Will Electric Bicycles Get Americans to Start Pedaling?

http://e360.yale.edu/feature/will_electric_bicycles_get_americans_to_start_pedaling/2642/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+YaleEnvironment360+%28Yale+Environment+360%29

http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2013/04/barack-obama-laid-back_slideshow_item22_23

Pictures of Barack Obama at work.

“When we are inadequate ourselves but our ego is strong, we tend to blame others.”

I read this quote while reading Living with the Himalayan Masters by Swami Rama.

Swami Rama would say to those highly opinionated people….if you have so much to say, and you feel like you know more than the person you are criticizing, go fix it. If you are not willing to put in the time, respectfully, please be quiet. If you think you can do a better job, go do it.

Being attached to outcomes you can’t control is a tough look.

He would also say keep an eye out for constant complainers and people who talk about others in a negative light. They are cancers. Help them see what they are doing. If they continue to do it, use these people to become a better person. Develop patience. A bigger person shows his greatness by how he deals with and treats a smaller person.

http://www.gq.com/news-politics/newsmakers/201304/nfl-mba-program

“You’d think it would be hard to go broke on $1.1 million a year, which is what the average NFL player pulls down. The trouble is, the average NFL player retires in three-and-a-half years, and most blow through their retirement savings in less than ten. Which is why there’s now an MBA program with one goal: to take these men from signing contracts to writing them.”

http://www.gladwell.com/2002/2002_04_29_a_blowingup.htm

If you are interested in the investment process and taking financial risk I highly suggest you read this Malcolm Gladwell piece from The New Yorker. It was also featured in his book What the Dog Saw.

I challenge you to push further and read the books profiled in the article. Fooled By Randomness and The Black Swan are both solid investment books by Nassim Teleb.

Taleb gives us examples of what a nasty rainy day (market wise) looks like. I guess it is nice to have the knowledge of how he prepares for a reversal in a market but I do not know how much value his strategy will add to an investment process. I guess almost every trade, if you have deep enough pockets, will eventually be “in the money.” Maybe this is why Jim Rogers is consistently saying “investing is hard because it’s hard to look out the window.” It requires one of the hardest attributes to come across….patience.

I highlight both of these books because after being part of an investment team the past few years I realize how random the process is. When you are trading systematically it takes a lot of courage to embrace volatility and trust in the process. One month can present great returns and the next month’s returns can be dreadful. As a money manager, your life can become a ride of what seems like pure randomness. What makes the market go up one day is the exact thing that makes the market go down the next day.

I think this randomness is potentially the hardest thing for “buy side” investors to comprehend. People are always trying to make sense of noise. Markets are random. Life is random.

I liked these books because Taleb introduces to some and expands to others, the concept of randomness. As speculators we do not know for certain when the next major market rally or sell off will be. As conscious human beings, we do not know why we are here. We will never know. Maybe a higher power is dictating our lives and challenging us to consciously see Him through the noise, clutter and randomness?

It’s fun to make something of the noise in our lives but, if you consider that life is a random process I urge you to sit back, relax and people watch. It is very interesting to see everyone running around a city trying to make something out of what is most likely randomness or a process dictated by Him.

Breathe. Take a full minute and listen to your breath. That noise is the true gift.

http://www.ted.com/talks/david_pogue_10_top_time_saving_tech_tips.html

A short TED talk on saving time with technology.

http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/12897

A discussion about Online education with Anant Agarwal, CEO of edX; Amy Gutmann, president of the University of Pennsylvania; Joel Klein, former New York City Schools chancellor and CEO of Amplify and Tom Friedman of the New York Times.

http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21576688-unpaid-student-athletes-are-heart-multi-billion-dollar-industry-fair-or-foul

This week’s issue of The Economist looks at American college sports, a multi-billion-dollar industry with unpaid athletes.

“Stop comparing where you’re at with where everyone else is. It doesn’t move you farther ahead, improve your situation, or help you find peace. It just feeds your shame, fuels your feelings of inadequacy, and ultimately, it keeps you stuck. The reality is that there is no one correct path in life. Everyone has their own unique journey. A path that’s right for someone else won’t necessarily be a path that’s right for you. And that’s okay. Your journey isn’t right or wrong, or good or bad. It’s just different. Your life isn’t meant to look like anyone else’s because you aren’t like anyone else. You’re a person all your own with a unique set of goals, obstacles, dreams, and needs. So stop comparing, and start living. You may not have ended up where you intended to go. But trust, for once, that you have ended up where you needed to be. Trust that you are in the right place at the right time. Trust that your life is enough. Trust that you are enough.”

– Daniell Koepke

Via PeaceLoveYoga

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/28/magazine/who-says-new-york-is-not-affordable.html?pagewanted=2&pagewanted=all&_r=1&

Interesting piece by Catherine Rampell.

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