuations are dependent on the Current Environment... and the environment is Changing!

Tuesday, March 24, 2020

Tuesday ~ March 24, 2020

Breath is life, and the intermingling of breaths is the purpose of good living. This is, in essence, the great principle on which all productive living must rest, for relationships among all the beings of the universe must be fulfilled; in this way, each individual life may also be fulfilled.

( Paula Gunn Allen, 1939 - 208 )

The Fatal Flaw of Modern Finance Theory ~ Ceterus Paribus

Stationarity

Sunday, March 22, 2020

"Art's institutional soul is in a state of flux"...

Two of this country's largest and oldest museums - the Metropolitan of Art in New York and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston - Turn 150 this year. And with both now shut down by the coronavirus pandemic, this is a good moment for them, and other big, traditionalist institutions in Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles and elsewhere, to take stock and refocus. Art's institutional soul is in a state of flux. Years of turbulence, with demands for inclusiveness and truth-telling, have put the "encyclopedic" museum on the hot seat. Our critic delivers a five-point plan for how they might redefine their roles, rewrite their histories and thrive for the next 150 years.

NYT ~ Arts & Leisure, Sunday, March 22, 2020

Thursday, February 27, 2020

The Power of Flux:

"Some of this is caused by flux: everything is in a state of change, and that is difficult to understand, keep up with, to contextualize based upon your historical frame of reference. There is a lack of consensus about, well, everything these days: Economics, Markets, Technology, Politics, etc. This frightens people, sending them to cling onto comfortable myths.

But the world is not black and white, and reality is far more complex and nuanced than you get from much of the media or pundits or political candidates or elected officials.

Hat tip ~ Barry Ritholtz ~ The Big Picture