mitchelldeacon9

This is a great article. For more background on this growing industry, I recommend a recent academic study on the use of surveillance technology at the Los Angeles Police Department. The book documents the LAPD's use of data brokerage firms that collect and aggregate info from public records and private sources (e.g., Palantir), as well as automatic license plate readers (ALPR’s) which record vehicles are they move around the city, and Suspicious Activity Reports from police and civilians, which include reports of mundane activities such as using binoculars, drawing diagrams, or taking pictures or "video footage with no apparent aesthetic value." All this data ultimately gets parked in Fusion Center facilities built after 9/11 where federal, state and local law enforcement agencies collaborate to collect, aggregate, analyze and share information. As the author observes, "The use of data in law enforcement is not new for almost a century, police have been gathering data, e.g., records of citations, collisions, warrants, incarcerations, sex offender and gang registries, etc. What is new and important about the current age of big data is the role in public policing of private capitalist firms who provide database systems with huge volumes of information about people, not just those in the criminal justice system."

Sarah Brayne (2020) "Predict and Surveil: Data, Discretion, and the Future of Policing," Oxford University Press

https://www.amazon.com/Predict-Surveil-Discretion-Future-Pol...

For a contrarian argument, it is worth considering the advice of Michael Porter in his seminal study "Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors" (published in 1980):

> Some argue that firms should not choose competitive positions at all but concentrate on staying flexible, incorporating new ideas, or building up critical resources or core competencies that are portrayed as independent of competitive position. I respectfully disagree. Staying flexible in strategic terms renders competitive advantage almost unobtainable. Jumping from strategy to strategy makes it impossible to be good at implementing any of them. Continuous incorporation of new ideas is important to maintaining operational effectiveness, but this surely is not inconsistent with having a firm strategic position (xv-xvi)... A strategic position is a path, not a fixed location (xiv).

In other words, there is no such animal as a "fully diversified" entrepreneurial business (unless your business is simply investing money in a diversified stock portfolio). The very concept of a (non-financial) capitalist enterprise implies some degree of specialization. Even YC, to some extent, specializes and focuses their investments in certain high-tech industries.

Here are some classics in cognitive psychology with direct quotes that illustrate some of the main themes:

Richard Rhodes (1986) Making of the Atomic Bomb

"In scientific work, creative thinking demands seeing things not seen previously, or in ways not previously imagined; and this necessitates jumping off from 'normal' positions, and taking risks by departing from reality. The difference between the thinking of the paranoid patient and the scientist comes from the latter's ability and willingness to test out his fantasies or grandiose conceptualizations through the systems of checks and balances science has established – and to give up those schemes that are shown not to be valid on the basis of these scientific checks. It is specifically because science provides such a framework of rules and regulations to control and set bounds to paranoid thinking that a scientist can feel comfortable about taking the paranoid leaps. Without this structuring, the threat of such unrealistic, illogical, and even bizarre thinking to overall thought and personality organization in general would be too great to permit the scientist the freedom of such fantasying." (p. 151)

Daniel Kahneman (2011) Thinking, Fast and Slow

"In the current view of how associative memory works, a great deal happens at once. An idea that has been activated does not merely evoke one other idea. It activates many ideas, which in turn activate others. Furthermore, only a few of the activated ideas will register in consciousness; most of the work of associative thinking is silent, hidden from our conscious selves. The notion that we have limited access to the workings of our minds is difficult to accept because, naturally, it is alien to our experience, but it is true: you know far less about yourself than you feel you do." (p. 52)

Thomas Kuhn (1962) Structure of Scientific Revolutions

"One suspects that something like a paradigm is prerequisite to perception itself. What a man sees depends both upon what he looks at and also upon what his previous visual-conceptual experience has taught him to see. In the absence of such training there can only be... a 'bloomin’ buzzin’ confusion'" (p. 113)

7. Primary use-value of crypto is to facilitate payments for ramsomware and other illegal activity.

When I studied economics in college, statistics was taught as a math course with virtually no straightforward explanation of the main concepts. Later as a graduate student in sociology, I helped teach statistics to undergraduates using an introductory textbook that featured an intuitive and conceptual presentation of statistics, and for the first time I really grasped the main ideas. By then it was no longer necessary to manually perform the advanced mathematical operations for statistical analysis, because the students were encouraged to use SPSS and other software tools. If you are looking for an outstanding introduction to statistics, I highly recommend the following textbook:

Healey, Joseph (2014) Statistics: A Tool for Social Research, 10th Edition

For those seeking a good conceptual knowledge of statistics based on real-world examples, including criticism of the limitations of statistical analysis, I would suggest these excellent studies:

Lewis, Michael (2010) The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine

Paulos, John Allen (1988) Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences

Silver, Nate (2012) The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail, but Some Don't

Taleb, Nassim Nicholas (2005/10) Fooled by Randomness, 2E; Black Swan: Impact of the Highly Improbable, 2E

There is an interesting documentary film, "City 40" (2016), about the people who live in Ozersk, the town near the location of the Kyshtym disaster. The documentary features archival and hidden camera footage (because the area is heavily guarded and mostly closed to foreign journalists), as well as interviews with a number of local residents, including Nadezhda Kutepova.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_40_(film)

> Christofi, also a novelist, describes "Dostoevsky in Love" as less a biography than a “reconstructed memoir”. His method, he explains, has been to “cheerfully commit the academic fallacy” of eliding Dostoevsky’s “autobiographical fiction with his fantastical life.”

Although I have not read Christofi's book, I am willing to admit that this could be a potentially fruitful method of interpreting the writer and his work. But for those interested in authentic history, I would recommend Joseph Frank's magnificent study "Dostoevsky: A Writer in His Time" (2010), a fascinating yet critical biography that examines Dostoevsky's life, letters and philosophy.

> the Andantino of D959 is on a different plane of alienation. It is all the more aberrant in a work which is generally so warm-hearted and affirmatory... “desolate grace behind which madness lies.”

Schubert's Sonata D959 Andantino was also featured in a remarkable film, "La Pianiste" (2001), which explores many of the same themes described in the article:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Piano_Teacher_(film)

Attention value investors: recall Warren Buffett's aphorism that "A great investment opportunity occurs when a marvelous business encounters a one-time huge, but solvable, problem" (quoted from Benjamin Graham and David Dodd, Security Analysis). Considering the current economic environment, with a massive stock-market bubble and historically low interest rates, as well as the obvious demand for network security products and services, Solar Winds could be an excellent investment prospect - that is, once the shares get beaten down and the scandal begins to fade.

According to a recent book, the United States sells more weapons to Mexico than any other country in the world.

Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera (2017) "Los Zetas Inc: Criminal Corporations, Energy, and Civil War in Mexico", p. 228.

https://www.amazon.com/Los-Zetas-Inc-Criminal-Corporations/d...

Based on my experience as an IT worker, this article examines an essential problem of employee management: "The way the organization is managed will determine in large measure whether there will be traitors in it." Dr. Ilan Diamant argues that organizations depend on trust and good faith: "Relations in which we feel that we are being used, in which there is no mutuality, are dangerous. When hitches like that arise they need to be corrected immediately, not at the level of the employee but at the level of the system."

According to the book "Poison Spring: Secret History of Pollution and EPA," GMOs are primarily developed in order to genetically engineer crops that are able to withstand chemical herbicides and pesticides: "Glyphosate is a powerful driver of genetic engineering. Its creator, Monsanto, has bioengineered 'Roundup Ready' soybeans, corn and other crops to resist Roundup's killing power" (p. 205)... "All genetically modified crops harm the natural world and human health, in large part because they (by definition) invite and encourage the spraying of toxic pesticides" (p. 212). Quoted from E.G. Vallianatos (2014) Poison Spring: Secret History of Pollution and EPA https://www.amazon.com/Poison-Spring-Secret-History-Pollutio...

In addition to the classics of cognitive psychology (Kahneman, Taleb, et al.), I would also recommend books on psychological manipulation, religious cults, and con men. The following books offer a multi-disciplinary perspective on psychological techniques to improve awareness and exploit other people, both of which are essential to enhance your perception and protect yourself against fraud and manipulation.

Cialdini, Robert (2006) Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

Guinn, Jeff (2017) Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple

Ekman, Paul (2007) Emotions Revealed: Recognizing Faces and Feelings to Improve Communication and Emotional Life

Kahneman, Daniel (2011) Thinking, Fast and Slow

Mitnick, Kevin and William Simon (2002) Art of Deception

Navarro and Karlins (2008) What Every Body is Saying: Ex-FBI Agent's Guide to Speed-Reading People

Nietzsche, Friedrich (1887) On the Genealogy of Morals

Rhodes, Richard (1986) Making of the Atomic Bomb

Sun Tzu (c. 400 BCE) Art of War

Taleb, Nassim Nicholas (2005) Fooled by Randomness

Wright, Lawrence (2013) Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood and the Prison of Belief

Many contributors to this thread justifiably recommend this book, which is an excellent introduction to finance:

Graham, Benjamin and Jason Zweig (2006) The Intelligent Investor, revised ed.

I would also suggest the following books, which offer more in-depth analysis of financial markets and securities:

Henwood, Doug (1997) Wall Street: How It Works and for Whom

Lynch, Peter and John Rothchild (2000) One Up on Wall Street, 2nd ed.

Mishkin, Frederic (2018) Economics of Money, Banking and Financial Markets, 12th ed.

The following is a list of my favorite books on software engineering, cyber-security, and the history of IT business development.

Bowden, Mark (2011) Worm: The First Digital World War

Brooks, Frederick (1995) Mythical Man-Month, 2nd ed.

Christensen, Clayton (1997) Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail

Hafner, Katie and Matthew Lyon (1996) Where Wizards Stay Up Late: Origins of the Internet

Hunt, Andrew and David Thomas (1999) Pragmatic Programmer

MacCormick, John (2012) Nine Algorithms that Changed the Future

McConnell, Steve (2004) Code Complete, 2nd ed.

Mitnick, Kevin and William Simon (2002) Art of Deception

Poulsen, Kevin (2011) Kingpin: How One Hacker Took Over the Billion-Dollar Cyber-Crime Underworld

Raymond, Eric (2003) Art of Unix Programming

Stone, Brad (2013) The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon

Torvalds, Linus and David Diamond (2001) Just for Fun: Story of an Accidental Revolutionary

Wallace, James and Jim Erickson (1992) Hard Drive: Bill Gates and Making of the Microsoft Empire

Williams, Sam (2002) Free as in Freedom: Richard Stallman's Crusade for Free Software

Wilson, Mike (1996) The Difference between God and Larry Ellison: Inside Oracle Corp

I studied economics in college, then I worked for a few years as a business journalist before I finally switched careers to IT systems engineering. The following is a list of my favorite books on financial securities, banking and investment theory. These books are generally comprehensible to anyone with an interest in the subject, regardless of their educational background.

Arrighi, Giovanni (1994) The Long Twentieth Century: Money, Power and the Origins of Our Times

Brealey, Myers, Allen (2011) Principles of Corporate Finance, 10th ed.

Bruck, Connie (1988) Predators' Ball: Inside Story of Drexel Burnham and Rise of Junk Bond Raiders

Fisher, Philip (2003) Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits and Other Writings, 2nd ed.

Fridson, Martin and Fernando Alvarez (2002) Financial Statement Analysis, 3rd ed.

Graham, Benjamin, J. Zweig, D. Dodd (2006/08) Intelligent Investor, rev ed; Security Analysis, 6th ed.

Greenblatt, Joel (1999) You Can Be a Stock Market Genius

Greenwald, Kahn, Sonkin, Biema (2001) Value Investing: From Graham to Buffett and Beyond

Henwood, Doug (1997) Wall Street: How It Works and for Whom

Levitt, Arthur (2003) Take on the Street: How to Fight for Your Financial Future

Lewis, Michael (2010/1989) Big Short; Liar's Poker

Lynch, Peter and John Rothchild (2000) One Up on Wall Street, 2nd ed.

Mishkin, Frederic (2004) Economics of Money, Banking and Financial Markets, 7th ed.

Taleb, Nassim Nicholas (2005/10) Fooled by Randomness, 2nd ed.; Black Swan: Impact of the Highly Improbable, 2nd ed.

Vilar, Pierre (1976) A History of Gold and Money: 1450-1920

Tracy, John A. (2009) How to Read a Financial Report: Wringing Vital Signs out of the Numbers, 7th ed.