I am reposting a entry I made on Ycombinator’s hacker news.
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The most influential thing I’ve learned is that people act by their individual set of incentives. Apply choice aspects of psychology and economics – then you got something big. Think game theory.Also, I’m waiting for the Human Genome Project to help elucidate more on the placebo effect.
I think it has a major correlation with the phenotypic vs. genotypic expression of faith – something all humans display toward an institution, ideology, themselves, and/or another person.
This will be immensely powerful information.
So, something “BIG” clicked in my mind tonight. I am ecstatic about fleshing the whole concept out. Unfortunately, I have an exam tomorrow and should probably be asleep by now. (On a side note, can I ever write a post where I won’t gripe over my current school situation?)
The good news is that I begin Easter Break after my exam. I was originally planning to organize a trip to Hilton Head, SC, with a bunch of friends, but have just decided I do not have the time (I mean I have the time, but there are more pressing issues at hand that I must address).
I just wrote a rough outline on the post I will be composing. Some parts will surely raise eyebrows.
Well, what’s the topic you ask? Here’s the title as of this moment: “Communication and Expression”.
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Wow, who saw that coming? I also had this discussion with a few fraternity brothers colleagues about Bear a month and a half ago – I told one to be wary of his Bear Stearns New York City position. Unfortunately, since obtaining said position at Bear NYC is such a prestigious honor for the Rhodes business student who has best played the trite games of the department’s egotistical professors – my advice was brushed off his shoulders. Nonetheless, these professors also hastily dismissed me on a multitude of occasions for suggesting we were going into a recession.
I wonder what this means for my friend. After I find out, I’ll post an update. He’s a smart kid and good person, so I’m sure he will figure something out.
http://www.ratemycop.com/
I am a strong advocate for this site. I have seen police act outside their duty to protect and serve on innumerable occasions.
Being an economist, I understand incentives and human nature. If the risk of punishment for defecting from their civil duties is low – with the benefit being high – it makes logical sense that officers will defect.
This could keep the officers more honest and maybe even improve some of their demeanors. I’ve seen police officers abuse their authoritative power one too many times!
Although I understand the concern that misinformation may arrise (if a cop gives someone a ticket or inconveniences them personally enough to warrant that individual’s condemnation – this person could make up information), I still think that profiles which show patterned adverse behavior can be used to supplement complaints that have not been fully investigated by internal affairs.
Overall, this is a very good thing for freedom. This is the internet age where information is instantaneously available – age old institutions need to adapt and QUIT trying to exist externally.
America should be the premier nation ensuring freedom on the internet. It’s impractical for government to believe it can control information flow the way it was able in the past. There are too many mediums of transfer currently available.
Get Real.
I will be using this blog as a way to draw out bigger concepts that I have been pondering.
A lot of times, the articles that I write will later add to a larger idea that I will tackle in the future. I want to use this blog as a public way to display the evolution of my thought process.
For part I and II posts, I will leave the original post and link back to them. However, I will more than likely be editing both versions and reposting a full article (citing the original topics).
I’ll figure out the best way to archive this – school is just kind of in the way of me doing interesting stuff. I wish I had more time to write – there’s a lot I need to share. My goal is to get at least one good article accomplished a day. Hopefully that time will come soon.
I posted this on Fred Wilson’s blog about 2 weeks ago before I went to Europe. His topic was discussing free web models.
I made the assumption that users were a cost of input just like factory workers since in web 2.0 sites the users add a large portion of the value (or at least keep the site functional).
Y-axis: value of service (insert your marketing effort here)
X-axis: trade off between ‘rent on privacy’ and ‘$ cost of service’ (i used a percent scale since I didn’t fully figure out a way to have them expressed in the same unit)
The constraint I called the convenience rate, which then allowed for different indifference curves to be drawn tangent to it depending on user preferences.
The multiple business models on the web would fit in between the x-axis scale.
The model is basic and there’s a lot more I can flesh out, but that’s because it’s still in infancy; for a poor reason.
Unfortunately, my proposal was turned down. My professor told me to try another topic he knew more about – like sports betting.
I’ll scan in a picture for the model soon.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/10/nyregion/10cnd-spitzer.html?hp
This is just great. At a time when the New York governor should be preoccupied with the economic well being of NYC’s financial businesses (and the global spill over effects), he now has to confront scandal.
If you need time with your family, buddy – then resign. We need to start figuring out how to fix this credit mess and how to instate laws to regulate shady leverage.
Didn’t his austere image develop because he was a ball-buster on Wall Street? What has he done to help the current state it has found itself in?
March 11th, 2008 at 9:22 am
@Richard – agreed.
I’m a senior in college and am looking to get involved in startups in the Bay Area after I graduate – so I’ve been watching our economy very closely. I was able to realize getting an investment bank job would not be the smartest opportunity to pursue. I’m fearful for some of my friend’s positions…
Basically, the major investment banks created CDOs (collateralized debt obligations), which were sold in ARS markets with a minimum investment of 25k. These banks kept releveraging themselves on value that never really existed. Now, since the housing bubble has collapsed (as it was guaranteed to – it was a faulty assumption to think housing prices would never slow) these cash flows have completely dried up.
Also, the AAA bond insurers do not have enough cash to back all the defaulted claims since the investment banks are INSOLVENT.
Expect increasing margin calls on these banks – a lot of them will have to sell off faulty divisions and possibly reconsolidate.
Here is a great post from market ticker that explains what caused this issue:
http://market-ticker.denninger…..thers.html
I hope some of you find it useful. There are rough times ahead for the next few years.