Gordian Knots

Brad Feld lists out questions from a friend which we should all answer:

* What were the significant events of the year?

* What were my accomplishments?

* What trips did I take?

* Who was I closest to?

* What significant reading did I do?

* What gave me joy?

* In what ways did I grow?

* What personal gifts did I use to serve this year?

* What did I learn this year?

* What in my life is dying (literally or figuratively)?

* What in my life is rising (literally or figuratively)?

* What are my goals for the next year?”

An old saying claims that the rich get richer. But recent advances in online investing now allow people of modest means to tap into investment options traditionally reserved for the wealthy.

Separately managed accounts — customized portfolios based on models by one or more managers — are hot investment vehicles with a Rolls Royce connotation. Their minimum investment runs from a hundred grand to half a million, with hefty fees paid to the investment adviser and managers. Less affluent investors have watched this luxury ride wistfully, from a distance.

Now they can bum a ride. Foliofn, a Vienna, Virginia, company that sped the automation of portfolio management, is forming alliances to offer consumer products with the benefits of separately managed accounts.

Unlike mutual funds, the underlying assets allocated in SMA models are owned by the individual investor. The investor can decide to refuse a manager’s buys and sells, adjusting as desired for personal tax strategies or feelings about particular companies.

Investors can go online to rebalance the basket, buying and selling stocks without paying commissions, only a monthly or annual membership fee. Current annual fees are $200 for one basket, $100 for additional ones.

Earlier this year, Techdirt that China had told a father he could not name his kid “@”, mainly because there was no good way to pronounce it. Well, it appears that China really doesn’t like people naming their kids after internet related things. Not only is the “@” out, but so is naming your kid with a .com. A father wanted to name his son Zhao.com, but the registry office has rejected the name. Perhaps he should have just gone straight to a

domain registrar instead. Of course, here in the US we have no such restrictions, leading to things like kids named 2.0.

Life on the Robotic Farm: “The Swirling Brain sent a link to a CNN.com article that talks about the benefits of automation on the modern farm. The farmer sits in the air conditioned cab of his self-driving, GPS-guided tractor, checking stock prices and surfing the web. The tractor knows where it’s going, and can continue in the dark. It even knows precisely where it left off yesterday so it can start in the right place today. The system also keeps maps of the fields to make sure this years plantings don’t go over old root systems.”

Thinking Robotics for the Real World: “IST has published a new article on the Bayesian Inspired Brain and Artefacts project (BIBA), which is part of NEURO-iT, a European Union Future and Emerging Technologies Initiative. The goal of BIBA is to produce artefacts that are capable of using Bayesian probabilistic logic to ‘understand and implement life-like behavioral coordination’. To state their goal in more understandable terms, they intend to make robots that can act on incomplete data just like humans and other animals can. To this end they have constructed BIBA Bot, a robot equipped with cameras, a SICK LMS and IR sensors. BIBA Bot will initially demonstrate insect-level intelligence similar to that of an ant but researcher hope to eventually achieve mammal-level intelligence equal to that of a dog.”

Building Robots to Learn About Humans: “A new MIT Technology Review article presents the controversial views of Mitsuo Kawato, director of the ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories in Kyoto, Japan. Kawato believes that an important reason for building robots is to learn about humans. This is a common view among AI researchers where one camp wants to build machine intelligence while another views AI simply as a tool to simulate and learn about human intelligence. Kawato sees robotics as a way to simulate and learn about human neural structure and motor control. Kawato’s research is currently focused on a robot called DB2, a 30 DOF humanoid. DB stands for Dynamic Brain, an attempt at using current neurbiological theories to construct a robot brain.”

Harvard Business Online: “You’ve got all the trappings of success: an impressive career, lovely home, handsome family, and prominent position in your community. So why do you still feel that something’s missing? Why does the bar seem to ratchet higher every time you score another achievement? And why does your life feel less fulfilling the harder you struggle to uphold professional and personal obligations? Like many managers, you may need to focus more on managing yourself: carving out a place in the work world that suits your values, strengths, and work styles–and committing your time, money, and energy to what really matters to you. Managing yourself requires a deep understanding of what you value, how you use your resources, and how you define success. It also entails making hard choices about which goals you’ll strive for. But by managing yourself, you reach your goals and tally up more ‘wins.’ Equally crucial, you truly enjoy your successes. The three Harvard Business Review articles in this collection: ‘Managing Oneself’ by Peter F. Drucker (HBR reprint R0501K), ‘Do Your Commitments Match Your Convictions?’ by Donald M. Sull (HBR reprint R0501H), and ‘Success That Lasts’ by Laura Nash and Howard Stevenson (HBR reprint R0402H).”

Harvard Business Online: “Throughout history, people had little need to manage their careers–they were born into their stations in life or, in the recent past, relied on their companies to chart their career paths. But times have drastically changed. Today we must all learn to manage ourselves. What does that mean? As Peter Drucker tells us in this seminal article first published in 1999, it means we have to learn to develop ourselves. We have to place ourselves where we can make the greatest contribution to our organizations and communities. And we have to stay mentally alert and engaged during a 50-year working life, which means knowing how and when to change the work we do. It may seem obvious that people achieve results by doing what they are good at and by working in ways that fit their abilities. But, Drucker says, very few people actually know–let alone take advantage of–their fundamental strengths. He challenges each of us to ask ourselves: What are my strengths? How do I perform? What are my values? Where do I belong? What should my contribution be? Don’t try to change yourself, Drucker cautions. Instead, concentrate on improving the skills you have and accepting assignments that are tailored to your individual way of working. If you do that, you can transform yourself from an ordinary worker into an outstanding performer. Today’s successful careers are not planned out in advance. They develop when people are prepared for opportunities because they have asked themselves those questions and rigorously assessed their unique characteristics. This article challenges readers to take responsibility for managing their futures, both in and out of the office.”

What’s Your Story?

Publication Date: Jan 1, 2005

Author(s): Herminia Ibarra, Kent Lineback

Type: Harvard Business Review Article

When you’re in the midst of a major career change, telling stories about your professional self can inspire others’ belief in your character and in your capacity to take a leap and land on your feet. It also can help you believe in yourself. A narrative thread will give meaning to your career history; it will assure you that, in moving on to something new, you are not discarding everything you’ve worked so hard to accomplish. Unfortunately, the authors explain in this article, most of us fail to use the power of storytelling in pursuit of our professional goals, or we do it badly. Tales of transition are especially challenging. Not knowing how to reconcile the built-in discontinuities in our work lives, we often relay just the facts. We present ourselves as safe–and dull and unremarkable. That’s not a necessary compromise. A transition story has inherent dramatic appeal. The protagonist is you, of course, and what’s at stake is your career. Perhaps you’ve come to an event or insight that represents a point of no return. It’s this kind of break with the past that will force you to discover and reveal who you really are. Discontinuity and tension are part of the experience. If these elements are missing from your career story, the tale will fall flat. With all these twists and turns, how do you demonstrate stability and earn listeners’ trust? By emphasizing continuity and causality–in other words, by showing that your past is related to the present and, from that trajectory, conveying that a solid future is in sight. If you can make your story of transition cohere, you will have gone far in convincing the listener–and reassuring yourself–that the change makes sense for you and is likely to bring success.

“New Scientist has several round-ups of 2004. They include one for technology , space and biology . There’s also an interesting peice about the most popular stories of the year.”