Sunday, December 25, 2005
"The Information Economy" by Carl Shapiro
Now that information is available so quickly, so ubiquitously, and so inexpensively, it is not surprising that everyone is complaining of information overload. Nobel prize winning economist Herbert Simon spoke for us all when he said that " a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention".
The real value of produced by an information provider comes in locating, filtering, and communicating what is useful to the consumer. It is no accieent that the most popular Webnsites belong to the search engines, those devices that allow people to find information they value and to avoid the rest. The Net allows information vendors to move from the conventional broadcase form of advertisisng to one-to0one marketing. Web servers can observe the behavious of millions of customers and immediately produce customised content, bundled with customised ads.
The faxct is, the web isn't all that impressive as an information resource. The static, publicly accessible HTML text on the web is roughly equivalent in size to 1.5 millions books,. If 10% of the material on the Web is "useful", there are about 150,000 useful books-queivalents on it, which is about the size ofa superstore. But the actual figure for " useful " is probably more like 1%, which is 15,000 books or half the size of an average mall bookstore. The value of the Web lies in its capacity to provide immediate access to information.
Amazon link for Carl Shapiro's book : " Information rules ; a strategic guide to net economy " here :
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000051X17/qid=1135526895/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-6198030-2943218?v=glance&s=books
The real value of produced by an information provider comes in locating, filtering, and communicating what is useful to the consumer. It is no accieent that the most popular Webnsites belong to the search engines, those devices that allow people to find information they value and to avoid the rest. The Net allows information vendors to move from the conventional broadcase form of advertisisng to one-to0one marketing. Web servers can observe the behavious of millions of customers and immediately produce customised content, bundled with customised ads.
The faxct is, the web isn't all that impressive as an information resource. The static, publicly accessible HTML text on the web is roughly equivalent in size to 1.5 millions books,. If 10% of the material on the Web is "useful", there are about 150,000 useful books-queivalents on it, which is about the size ofa superstore. But the actual figure for " useful " is probably more like 1%, which is 15,000 books or half the size of an average mall bookstore. The value of the Web lies in its capacity to provide immediate access to information.
Amazon link for Carl Shapiro's book : " Information rules ; a strategic guide to net economy " here :
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000051X17/qid=1135526895/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-6198030-2943218?v=glance&s=books
Monday, December 12, 2005
" 1 st time manager " Loren B.Belker
These are the fundaas for the ' first time manager', who has to handle other people , for the first time in his / her career.
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THE FIRST-TIME MANAGER
Loren B.Belker
If there is one area that many new managers blunder into, it is the use of authority. If is the idea that because you now have the authority of management, you must start using it – and you must use and display it in a big way. It may be the biggest mistake that new managers make.
View the authority of the new position as you would a storehouse of supplies. The fewer times you take supplies from the store house, the greater is the supply that remains there for where it is really needed.
If you don’t go to the storehouse of authority too often, the authority you may have to use in an emergency is more effective because it is infrequently displayed. The people you supervise know that, the request you make carries the authority of the position. The vast majority of the time, it is unnecessary to use that authority.
There is a term in the creative arts called understatement. For the most part, it means that what is left unsaid may be as important as what is said. This is true with the use of authority. A direction given as a request is a managerial type of understatement. If the response is not forthcoming, you can always clarify or add a bit of authority. On the other hand, if you use all your authority to achieve a task and then discover by the reaction that you have used too much, the damage is done. It is difficult , if not impossible to de-escalate the overuse of that authority.
AMAZON REVIEW :
This book should be required reading for all new managers, for all managers who were poorly trained or not trained at all, and for senior managers who think they don't need to go back to the basics, at least once every five years. New managers often do not have the luxury of leisure. Consequently, many will not take the time to read a book. It appears the author is aware of this by breaking the book into simple easy-to-read sections, seldom more than two pages in length. The reader can open the book at any topic and begin reading. Both busy people and those that just want to use the book as a reference will appreciate this
fULL amazon link on the book, with reviews at :
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0814458602/qid=1134399580/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-9729598-9246462?s=books&v=glance&n=283155
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE FIRST-TIME MANAGER
Loren B.Belker
If there is one area that many new managers blunder into, it is the use of authority. If is the idea that because you now have the authority of management, you must start using it – and you must use and display it in a big way. It may be the biggest mistake that new managers make.
View the authority of the new position as you would a storehouse of supplies. The fewer times you take supplies from the store house, the greater is the supply that remains there for where it is really needed.
If you don’t go to the storehouse of authority too often, the authority you may have to use in an emergency is more effective because it is infrequently displayed. The people you supervise know that, the request you make carries the authority of the position. The vast majority of the time, it is unnecessary to use that authority.
There is a term in the creative arts called understatement. For the most part, it means that what is left unsaid may be as important as what is said. This is true with the use of authority. A direction given as a request is a managerial type of understatement. If the response is not forthcoming, you can always clarify or add a bit of authority. On the other hand, if you use all your authority to achieve a task and then discover by the reaction that you have used too much, the damage is done. It is difficult , if not impossible to de-escalate the overuse of that authority.
AMAZON REVIEW :
This book should be required reading for all new managers, for all managers who were poorly trained or not trained at all, and for senior managers who think they don't need to go back to the basics, at least once every five years. New managers often do not have the luxury of leisure. Consequently, many will not take the time to read a book. It appears the author is aware of this by breaking the book into simple easy-to-read sections, seldom more than two pages in length. The reader can open the book at any topic and begin reading. Both busy people and those that just want to use the book as a reference will appreciate this
fULL amazon link on the book, with reviews at :
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0814458602/qid=1134399580/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-9729598-9246462?s=books&v=glance&n=283155
These are the fundaas for the ' first time manager', who has to handle other people , for the first time in his / her career.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE FIRST-TIME MANAGER
Loren B.Belker
If there is one area that many new managers blunder into, it is the use of authority. If is the idea that because you now have the authority of management, you must start using it – and you must use and display it in a big way. It may be the biggest mistake that new managers make.
View the authority of the new position as you would a storehouse of supplies. The fewer times you take supplies from the store house, the greater is the supply that remains there for where it is really needed.
If you don’t go to the storehouse of authority too often, the authority you may have to use in an emergency is more effective because it is infrequently displayed. The people you supervise know that, the request you make carries the authority of the position. The vast majority of the time, it is unnecessary to use that authority.
There is a term in the creative arts called understatement. For the most part, it means that what is left unsaid may be as important as what is said. This is true with the use of authority. A direction given as a request is a managerial type of understatement. If the response is not forthcoming, you can always clarify or add a bit of authority. On the other hand, if you use all your authority to achieve a task and then discover by the reaction that you have used too much, the damage is done. It is difficult , if not impossible to de-escalate the overuse of that authority.
AMAZON REVIEW :
This book should be required reading for all new managers, for all managers who were poorly trained or not trained at all, and for senior managers who think they don't need to go back to the basics, at least once every five years. New managers often do not have the luxury of leisure. Consequently, many will not take the time to read a book. It appears the author is aware of this by breaking the book into simple easy-to-read sections, seldom more than two pages in length. The reader can open the book at any topic and begin reading. Both busy people and those that just want to use the book as a reference will appreciate this
fULL amazon link on the book, with reviews at :
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0814458602/qid=1134399580/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-9729598-9246462?s=books&v=glance&n=283155
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE FIRST-TIME MANAGER
Loren B.Belker
If there is one area that many new managers blunder into, it is the use of authority. If is the idea that because you now have the authority of management, you must start using it – and you must use and display it in a big way. It may be the biggest mistake that new managers make.
View the authority of the new position as you would a storehouse of supplies. The fewer times you take supplies from the store house, the greater is the supply that remains there for where it is really needed.
If you don’t go to the storehouse of authority too often, the authority you may have to use in an emergency is more effective because it is infrequently displayed. The people you supervise know that, the request you make carries the authority of the position. The vast majority of the time, it is unnecessary to use that authority.
There is a term in the creative arts called understatement. For the most part, it means that what is left unsaid may be as important as what is said. This is true with the use of authority. A direction given as a request is a managerial type of understatement. If the response is not forthcoming, you can always clarify or add a bit of authority. On the other hand, if you use all your authority to achieve a task and then discover by the reaction that you have used too much, the damage is done. It is difficult , if not impossible to de-escalate the overuse of that authority.
AMAZON REVIEW :
This book should be required reading for all new managers, for all managers who were poorly trained or not trained at all, and for senior managers who think they don't need to go back to the basics, at least once every five years. New managers often do not have the luxury of leisure. Consequently, many will not take the time to read a book. It appears the author is aware of this by breaking the book into simple easy-to-read sections, seldom more than two pages in length. The reader can open the book at any topic and begin reading. Both busy people and those that just want to use the book as a reference will appreciate this
fULL amazon link on the book, with reviews at :
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0814458602/qid=1134399580/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-9729598-9246462?s=books&v=glance&n=283155
"The Noonday Demon" by Andrew Solomon
Highly policiticised rhetoric has blurred the distinction between depression and its consequences - the distinction between how you feel and how you act in response. This is in part a social and medical phenomenon, but it is also the result of linguistic vagary attached to emotional vagary. Perhaps depression can best be described as emotional pain that forces itself on us against our will, and then breaks free of its externals. Depression is not just a lot of pain : but too much pain can compost itself into depression. Grief is depression in proportion to circumstance ; depression is grief out of proportion to circumstance....
Life is fraught with sorrows ; no matter what we do , we will in the end die ; we are, each of us, helf in the solitude of an autonomous body ; time passes., and what has been will never be again. pain is the first experience of world - helplessness, and if never leaves us. We are angry about being ripped from the comfortable womb, and as soon as that anger fades, distress comes to take its place. We live, however, in a time of increasing palliatives ; it is easier than ever to decide what to feel and what not to feel. There is less and less unpleasantness that is unavoidable in life, for those with the means to avoid. But despite the enthustiastic claims of phrarmaceutical science, depression cannot be wiped out so long as we are creatures conscious of our own selves. It can at best be contained.
( typing content - 5 minutes; with corrections etal ; 7 minutes)
Amazon Link for the book ( 4.5 rating )
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0684854678/qid=1134387089/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-2692430-8315809?s=books&v=glance&n=283155
Life is fraught with sorrows ; no matter what we do , we will in the end die ; we are, each of us, helf in the solitude of an autonomous body ; time passes., and what has been will never be again. pain is the first experience of world - helplessness, and if never leaves us. We are angry about being ripped from the comfortable womb, and as soon as that anger fades, distress comes to take its place. We live, however, in a time of increasing palliatives ; it is easier than ever to decide what to feel and what not to feel. There is less and less unpleasantness that is unavoidable in life, for those with the means to avoid. But despite the enthustiastic claims of phrarmaceutical science, depression cannot be wiped out so long as we are creatures conscious of our own selves. It can at best be contained.
( typing content - 5 minutes; with corrections etal ; 7 minutes)
Amazon Link for the book ( 4.5 rating )
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0684854678/qid=1134387089/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-2692430-8315809?s=books&v=glance&n=283155
Thursday, December 08, 2005
"Dynamic Markets" by Robert Prechter
Is Buy Gold really the only answer to adeclining US dollar, or the rise and fall ofequity valuations? If goldisreally your best strategic defenceagainst excessive market fluctuations, how come it is still priced at the levels refelcting just one third of its bubblevaluations in the 970s and 980 s? Now, don't get me wrong here ;we actually like gold We think it is part of prudent diversificationof assetsto keep may be 5% of your port folio in bullion.We also have liked - and profited from positions in select mining stocks,especially when entered and exited at the proper time...
But Gold is just an asset,one out the many that can be harnesses to hbuild wealth in the Dynamic Marketenvironment.And the more asset groups you include in your viewof the markets, the better your chances to have one ( orseveral) working for you at any given time.This is the principal insight ofDynamic Market Theory. Castyournets wideenough,and you will be able to rofit handsomely from the major and minor fluctuations ofequity markets, internationalindexes, currencies, hard assets, real estate, and technologies.
Supplement short - and mediumterm profits with long term rotective strategies, such as calls or puts on individual indexes. And most importantly, don't get overly enamoured with any particular investing philosohy.Pay as much attention to finanialplanning as you would,tothe maintenance of your car.
Amazon link to the author :
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/103-0090149-2027035?url=index%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=%22Robert+Prechter%22
other 5-star rated books of thesame author : " Socionomics: Science of history and social prediction" ( 5-star)
and
"At the crest of Tidal Wave " ( 4.5 rating)
But Gold is just an asset,one out the many that can be harnesses to hbuild wealth in the Dynamic Marketenvironment.And the more asset groups you include in your viewof the markets, the better your chances to have one ( orseveral) working for you at any given time.This is the principal insight ofDynamic Market Theory. Castyournets wideenough,and you will be able to rofit handsomely from the major and minor fluctuations ofequity markets, internationalindexes, currencies, hard assets, real estate, and technologies.
Supplement short - and mediumterm profits with long term rotective strategies, such as calls or puts on individual indexes. And most importantly, don't get overly enamoured with any particular investing philosohy.Pay as much attention to finanialplanning as you would,tothe maintenance of your car.
Amazon link to the author :
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/103-0090149-2027035?url=index%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=%22Robert+Prechter%22
other 5-star rated books of thesame author : " Socionomics: Science of history and social prediction" ( 5-star)
and
"At the crest of Tidal Wave " ( 4.5 rating)
' Ethics' - Spinoza
Human infirmity in moderating and checking the emotions I name bondage : for, when a man is a prey to his emotions, he is not his own master, but lies at the mercy of fortune ; so much so, that he is often compelled, while seeing that which is better for him, to follow that which is worse. Why this is so, and what is good or evil in the emotins, I propose to show...
When a man has purposed to make a given thing, and has brought it to perfection his work will be pronounced perfect, not only by himself, but by everyone who rightly knows, or thinks that he knows, the intention and aim of its author. For instance, suppose anyone sees a work ( which I assume to be not yet completed), and knows that the aim of the author iof that work is to build a house, he will call the work imperfect ; he will, on the other hand, call it perfect, as soon as he sees that it is carried through to the end, which its author had purposed for it...
But after men began to form general ideas, to think out types of houses, buildings, towers, and to perfer certain types to toher, it came about, that each man called perfect that which he saw agree wtih the general idea he had formed of the thing in question, and called imperfect that which he saw agree less with his own preconceived type. This seems to be the only reason for calling natural phenomena which, indeed, ar not made with human hands, perfect or imperfect.
-- Baruch Spinoza.
Amazon link for the book :
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0806505362/qid=1134045404/sr=1-3/ref=sr_1_3/002-2818157-6951204?s=books&v=glance&n=283155
Amazon link to the authors' books :
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/002-2818157-6951204?url=index%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=%22Baruch+Spinoza%22
When a man has purposed to make a given thing, and has brought it to perfection his work will be pronounced perfect, not only by himself, but by everyone who rightly knows, or thinks that he knows, the intention and aim of its author. For instance, suppose anyone sees a work ( which I assume to be not yet completed), and knows that the aim of the author iof that work is to build a house, he will call the work imperfect ; he will, on the other hand, call it perfect, as soon as he sees that it is carried through to the end, which its author had purposed for it...
But after men began to form general ideas, to think out types of houses, buildings, towers, and to perfer certain types to toher, it came about, that each man called perfect that which he saw agree wtih the general idea he had formed of the thing in question, and called imperfect that which he saw agree less with his own preconceived type. This seems to be the only reason for calling natural phenomena which, indeed, ar not made with human hands, perfect or imperfect.
-- Baruch Spinoza.
Amazon link for the book :
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0806505362/qid=1134045404/sr=1-3/ref=sr_1_3/002-2818157-6951204?s=books&v=glance&n=283155
Amazon link to the authors' books :
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/002-2818157-6951204?url=index%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=%22Baruch+Spinoza%22
