More Buffett Wisdom

Another great chuck of Warren Buffett wisdom from a meeting he had with some students on Feb 15 2008:

What if you could buy 10% of one of your classmates and their future earnings? You wouldn’t buy the ones with the highest IQ, the best grades, etc, but the most effective. You like people who are generous, go out of their way, straight shooters. Now imagine that you could short 10% of one of your classmates. This part is usually more fun as you start looking around the room. You wouldn’t choose the ones with the poorest grades. Look for people nobody wants to be around, that are obnoxious or like to take all the credit. If you have a 500 HP engine and only get 50 HP out of it, you’ll be beat by someone else that has a 300 HP engine but gets 250 HP output. The difference between potential and output comes from human qualities. You can make a list of the qualities you admire and those you despise. To turn the tables, think if this is the way I react to the qualities on the list, which is the way the world will react to me. You can learn to turn on those qualities you want and turn off those qualities you wish to avoid. The chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken. You can’t change at 60; the time to look at that list is now.

[ Read the rest here - thanks to Dang Le for sharing!]

Robert Frank's @Google talk

Great talk by Economist Robert Frank at Google about economic basics and how instruction has chosen the more complex approach to it.

Take-home lesson: Keep things simple.

How are you Counting your Millionaires?

It's rather amusing to see advertisements everywhere which proclaims that there are XX thousand of millionaires in Singapore and then try to sell you a training package to teach you how to be one. I find it both misleading and ironic.

Why the number of millionaires / millionaires growth rate statistics is misleading:

1. Increased millionaires can be a product of inflation (which is really sky high at the moment). If there's anything one learns in finance, it's that the real value of money, not the numerical dollar figure that counts.
2. If the society can be viewed as a mostly closed, zero-sum system of wealth, a 5% GDP growth rate with a 10% growth rate of millionaires is not something to be jubilant about. It means that the wealth has somehow flowed from the poor to the rich, increasing income disparity. (Maybe by signing up for such trainings, people are actually aiding by making this a self-fulfilling scenario?)
   
3. General property boom (as known as the en bloc fiesta) last year probably made some people who happened to stay at the right place at the right time richer. Chances are, not all would know how to retain this wealth.
4. Ministerial Pay Increase (enough said).
5. Going forward, the latest budget measures like removal of estate tax would be beneficial to the high wealth individuals. Which means we could expect to see both (1) number of millionaires being maintained by less taxes, and (2) increased number of high wealth individuals being attracted to settle down here.
   

In any case, it still takes a massive, blindfolded leap of faith to say "number of millionaires are increasing" thus "you should take our training program". Two completely unrelated concepts if you ask me. The oft-asked question of why "people who know how to get rich don't just use it to get rich themselves?" remains. Mostly, the answer is they use you and our money to get rich, not the program. Remember, if a package is $1,000, all they need is 1000 sign ups to make them the millionaire, not you.

Thought of the Day

The key to everything is different levels of available information.

Which also explains why a good deal of economic theory fails.

Play Pump - Another Simple Answer to Drinking Water Shortages

When play does work and so much more... Sometimes, its really the simple, elegant ideas that make the most difference. Enter the Play Pump:

A life-changing and life-saving invention – the PlayPump® water system -- can provide easy access to clean drinking water, bring joy to children, and lead to improvements in health, education, gender equality, and economic development.

The PlayPump systems are innovative, sustainable, patented water pumps powered by children at play. Installed near schools, the PlayPump system doubles as a water pump and a merry-go-round for children.

[Play Pumps Official Site]

[See also : Watercone - Simple Answer to Drinking Water Shortage in Poor Areas of the World]

Hoiio Technopreneurship Challenge just wants cheap coders?

While its pretty obvious and common to see companies come to schools on the pretext of holding competitions to get students to solve business problems (branding, outreach, marketing.. etc) for them, this one feels like attempt to acquire code on the cheap.

Really have to read the Terms and Conditions carefully these days:

Excerpts (bold for emphasis) :

3.2 All intellectual property rights, if any, in the idea or concept demonstrated by the Solution will remain with the Sponsor. By entering this Contest and, specifically, by accepting any prize in connection with this Contest, each participating team agrees to grants to the Sponsor a royalty free, exclusive license in respect of all such intellectual property rights, if any, for the purposes of commercial exploitation of the idea or concept demonstrated by the Solution. By entering this Contest, each participating team grants to the Sponsor an option to exclusively license such intellectual property, if any, for the period of one (1) year following conclusion of the Contest, for the purposes of commercial exploitation of the idea or concept demonstrated by the Solution on detailed terms (to include any applicable royalties) to be agreed between the participating team and the Sponsor.

Simply -Winning solutions to become free for company to exploit (only if you take the prize... aha!) . Others are optional.

Thought of the Day

It is dangerous to allow the mundane nature of the masses sap one's ambition, yet it is foolhardy to move without purpose.

Use inaction as action: It is easier to observe standing still than moving.

Sit poised ,when the time comes, strike with ruthless clarity.

Yahoo Board Rejects Microsoft's Offer

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Yahoo Inc.'s board plans to reject Microsoft Corp.'s bid to buy the Internet pioneer, The Wall Street Jornal reported on its Web site Saturday.

Board members concluded the unsolicited $44.6 billion offer massively undervalues the Web pioneer, a person familiar with the situation told the newspaper.

Would be interesting to see what a more accurate valuation would look like, and whether Google would still remain in race.

[source: Breitbart ]

Thought of the Day

Weak ties with people around you may be more important than you think because these are the ones who help connect you to other clusters of people/resources.

Thought of the Day

No one ever achieved greatness by doing something that the rules say they could do, rather, they went after something that the rules didn't say they couldn't do.