Overland Journies

I’ve been thinking of overland journies and the romance of travel. The great and fantastic are well-documented: trans-Siberian railway, traveling from Alaska to Argentina by car, the famed Australian cross-country roadtrip from Sydney to Perth.

What are the lesser journies? Shorter in duration or perhaps more pedestrian in description. Food for thought…

Disturbing Strokes

As twittered by @ericbarnes2 via @sashafrerejones. Pure genius.

Debt on Frontline

This is a great hour-long program about the rapidly rising US national debt. It’s a compelling description of how we got to where we are.

It may not be of as much interest to those not holding US passports or green cards.

Philips Carousel ad

Philips Carousel ad. From Kanye’s blog. Obviously inspired by Dark Knight – not sure of anything past that. But cool nonetheless.

Humans vs Machines

We prefer cuddly humans
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License by janissary

Fascinating blog post from George Packer about the inability of modern professionals to deal with human beings.

A World Without Black Swans

Black Swan at Sunset
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License by robokow

Contrarian-du-jour Nassim Nicholas Taleb has published Ten Principles for a Black-Swan Free World in the FT. My favorites:

3. People who were driving a school bus blindfolded (and crashed it) should never be given a new bus. The economics establishment (universities, regulators, central bankers, government officials, various organisations staffed with economists) lost its legitimacy with the failure of the system. It is irresponsible and foolish to put our trust in the ability of such experts to get us out of this mess. Instead, find the smart people whose hands are clean.

….

5. Counter-balance complexity with simplicity. Complexity from globalisation and highly networked economic life needs to be countered by simplicity in financial products. The complex economy is already a form of leverage: the leverage of efficiency. Such systems survive thanks to slack and redundancy; adding debt produces wild and dangerous gyrations and leaves no room for error. Capitalism cannot avoid fads and bubbles: equity bubbles (as in 2000) have proved to be mild; debt bubbles are vicious.

He’s an amazing egotist. It might be the romantic in me talking … but I like the principles behind his arguments.

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