Dilbert vs. Gladwell

 

 

 

 

Via: Dilbert

US energy independence[chart]

It’s interesting to see how the shale gas boom is making the US energy independent again. Return of the US  superpower perhaps?

         

Via: Economist

 

Diwali Links

Happy Diwali! And best wishes to all !

A quick thing to mention people living across the globe and celebrating global cultures. Diwali is the festival of lights and celebrated by most Indians (mostly of the Hindu religion but others as well). 

For those stuck at work on a weekday and missing out on the festive feel, always remember that its  only the people you care about that actually matter and remembering memories you shared with them celebrating (past, present or future) is all that counts. 

On to today's links: 

• Gambler’s fallacy: The lesson I learnt last Diwali | Firstpost http://bit.ly/TAcLwL
• Economics Journal: The Economic Theory Behind Diwali Baksheesh - India Real Time - WSJ http://bit.ly/W18Pti
• How Coffee Revolutionized the World | The Big Picture http://bit.ly/TA8vgD 
• 8 great scenes from war movies:http://flpbd.it/zJcBT [veterans day homage]
• S&P, Fitch face landmark trial over Italy downgrades http://flpbd.it/MyCvO 
• Why there’s a boom in Chinese students attending US universitieshttp://flpbd.it/U7A4b 
• New Study Finds More Young Swedish Men Becoming Prostitutes Than Women http://flpbd.it/NpUoy 
•  The 40-Year-Old Intern http://flpbd.it/628ax
• 50th anniversary of the Russian Revolution in colour, Moscow,…http://flpbd.it/PPnQh 
• Jeffco merger deck [pdf] http://bit.ly/VY9HyU 
• France's 'Nutella amendment' causes big fat international row | World news | The Guardian http://bit.ly/TvUXCM
• Auguste Rodin's 'The Thinker' gets a Google Doodle http://buff.ly/VY3UsZ 
• Paul Rudnick: My Crush on Nate Silver : The New Yorkerhttp://bit.ly/XxRpVy 
• Chart of the day: American's flying over Thanksgiving - The recession is over@FactSet http://bit.ly/TuoWex 
• CEO and co-founder of#Movember, proves that facial hair can be fun—and revolutionary:http://flpbd.it/Riral 

PSY @ Oxford - Leadership

Racism while job hunting?

I found this chart (from OKCupid, a supposedly popular online dating site)quite interesting to feed my data-science soul. It basically comes to the conclusion that as far as online-dating goes, racism is prominent and whatever you say, a sample size of 750K diverse people is representative in my books.

(Click on the chart for a link on further details about it)

 

But on a different note, a friend of mine recently asked me a very simple question, “If two candidates possess the same-skill, and one of them is a local and the other is foreign, would employers have a bias to pick the local over the foreign candidate?”

 

Now from an socio-economic standpoint, and from legal standpoint, the answer to that question is no. It is illegal to discriminate(at least in OECD countries) based on gender, sex, race or sexual orientation.

 

But I’m not going to talk about whether such biases occur or not, but instead focus on something else. If you ever find yourself facing a situation like this and start reverting to the answer-‘damn I probably didn’t get that job because I’m foreign’, then let me ask you this-‘is there any way possible for you to know that answer?’. The answer is a simple NO. If you didn’t get a job, it could have been because of a variety of reasons-poor skill set matching, poor interviewing, high competition, language barriers etc. What is critical to understand is that you will never know and that is all.

Whatever the reality be, considering that you can’t change the outcome makes it a fruitless effort to be concerned about and that time dwelling about it could be spent applying for other jobs.

If you can’t change the outcome of events, don’t bother being concerned about it, or as they say in French – ‘Nous ne pouvons pas nous échapper’, or more plainly in English, ‘we cannot escape ourselves’.

Myopia of groups

I’ve been taking French language lessons lately; not sure why, but I suppose I just like the idea of learning a European language. Besides, being trilingual would be quite smashing. But nonetheless, in a recent lecture, we were talking about meals and restaurants and someone brought up chopsticks.

I’m a sushi fanatic and I mastered chopsticks a very long time ago, and was very curious to learn what the french word would be for that. Turns out that the word is ‘baguette’. Now that actually makes sense since baguette in its true sense means a stick and when most people go visit a bakery and ask for a baguette, they are actually asking for a ‘french stick’.

But in North America, somehow a baguette has become synonymous with a french bread, thus everyone in the lecture was shocked to learn this and started questioning the fact, so as a repurcussion, the professor started thinking to herself that she might have made a mistake, but like always, she was correct. What she didn’t realize is that she had succumbed to popular delusions of the crowd. As is evident by history, the crowd tends to be wrong quite often(see here for a list of historical events).

Its not uncommon to become myopic in groups and become delusionsal and forget that perhaps what the crowd thinks is actually incorrect. Listening to the masses is always a good idea, but like a wise man once said- ‘Trust, but verify’.

Monday Links

• The Technium: Myth of the Lone Villain http://bit.ly/TqwTRP
• Non political Lessons from the 2012 election - The Washington Post http://bit.ly/VWNZeB
• At Martha Stewart Living, Martha May Be the Problem http://bit.ly/Tu3wOG
• Genius: The Nickelback Story - Businessweek http://bit.ly/UzLVDI
• Innovation -- NOT Uncertainty -- Is America’s Key Problem http://bit.ly/Tu45YR
• The Problem With a Really Tiny Tent | The Big Picture http://bit.ly/VWOqpb
• What Are Italian Stocks Doing In The Argentina ETF? | ETF Database http://bit.ly/Tu4KJC
• Comics: 50 percent http://bit.ly/Tu4VF0
• Seth's Blog: When you don't know what to do... http://bit.ly/Xxh6pa
• Case studies in low UK taxes: from lattes to water pipes | FT Alphaville http://bit.ly/Tu6J0H
• Nancy Folbre: The Power of Plastic http://bit.ly/Tu7SoQ

Banana industry

The banana industry is more consolidated than most people think. Most of the Canadian bananas come from Ecuador and the industry has a few main players importantly Dole and Chiquita. Although you could say that the vendor industry is consolidated, retailers are consolidated as well and hence most people in the business suffer through extensive negotiations before decisions are made. Perhaps it is time to break things up a little.


via: Economist

Saturday Links

Here are some long form reads for a Saturday:
The Bloomberg Way - James Bennet - The Atlantic http://bit.ly/RIkpUO
Things that make you go hmm  Mauldin Economics
Greenlight capital Q3 letter  Dealbreaker
Why We Can't Solve Big Problems | MIT Technology Review http://bit.ly/PSdAn9
Internal Time: The Science of Chronotypes, Social Jet Lag, and Why You're So Tired | Brain Pickings http://bit.ly/KfNHJY
Q&A: The Price of Paying Attention | The Big Picture http://bit.ly/SIRFyf
Ortega Tops Buffett With Zara Fortune of $53.6 Billion - Bloomberg http://bit.ly/Sphell

Friday Links

• This is painful : Twitter Racists React to 'That Ni**er' Getting Reelectedhttp://bit.ly/QoFV4N 
• ETF Blood in the Streets – Draw downs | Mebane Faberhttp://bit.ly/VMOO9C 
• Chart: Fiscal Cliff vs. Debt Ceiling - Whats the bigger hype ? Business Insider http://bit.ly/XpqdYX 
• Chart Of The Day: When $0.99 Becomes Unaffordable, We Have A Problem | ZeroHedge http://bit.ly/VMjb07 
• Georgette Mulheir: The tragedy of orphanages TED
• Google Bonds Probably Not Going To Replace Treasuries Any Time Soon « Dealbreaker: http://bit.ly/UmG4XJ
• IMF Australia Plaintiffs Win Against Standard & Poor's -- NEW YORK, Nov. 5, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- http://bit.ly/TgcWNE
• Google Bonds Probably Not Going To Replace Treasuries Any Time Soon « Dealbreaker: http://bit.ly/UmG4XJ
• Scott Forstall fired from Apple: The company struggles to keep an all-star team together without Steve Jobs. - Slate Magazine http://bit.ly/VIGWGl