Yesterday, I gave a presentation for a group assignment in my Master's class. It was exhilarating and a whole lot of fun, despite (or perhaps because) of the fact that we had overrun our stipulated time and I had to go really quick, determining what could be skipped and what could not on the fly.... Continue Reading →
KFC and the Representative Survey
I had KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) for breakfast yesterday. Chicken rice porridge and a "breakfast" wrap (that oddly enough didn't seem to contain any chicken). It was decent, and I liked it. So when I was quite excited when I saw that the receipt had a link to an online customer satisfaction survey, for which... Continue Reading →
Shipping like there’s no tomorrow
The concept of shipping as per Seth Godin is a beautiful thing. In essence it relates to the idea of getting something out (i.e. "creative output"; a "product") without the need to achieve perfection before getting that something out. Ship, get feedback, improve; then ship again, get more feedback, and improve once more. Do this... Continue Reading →
Doing math as an analyst; work before school
I pick up my pen and write down what I see on the screen: 600 out of 14000 rows are selected based on the criteria A = 2 (that's 4%); if I switch over to A = 5, 135 out of 14000 are selected (that's only 1%) -- I now know the probability of several... Continue Reading →
Perspective Matters
120. 130. 140. We were now at 150km/h and cruising past traffic on our left, traffic already exceeding the official speed limit. Let's be clear: I wasn't the driver (let's call him Mr. X) In another world, the world before the one I had just entered, I would have been one of those on the... Continue Reading →
Business vs. IT
I felt like a lawyer. The call was in less than 12 hours, and I was busy preparing my case, consolidating evidence and building my story. To be honest, I wasn't 100% behind the argument I was preparing to put across, but I didn’t really have much of a choice. I had to believe -- how... Continue Reading →
Different, with a better story
I'm currently watching The Voice of China. On that show, there's this singer called Perhat. He's, in the words of his fans, an "Uyghur Rock Star". I'm not really a fan. But that's just me. Many, many others think he's the next Bob Dylan. There is something about him. He's different from the other contestants.... Continue Reading →
The data is what you want it to be
I was just browsing kottke.org when I came across a short little post about a neat page on Wikipedia aptly called "List of common misconceptions". The post contained an excerpt of that Wikipedia page on life expectancy, a misconception that I myself had (somewhat embarrassingly) up till only recently: It is true that life expectancy... Continue Reading →
I don’t need to be good. Just better than you.
Abstention on the part of those who won’t venture in creates opportunities for those who will. The quote above comes from Howard Mark's The Most Important Thing Illuminated, who was referring to investors who, believing they cannot beat the market, stay away from the investing game. In doing so, these people allow those who think they can (and... Continue Reading →
On the Endowment Effect
"There is a very real difference," my friend told me, "between getting a car 'new' and getting it 'second-hand'. When you're getting it second-hand, you have no idea what the previous owner did with (or in) the car." He should know. We were sitting in his (second-hand) car, bought just a couple of months back,... Continue Reading →
Donn, fragments 