Relevant History

From My Life as a Quant

Whenever I have a new problem to work on-- in physics or options theory-- the first major struggle is to gain some intuition about how to proceed; the second struggle is to transform this intuition into something more formulaic, a set of rules anyone can follow, rules that no longer require the original insight itself. In this way, one person's breakthrough becomes everybody's possession. (Emanuel Derman, My Life as a Quant: Reflections on Physics and Finance, p. 48)

[To the tune of Grateful Dead, "The Mighty Quinn," from the album "1991-04-05 - The Omni".]

Technorati Tags: physics

On NPR

Cyrus Farivar quotes me at the end of his latest NPR Morning Edition piece, "High-Tech Pen Makes Note-Taking Easier."

In my sound bite, I reveal that I like paper because it's harder for me to break paper than the screen on my Nokia N95.

I played the piece for my kids this morning before I took them to school. At the end of it, my son came up to me and said, "You know, Dad, you really do drop your stuff a lot." Gee, thanks kid.

[To the tune of Handsome Boy Modeling School, "The Projects (PJays)," from the album "So...How's Your Girl?".]

Technorati Tags: end of cyberspace, media

Something always disappoints

"Wait... I only feel 10% taller."

[To the tune of Train, "Drops of Jupiter," from the album "Drops of Jupiter".]

Technorati Tags: humor

Quote of the day

[F]or all its horrors, the Cold War was a system of international security. The world was dominated by the United States and the Soviet Union, and the countries in between often subordinated their own interests to accommodate—in the West by choice, in the East by force—the interests of their superpower protector. When the USSR evaporated, we didn't step into the vacuum; the vacuum expanded. Old allies realized they could go their own ways and pursue their own interests with less regard for what Washington thought. Other powers—China especially—moved up in the world, offering alternative alignments. (Fred Kaplan, "How to Heal U.S. Diplomacy")

[To the tune of The Beatles, "Ticket To Ride," from the album "Anthology 2 (Disc 1)".]

Quote of the day

A Taoist master was asked about the validity of the I-ching as a means for divination. He said, 100% accurate. Then he was asked, well is there ever any chance that the divination will be misinterpreted? Also 100%.

[via Stanford Siver]

[To the tune of Passion Sources, "Sabahiya," from the album "Passion: Sources".]

Quote of the day

[P]recedent is relevant only in an institution that lacks confidence in its present and future ability to reach conclusions on a rational basis. (John Kay, "The Management of the University of Oxford.... Facing the Future")

[To the tune of Lynyrd Skynyrd, "Tuesday's Gone," from the album "The Essential Lynyrd Skynyrd".]

Technorati Tags: academia, Oxford University

Quote of the day: on academic promotion

From Structured Procrastination:

[Upon] promotion to Full Professor... the golden era begins.... The various committees that agreed to tenure and promotion, probably grudgingly, have ceased to remember the details. People just know you are a Full Professor and have been for a while. By this time, with a little luck, your hair is grey and you look distinguished or at least old. At this point, everyone assumes that you must have done something quite important, although they can't quite remember what. Once you realize that you will never again have your work crawled over by various committees charged with evaluating your basic worth as a human being, it becomes more fun. Bliss.

The trick, then, is to get a job based on work you haven't done, and stick around until the details of what you did are forgotten. That's when the true rewards of academia set in.

[To the tune of Elton John, "Bennie and the Jets," from the album "Greatest Hits".]

Technorati Tags: academia, humor, postacademic