Jotting notes.
- May 7 -
Modern Portfolio Theory is based partly on the assumption that investors bearing risk need to be compensated in the form of higher average returns on their investments. Stocks are riskier than Treasury Bills so we expect them to have higher average returns and data shows that they do. In this TechCrunch story, Professor Paul Pfleiderer argues that Modern Portfolio Theory is the best investment methodology out there. http://stnfd.biz/kNCGG
- April 10 -
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A source close to Yahoo says that CEO Marissa Mayer believes summarization technology is “going to be huge for Yahoo” as it builds “personalized news feeds” into mobile versions of its “core experiences,” including Yahoo Finance and Yahoo Sports.
Yahoo believes summarization technology will be especially important because phones have much smaller screens than the desktop computers where Yahoo products are mostly used now.
” link- December 13 -
Back in August, I wrote a post teasing Mailbox, the new app from the team behind Orchestra. Today, they’re ready to reveal a bit more. The video above offers a taste, but I’ll have more thoughts to share later on.
Put simply: this is the most excited I’ve been about an app in a long time. I’ve been testing it out for a few weeks now and it’s already the app I use most often. I say this, of course, as a happy investor, but I shit you not: if you hate email, you’re going to love this app when it comes out in a few weeks. It’s fucking amazing.
238 notes link
- October 7 -
“Marcus is literally gutting PayPal’s offices, removing all dividers and cubicles, enabling a more open work environment among product, design and engineering teams. The idea is for engineers, designers and product managers to be in one place. Marcus, who is a serial entrepreneur and has founded and sold multiple startups, says this way of development and operation is the only way he knows how to iterate successfully. “We’re trying to enable people to iterate and innovate and are putting more of an emphasis on A/B testing products, accelerating product buildups and more. The idea is for PayPal to function more like a startup.”
link- October 6 -
“Luck and skill are tightly, linked. If you get lucky early in life, you get to hang around smarter people, which makes you smarter and that process self-reinforces. If you can get connected to great networks of people those network connections similarly self-reinforces. As just one example, it is a powerful determinant of success in VC to be able to invest only in” referred deals” sent in by smart people with sound judgment. The highest quality startups with the best talent are attracted to past success of a VC and that self-reinforces success. Importantly, exposure to smarter/better startups over time actually makes VCs smarter and have better pattern recognition skills and judgment.”
link- September 28 -
“Don’t build an app based on your website. Build the app that acts as if websites never existed in the first place. Build the app for the person who has never used a desktop computer. Because they’re coming. Soon.”
link- September 23 -
“To build a standalone company and capture the attention of investors, you need a viable way to scale your business. The earlier you figure this out the better, since it may require you to build your product differently. While the $100 million mark may seem far away in those early days, it’s important to begin thinking about paths to reach this threshold from the start.”
link- September 15 -
jack at stanford. great tidbits on what he wants to do with the payment experience.
link
why you can’t be anything you want to be →
- August 16 -
Technology makes it easier for companies to get more work done with fewer people. When this happens, jobs that were once essential become replaceable. If I make a living putting plastic things on the ends of shoe laces, and someone invents a machine that automates the process, and I subsequently lose my job, my company isn’t evil. My company is maximizing shareholder value by creating efficiencies.
Increasingly, the people who stick around are those who learn how to adapt. They don’t lament when they sense the ground shifting beneath their feet. They learn new skills, figure out how to leverage the new tools or take advantage of the new realities. And, when the writing is on the wall and their days are truly numbered, they formulate a plan for landing on their feet.
