1) Wall Street’s Invisible Men (New York Magazine) - The notion of "letterhead hires" is one of the things that turns my stomach about today's Wall Street. There was a time when bankers left the Street and went into government out of a sense of civic duty (Felix Rohatyn, for example). But the revolving door that it's become just makes my skin crawl.
2) The new Goldman way: Less cushy compensation? (Reuters) - Speaking of Felix, is Goldman facing "the Lazard problem"? Is the firm's hallowed reputation (I just threw up in my mouth a little) no longer enough to keep rainmakers firmly planted in their seats?
3) Why Some Investment Bankers Like To Wear Swatch (Business Insider) - Is Swatch the new Patek on Wall Street? Only if you ball so hard muthafuckas wanna fine ya. And then ask you for the time.
4) Wall Street Rolling Back Another Key Piece of Financial Reform (Rolling Stone) - It boggles my mind how a bank in an advisory role to a municipality raising money doesn't have an implicit fiduciary responsibility. But "fiduciary" seems to be the new "F"-word on Wall Street.
5) Silicon Valley is stupid (which is why it works) (GigaOm) - This is a pretty interesting analysis of the Silicon Valley ecosystem and how it just "works". Hint: it's basically the free market on steroids.
6) Why Too Many Startups Suck (Steve Blank) - Startups are not just smaller versions of large companies, and if they're run that way they're probably gonna suck. The most important thing I've learned from Steve Blank and other Lean evangelists is how critical the customer discovery process is in creating a scalable startup. If you have any interest in doing something big in the startup world, align your way of thinking with these guys.
7) Crowdfunding Isn’t Killing Seed Funding — It’s Helping It (Pando Daily) - Get ready for the next bubble, guys. You know I'm a big fan of crowdfunding, but there is so much hype going into it that once the floodgates open in January we're gonna see some roadside lemonade stands with 7-figure valuations. It'll be great for the market once everything settles down, though.
8) You won't need a driver's license by 2040 (CNN) - I am SOOO ready for this. I'm looking forward to driverless cars even more than I'm looking forward to Google glasses, I think. I pretty much hate driving, so I can't wait till I can just start the ignition and then read a book. Plus, you'll never wake up in the morning after a bender wondering where your car is anymore.
9) An Update on What Romney's Tax Forms Can Teach Us (and Mormons) About Tithing (Forbes) - Looks like Mitt might have some 'splaining to do in Salt Lake City. For those of you curious about where tithing comes from, it goes all the way back to when Abraham founded Judaism. So even before there was a single person to kick upstairs, organised religion demanded its 10 points. And they call us sharks.
10) Will Science Someday Rule Out the Possibility of God? (Yahoo! News) - Would you want to know for sure? I mean, we all think we know, and some of us base our belief on a good deal more evidence than others, but wouldn't a definitive answer be great? Or would it?
Video of the Week:
I think it's safe to say that the following video is going to be burning up the Internet over the next week or so, so gear up to see it everywhere from your Facebook timeline to the evening news. You guys know I'm no Obama supporter, but this video sets the new gold standard in campaign propaganda and you have to give credit where credit is due. Pretty sure the Romney camp ain't gonna top this one. If this doesn't earn Sam Jackson a night in the Lincoln bedroom with a couple of Thai h***ers, then the Lincoln bedroom just doesn't exist. Enjoy:
That's it for this week, fellas. Let me know what you think about this week's offering in the comments, and have a spectacular weekend!
7) As you know I mentioned some of my crowdfunding skepticism last week, but I agree with you it'll be a positive thing once it calms down. And I think any bubble will be more amusing than anything because (as I understand the law) people can't lose their life savings investing in these companies and usually give smaller amounts.
10) No, but what fun would that be, I guess. I think the real question is whether people will believe scientific discovery is compatible with religion, and that will determine the success/failure of religion in general.
Ugh, come on SLJ. You're right, gotta give credit for the great propaganda, but fuck, could the Republicans really not find someone to counter this abortion of a president? Do we think there's going to be cosmic balance for eight years of left-wing incompetence after eight years of right-wing incompetence?
Another good line up Eddie. Interesting article about religion, though I would suggest that religion is many times a belief that doesn't need to be proven. It's bigger than proving the fact that god exists through any presentation of empirical or tangible evidence. I mean, isn't 'god' many times the secondary or even tertiary issue in regards to religion. It seems more to me like a set of social and moral values that sets of people believe in that provides them solace from the cruel randomness of the world. It is far easier to think that you go to the pearly gates or even the depths of hell than cease to exist at all. That is a truly horrifying thought. Personally though, I think that even should science prove without a doubt that the big bang theory is without question people will still say, "Well, that was all planned. Part of the path the universe was set out to follow by something greater" and on and on.
6) I see that you've been chugging along with the lean startup course. I like how they made the explanations/wording so easy that even a golden retriever can understand.
I hope to get to lecture 3 this weekend.
Wait...was that a shot? lol
I know what you mean. If you're about to get into Lecture 3 you're way ahead of me. I think at the end of Lecture 3 you IPO or something.
No no, not a shot at all...I like how he explains and makes it so simple. I also like how he comes out of the gate and insults every single entrepreneurship program out there.
Short side story: I took only one entrepreneurship class in uni: Creating a business plan. I teamed up with the two hottest girls I know (irrelevant but whatever) and came up with a nice, lean business plan of starting a fast food (read assembly line type) restaurant of health choices in the PATH. I got a C+ (I was so fucking pissed...but didn't appeal out of laziness) because A. Professor didn't like our idea and B. our plan wasn't 80 pages long (It was like 70). After numerous meetings with him explaining that these types of restaurants are actually popping up and that grading an entire fucking course based on the length of a final paper and not its content is ridiculously absurd, he didn't budge. and I have a C+ staining my transcript.
Fast forward three years later and you can't walk into a PATH foodcourt without seeing at least 3 fast food 'healthy' restaurants.
I studied psychology. The human brain has a 'spiritual center' that can be activated by drugs/electrostim, literally have an out of body/peak experience at the flip of a switch or pop a pill. Sounds cool until you realize that the drugs that open this center are far too powerful for people to stay in control or even remotely stable with: LSD etc. The elecrostim/alternative means are still experimental. So, use the natural high. Whatever it is your religion is....sports, church, excercise, whatever. People created religion to address psychological/social needs, that such systems of thinking would act counter to our best interests is profoundly sad.
However, when I can get "god on demand" I'm totally signing up.
Wow at that video. Just fucking wow. Amazing propaganda but so full of bullshit I couldn't bear to watch the whole thing.
yeah had to turn the video off after 1 minute, awful
That video is nauseatingly untrue. Obama/MSM - a ticket for the ages.
And did anyone else notice who paid for that ad? "The Jewish Council for Education and Research". WTF is that?
It can't be Samuel L. Jackson in that video, because I saw him get zapped out of a window by Dick Cheney back in 2005.
WTF?! Romney better hires Hulk Hogan to tear that shitty video down...
5) David E. Weekly, while making some good points, speaks out against "smart investors" those who
Yet Andreessen Horowitz appears to be one of the most successful VCs out there, providing that kind of operational, marketing and back-office support in-house. I don't know if they take 40% on the first round or not, but they do get deeply involved in operations.Wow. Check out this bizarre campaign vid from the GOP:
http://www.youtube.com/embed/FEdKqbqCGnc
The politicians all suck, but at least they're getting more entertaining.
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