A quick note to say that I've set up my Business blog, to be able to speak with a clear voice on both personal and work issues (i.e. by having separate blogs).
The fourth in a series of posts detailing those resources I’m finding useful on my own particular (life) journey.
Meta
I did Economics A Level, back in the mists of time.
Since then I’ve done a Psychology degree and an MBA.
Humans are not rational actors seeking to maximise their economic utility.
We’re meat bags, and (too) often meat puppets. Let’s treat each other – and our Selves – on the basis of that insight. I.e. with understanding, compassion, and a pinch of salt!
The List
The rationale
Predictably Irrational – i.e. humans are irrational, but in predictable ways
The Lean Startup – a business passion of mine, and a means to experiment your way to success. Has turned business failure into something valuable – if in the context of continual learning
Business Model Generation – essential complement to The Lean Startup. When I first read it, half way through I thought: “this is McKinsey quality material”. Not sure if McKinsey knows a great deal about this domain though… #discuss
On the basis of reading Moneyball(and watching the film), I am a huge Michael Lewis fan. His lighthearted style turns non-fiction subjects into page-turners. A pleasure and an indulgence to read his work
To read:
Nudge - the book that started the Behavioural Economics movement, and brought groundedness to stale academic debate
Liar’s Poker – Wall Street excess and nuttiness
Flash Boys – the operations (or not) of high-frequency financial trading
The Undoing Project: A Friendship that Changed the World – shining a fond light into the professional collaboration of Amos Tversky & Danny Kahneman. This will be a reward for doing something special ;D
The Big Short – Michael’s treatment of one of the pivotal moments of this century so far
The English Constitution – Walter Bagehot’s take on the UK’s unwritten constitution
Lombard Street - according to Wikipedia: "Bagehot was one of the first writers to describe and explain the world of international and corporate finance, banking, and money in understandable language"
The Madness of Crowds – definitely not rational economics actions, surely undercutting efficient market theory…?
The Smartest Guys in the Room: epic folly, cynical pyramid schemes, and still on my shelf. The Enron story and the subsequent collapse. Whistleblowers everywhere -
The Task
Let’s learn how to empower ourselves to make the best decisions possible, and de-mystify the jargon and de-fang the prognosticators – based on our own experiments!
Students everywhere: take control of your own learning in this domain, bring it to life with stuff more readily intelligible, and become passionate about such as important topic.
Feedback
Any thoughts, additions, amendments – whatever – please add in respectful and constructive comments below. Thank you!
Atul Gawande, MD, MPH is a practicing surgeon at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Professor at both the Harvard School of Public Health and Harvard Medical School.
In his lecture series, The Future of Medicine, Dr Atul Gawande will examine the nature of progress and failure in medicine, a field defined by what he calls 'the messy intersection of science and human fallibility'.
Known for both his clear analysis and vivid storytelling, he will explore the growing importance of systems in medicine and argue that the future role of the medical profession in our lives should be bigger than simply assuring health and survival.
The 2014 Reith Lectures
The first lecture, Why do Doctors Fail?, will explore the nature of imperfection in medicine. In particular, Gawande will examine how much of failure in medicine remains due to ignorance (lack of knowledge) and how much is due to ineptitude (failure to use existing knowledge) and what that means for where medical progress will come from in the future.
In the second lecture, The Century of the System, Gawande will focus on the impact that the development of systems has had – and should have in the future - on medicine and overcoming failures of ineptitude. He will dissect systems of all kinds, from simple checklists to complex mechanisms of many parts. And he will argue for how they can be better designed to transform care from the richest parts of the world to the poorest.
The third lecture, The Problem of Hubris, will examine the great unfixable problems in life and healthcare - aging and death. Gawande will argue that the reluctance of society and medical institutions to recognise the limits of what professionals can do is producing widespread suffering. But research is revealing how this can change.
The fourth and final lecture, The Idea of Wellbeing, will argue that medicine must shift from a focus on health and survival to a focus on wellbeing - on protecting, insofar as possible, people’s abilities to pursue their highest priorities in life. And, as he will suggest from the story of his father’s life and death from cancer, those priorities are nearly always more complex than simply to live longer.
The Task
Atul Gawande strikes me as an outstanding role model.
Our challenge is to rise above our everyday conditioning and aim to be as good as Dr Gawande in the things that we are passionate about, and which bring us to life.
It’s easy to quote Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."
The tricky bit is sailing towards the horizon and not knowing where you're going. It's spectacularly more difficult than you might expect...
As one of my Mentors said to me:
"Justin, it's not about leaving A to get to B, it's about leaving A"
For my undergraduate degree, I studied Psychology, and fascinating it was – it’s related to the human condition, but both the physical and metaphysical perspectives [well, something like that – Ed.].
I was also a member of the URNU, the University Royal Naval Unit, and loved that as well. A little bit of background (i.e. a related post) can be found here.
Based on a gut instinct that our servicemen and women could be treated more respectfully and looked after better, I’ve recently donated to Help for Heroes. Based on my background though, I’ve got a closer affinity to Combat Stress, and this post is designed to help you understand why.
I realise that there are a number of quotes from the Combat Stress website, but I’m guessing you’ll bear with it…!
About Combat Stress
Why Combat Stress exists
Combat Stress is the UK's leading military charity specialising in the care of Veterans' mental health.
We treat conditions such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), depression and anxiety disorders. Our services are free of charge to the Veteran.
Since 2005 the number of ex-Service men and women seeking our help has risen by 72%. And we have a current caseload of more than 4,300 individuals. This already includes 102 Veterans who have served in Afghanistan and 400 who served in Iraq.
In March 2010 our Patron HRH The Prince of Wales launched our major fundraising campaign – The Enemy Within Appeal.
The £30 million, three-year appeal is designed to help us treat the escalating number of psychologically injured Veterans who are turning to us for help, by:
Establishing 14 Community Outreach Teams nationwide
Enhancing clinical treatment at our three short-stay treatment centres
If you need help yourself
This link has the map referred to below in the following quote:
Combat Stress provides effective treatment and support to Veterans of the British Armed Forces who are suffering from mental ill health.
If you or perhaps someone in your family has a problem, then please call us for an informal chat.
Our services are free of charge and regardless of War Pension/Armed Forces Compensation Scheme status.
We have people in your area ready to take your call –8.30 am to 4.30 pm, Monday to Friday. Simply click on your region in the map[below] for contact details of your local Support Desk.
Veterans do not have to have seen active service in order to qualify for our help – but if you are in any doubt, just ask us.
Some facts re the Falklands War
At a recent Combat Stresss fund-raiser that I attended, Lieut-General Robin Brims addressed us, and mentioned the problems that service personnel faced returning home after fighting in the Falklands War.
I don’t really have time to substantiate the following quote which I believe backs him up, but it’s from here and quotes Guardian and Observer sources:
Since the war, hundreds of veterans, both Argentinian and British, have committed suicide. Numbers of suicides are not recorded by the MoD, but the South Atlantic Medal Association claimed in 2002 that more British ex-servicemen from the Falklands have killed themselves since the 1982 conflict than died in action: 264 they estimated (300 is more recently quoted).
An example is Lance Corporal Colin Deary who lost three friends in the Falklands, was discharged from the army eight years later with drink problems, and in 1994 stabbed himself to death. Similar reports have been made about the Argentinian troops.
[…]
As in all wars but still not adequately recognised by the military establishment, the servicemen and women suffer to varying degrees from post traumatic stress disorder. Many soldiers found it hard to return to normal life, ended up getting into trouble and committing crimes.
Simon Skinner suffered flashbacks and stumbled from one crisis to another attempting suicide on several occasions, becoming an alcoholic and getting into debt, and finally in 1995 having his final flashback. ‘He got out of bed, stood to attention, marched out of the room as if in a trance and, stumbling, fell down the stairs. He died five days later.’
Hopefully you get the general idea. I’m expecting to do another Byte Night sleep-out in the Autumn, but plan to devote any future fund-raising activities to help this cause. I hope you can support me. :-)
It’s a plastic thing with a hole big enough to have the ‘camera’ put through it, and so you don’t damage the equipment by biting on it - yeeuch
Gizmo fed into my mouth
Deep breathing, steady breathing
Suction thing like dentists
Swallow
Swallow again
Gizmo into my stomach
Further down, into duodenum for a look around
Makes me feel a bit sick
Air being pumped in makes me burp a lot
Gizmo used to take samples – duodenum
Back into stomach for a look see
Concern because of saliva & breathing
Back out again
Thanks heavens!
Lesley gives me photo
Recuperation
45 minutes after spray
Mum comes to collect
Rather tired last night
Have a sore throat today – unsurprisingly. Rather like a ‘sore throat’ caused by illness.
Initial test results
The biopsy taken from my duodenum was put into some ‘agar jelly’ containing lactose, along with a colour indicator. Apparently those with lactose intolerances normally turn the indicator a sky blue colour. I managed to turn it navy blue, which means a severe lactose intolerance.
The good Doctor also mentioned I have mild gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (apparently). Although looking at the symptoms, I don’t seem to suffer from this…
Results of blood test? Need to recall / check documentation
Reflections
Would have been good to have some kind of hand signals to communicate
Someone needs to tell this joker that we don’t trust our banks any more – muppet!
‘sppose it’s our stupid fault for falling for these scams & I’m in no way immune to this sort of stuff… :-s
“FROM THE DESK OF:HAMMOND KLEEN
NATIONAL WESTMINSTER BANK,NATWEST
LONDON,
UNITED KINGDOM.
15/2/09.
Your Attn,
Compliments of the season and good day.I am Ray Wells, the system and control director at the NATIONAL WESTMINSTER BANK,i am writing this letter to solicit for support and assistance from you to carry out this business opportunity in my bank.
Lying in an inactive account is the sum of Three Million Pounds sterling(3,000,000:00 GBPS) belonging to a foreign customer(Sperber Thomas) who was a gas consultant here in UK.He happened to be deceased during a business trip with his wife(Sperber Julie) on board the Swissair Flight 111 , which crashed into the Atlantic off Nova Scotia in september 2nd 1998.
Info of this crash was on the news which we have tried to notify his relatives but to no avail,see links below for more detailed information: www.cnn.com/WORLD/9809/swissair.victims.list/index.html www.cnn.com/WORLD/americas/9809/08/swissair.02/index.html
Ever since he died the bank has been expecting his next of kin to come and claim these fund which cannot be released unless someone applies for it as next of kin, as indicated in our banking guidelines.Unfortunately he has no family member in UK or Over-sea who are aware of the existence of the money.
At this juncture i have decided to do business with you by soliciting your assistance in applying as the next of kin to the bank then the money will be released to you,as i do not want the money to go into the bank treasury as an unclaimed bill,because the banking laws and guidelines stipulates that if such money(s) remains unclaimed for a period of eleven years(11yrs),the money will be moved into the bank treasury as an unclaimed bill.
My request for a foreigner as next of kin is occasioned by the fact that the customer was a foreigner and a British cannot stand as next of kin.
50% of the money will be your share as a foreign partner and your assistance to actualise this business,thereafter i will visit your country with your help once the money hits your account for disbursement according to the percentage indicated.
To effect the immediate transfer of the fund to you as agreed,you must apply first to the bank as the next of kin to the deceased,then we will follow up all formalities for the transaction.
Upon receipt of your reply, i will send to you, the text of application you are to send to the bank,and further clearify you in other issues as to effect this business.
Awaiting to hear from you urgently.
Best Regards
Ray Well.”
A blog post about water drainage – and the lack of it.
It’s a times like these when I’m driving or cycling in our locality, when I feel a bit hacked off. Hacked off because the roads are awash with water, and roads and driving conditions are worse than they need to be.
With the snow rapidly melting, I think it should be running down ditches, flowing away through cundies (drains of loose stones), and into small streams that Northumbrians [and others] call burns.
The problem was particularly bad last year in early September, when a Northumbrian market town was inundated by flash floods. The roads around us were impassable in places, which meant it was tricky getting to the wedding of a couple we know.
The bride was stuck in a traffic jam when the Newcastle to Carlisle road was closed due to flooding, and the priest had to be rescued when his car engine was overwhelmed by standing water! The ceremony went off without a hitch, but about 50 minutes late…
I have been out myself from time-to-time, digging away at the verges on the road that leads up to our house, to let the water run-off into the ditches which usually are cut between the verge and hedgerows / fencing.
In doing so Jim, our next-door neighbour and ‘deputy farmer’ has called over and said I shouldn’t be doing the Council’s job. So, in writing this post I assumed that the Castle Morpeth or Tynedale Council were being dilatory.
A quick Google search showed this FAQ and made me think again:
“Roadside Ditches
Do you know who is responsible for looking after ditches? This is one of our most frequently asked questions.
Ditches on private land are the responsibility of the landowner, roadside ditches are normally the responsibility of the adjoining landowner, legislation permits the Highway Authority to discharge rain water from the highway into these ditches.
In order to keep ditches and drains working properly we advise landowners to:
clean the waterways on your land regularly to ensure water is able to drain from the highway.
check headwalls and grills regularly.
Rainfall certainly seems to be more intense these days and this does cause more drainage problems.
If everyone regularly maintained their ditches, a large number of the county's drainage problems would not occur. This would save a great deal of council taxpayer's money that is being used to solve the problems caused by blocked ditches and drains.”
The Highway Authority is permitted to use roadside ditches for the drainage of the highway.
Unless constructed specifically for the drainage of the highway, the maintenance of these is normally the responsibility of the adjoining landowner and not the Highway Authority. If road flooding occurs as a result of obstruction in these ditches the Highway Authority may exercise its legal powers to require the riparian owner to clear the ditch.”
A hit for activities around Alston (in the South of the County) are also enlightening:
Re: 2e/JAN/08 Cllr Pennell reported that he has researched the issue of responsibility for roadsideditches on the internet and noted that councils make a common presumption in law that the owner adjacent to the highway is responsible for the ditches. CALC have asked the county council to justify their position, but have not heard back yet, and the clerk has contacted the Country Landowners Association, who were unable to comment as the council is not a member. She has also e-mailed the new NFU chairman for Cumbria, who is aware of the issue and willing to follow it up.
The Traffic Management Committee met last month, and copies have been circulated of the County Council’s worksheet for employees on the cleaning of roadside ditches, and the Highways Act 1980 s101 which lists the power the Highways Authority has to fill in roadsideditches.
Cllr Phillips reported that he had spoken with Geoff Wilson from the Trail Riders Association, who had also offered to look into the issue of where the highway boundary should be. He added that if there is a case to fight, parish councils across the county should be in support. If needs be he will convene a meeting of the Rights of Way committee to discuss in detail.
It was observed that the county council have maintained the roadsideditches for thirty plus years, and it might be that in accepting responsibility for this they might have acquired that duty, possibly there is something about this in case law.
So, if you’ve read on this far – thanks for sticking with it! I had hoped to point the finger squarely at the Council and have done with it.
It now appears that maintaining ditches appears to be the responsibility of the landowner, and therefore I’m guessing it’s not a priority. However, the landowners may well reckon that the Council should be doing it - ergo no-one does. Dah!
I realise that the farmers keep the hedges in order, and it would be great if they could sort out the ditches on a regular basis, or else get a subsidy to do it – we’d all benefit IMO.
A shame that, as I not only agree with Gloucestershire Council but would also say that Councils wouldn’t have to pay so much in road repair bills because of the erosion this undrained water creates.
A different type of diner’s club ;-). Photo credit to MamaT A rant about not being able to get my money from Diners Club – the charge card people. Set of bullet points to summarise the situation (from my perspective, of course):
I have over-conscientiously credited £550 to my Diners Club account – i.e. to pay off what I thought was an outstanding balance
I would like the money back – i.e. I don’t want to spend it
Anyway, not many places actually take Diners
I’m not staying in hotels, so haven’t got any big ticket things to spend the balance on…
I first start asking for my money to be wired to my current account, probably back in October
however, there’s some technical issue or other
I also wanted to pay off my credit card – but they couldn’t do that either
I thought the credit card was owned by the same company, but I now find that Diners Club has been sold by Citigroup [find out who has bought them]
Because it hasn’t happened, I’m wondering whether Diners Club is deliberately retaining my credit balance because they are affected by the Credit Crunch
I’m rather worried I’m not going to see the money again
Supervisor
There never seems to be a supervisor to talk with
I have been promised a supervisor call-back on two occasions – it hasn’t happened
Either they haven’t called, or they haven’t called my mobile
Presently I have no messages on the landline number they have for me, and I don’t recall their supervisor calling on my mobile
That said, Diners have a great first line
Plaudits especially to Juliet – extremely helpful, patient and courteous
Also, Shirley
There’s no point having a pop at the call centre people – they are told to speak to a script, and have little discretion.
Anyway, I have no confidence in Diners Club as an organisation, and I’m writing this because I want my money back! The title of this blog relates to whether I will get satisfaction from Diners Club in the UK because they are listening to people like me to blog and tweet about corporations – although I think not. If that’s the case, then I will use this post in future to agitate for better Customer service through social media tools like Twitter etc.. I have posted to my personal blog, as it’s a personal matter, but it could be an interesting case study! I’m going to get in contact with their UK head office – Google led me to this post with contacts details for the Chief Executive’s complaint wrangler. Update: I've hopefully removed all the apostrophe's from Diners, apart from the photo credit...
By way of explanation, as a result of drafting an experiment with video sites , I came across this user on YouTube.
Having skim-viewed the content, I submitted this text to the YouTube customer complaint web page:
"I would like to complain about someone who is spoofing my ID and my videos. Initially this was amusing, but I find videos which refer to terrorist beheadings (albeit with a toy dog). I deem this to be a completely inappropriate use of my identity. It seems like an open and shut case, and I'd like to know what you are going to do about it."
Although it seemed rather funny, if not painfully embarrassing, I became uncomfortable with how this was developing, and felt I should do something about it. Hence this post on my personal site, as I believe it relates to my personal identity.
This was the clip that got me worried - I haven't watched this all the way through because of being slightly spooked by it all (also, check out the comments):
I would be very grateful for feedback from you:
What you think
Should I be worried - or is it a back-handed compliment[!]?
Whether to contact the YouTube account concerned and how to play it...
How to deal with this in a sensible way without over-reacting.
DD's even written to The Economist - lucky I've seen this now, or I'd be spluttering into my Saturday morning cornflakes! lol
In terms of the "Democratic deficit", it was the recent vote in the UK on the 42 days detention without trial that tipped me over the edge. I agree with David Davis that it was also the grubby way it came about, which was the last straw.
I'm also gobsmacked by the glaring EU democratic vacuum: we're being kept voting until the Powers-that-Be get the result they want... How is that Democracy? :-(
My feeling is that, if Politicians don't heed what their Electorate signals through their votes, there's going to be a big falling out.
I'd like to finish by quoting from Andrew Rawnsley writing in the Observer (dated Sunday June 15, 2008):
"That David Davis is several marbles short of the full bag is certainly the consensus view at Westminster. Tory and Labour MPs are united with each other and with most journalists in thinking that he is mad.
The public, though, appears to be responding in a strikingly different way. So far, we have only rough and ready indicators from radio phone-ins, websites and the like. But public opinion there has been heavily admiring of David Davis.
More than one member of the shadow cabinet who thinks David Davis is crazy has also told me that they have had emails and calls lauding him as a man of great principle taking a heroic stand.
This, I think, is something for the political class to ponder and ponder hard. So ingrained with cynicism is Westminster about itself that it can only see David Davis as a lunatic for sacrificing his career on the altar of his beliefs. The politicians need to ask themselves why so many of the public seem to regard David Davis as the only sane man in the asylum."
"Some think that Jimmy Cayne, Bear Stearns’s boss—fingered for playing golf and bridge while two of his bank’s hedge funds imploded—will be the next to pack his briefcase."
"Mr Cayne had been under huge pressure to go, thanks to $1.9 billion of mortgage write-downs—leading to the bank's first-ever quarterly loss—and accusations that he had been more interested in improving his own performance at bridge and golf than shoring up his bank's standing in the markets.
He will remain as non-executive chairman, continuing to command an eight-figure salary, after Alan Schwartz, a trusted lieutenant, takes over as chief executive. Mr Cayne's durability prompted one observer to dub him the “Harry Houdini of the boardroom”."
At $2 a share, the 5% stake held by Jimmy Cayne, the chairman and former chief executive, worth $1.2 billion at the shares' peak last year, is now valued at $11m (less than half of what Mr Cayne recently paid—mortgage-free, naturally—for an apartment in the Plaza Hotel).
For other investors (large and small), the damage is phenomenal (same article):
"Lowlier workers have been hit even harder. Bear encouraged them to buy shares after it went public in 1985. Their purchases have pushed employees' combined stakes to one-third. Some have lost their main nest eggs, others the money to put children through college. Worse, half or more of the 14,000 staff are expected to lose their jobs. Counsellors are on hand. Comparisons are being made with Enron, where the employees lost $2 billion in pensions.
The shock is fast turning to anger: that bosses left it so late to seek capital; that employees were prevented from selling shares because an earnings announcement was coming; and, above all, that JPMorgan Chase has probably got a bargain.
Allied with big shareholders such as Joe Lewis, a Bahamas-based billionaire who spent $1 billion on Bear stock last year, some employees like to think they can muster a majority against the deal when the vote is held in six weeks. On March 18th Bear's shares closed at $6.51, reflecting the chance of a higher offer."
That's a shocking turn-around.
Jimmy Cayne will presumably get a pay-off in the tens of millions of dollars. As our friends in the US say - go figure.
I'm from the North East of England, and like mountain biking, sailing, golf, tennis, and the open countryside!
I'm also interested in emerging trends, particularly scientific ones like Emergent Complexity; my latest "things" are the use of Fungi to help plants grow and to restore polluted land.
