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The cycle

Random thought this morning mixing ideas from nonzero.org and creative destruction. Basically, if you look at corporate history (as learned in my wonderful core curriculum in b-school) job and job descriptions have become more specialized and somewhat restrictive. White collar jobs are the new wage worker. This trend is likely to continue as efficiencies are wrung out of the system through focusing people on particular roles. Though these roles are more rigorous and challenging, they are still, by necessity, designed to be focused on a certain task or objective.

But, like all things, there are exceptions to this trend, which ironically also drive the trend, and that is entrepreneurship. At a new firm, there is little to no specialization, and therefore little to no role specialization - everyone does everything it takes to get the product off the ground. And the analogy here is to a craftsman or member of a guild. But along with the wide berth of responsibility comes the opportunity for creativity and expression (just like a craftsman). The irony, as mentioned before, comes when the firm grows and requires specialization, organization, and hierarchy, to continue its growth and achieve efficiency gains necessary to stay competitive.

Of course, then a member of THAT firm might leave to start his/her own company, and the cycle begins anew.

What I miss

Play time.

I'm reading this book on Innovation and it stresses the necessity to have toys, things to play with, to let your creativity stretch. And it makes me realize how as we get older, even recreation seems like work. Like planning a party. Or a dinner. Or even basketball. That same joy once experienced feels diluted.

We're all here wanting to be the next great executive but will we love what we do (or who we are) if we get there?

It makes me realize why I like playing Mafia Wars - it simulates that feeling of building something (which ironically is an organization of destruction, but that's just a minor detail). I miss that feeling. We have minds and hands, and perhaps my former is tired and the latter is bored.

I may go buy a lego set. Or some sort of tool kit. Living in slides, pdfs, powerpoint, and excel is as two-dimensional as it sounds.

Conventional is boring. The mean is boring. I want to be an outlier.

Some thoughts

My issue with religion has always been the behavior it spawns. If you think about the universe (meaning EVERYTHING), you can divide it into two major categories between the subjective and the objective, or more simply, the idea and reality; genotype and phenotype; information and action. Everything resides in this duality. Too often in our history the idea (religion) often leads to a awful behavior (Crusades, Jihad, Inquisition, etc.).

But maybe this is not true. Maybe religion, whether Christianity or whatever you want to call it, leads to benign or even positive behavior. Most theists will obviously not start religious wars or engage in violent crime.

So really, it's the premise of belief I disagree with, but we could argue premises all day and get nowhere. Our action, our behavior - these things matter because our thoughts and motives can only be inferred, never completely deduced. The only concern I would have is how deep one's faith might be. Because unthinking faith, no matter how strong the cause, is a dangerous state, as people, no matter how noble or well-intentioned, will abuse that power. And then history repeats itself.

Books to borrow?

Anyone have the following books, are in NYC, and wouldn't mind letting me borrow one / several for a few weeks? I can lend Nonzero (Robert Wright), Man's Search for Meaning (Viktor Frankl), and Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules our Lives? I have more books but they're in Philly.

Classic

Security Analysis by Ben Graham and David Todd

Theory of Investment Value by John Burr Williams

Reminiscences of a Stock Operator by Edwin Lefevre (Strand)

Manias, Panics, and Crashes by Charles Kindelbeger

Value investing from graham to buffett and beyond by Bruce Greenwald (B&N $15)

Modern

The Little Book that Beats the Market by Joel Greenblatt (Strand, $15)

The Little Book of Value Investing by Chris Browne (Strand, $15)

Contrarian Investment Strategies by David Dreman

Speculative Contagion by Frank Martin

Psychological

Robot's Rebillion by Keith Stanovich

Strangers to Ourselves by Tim Wilson

How we know what isn't so by Tom Gilovich

Hidden gems

Halo Effect by Phil Rosenzweig (Strand, $8)

The inefficent Stock Market by Robert Haugen

The margin of safety by Seth Klarman

Your money and your brain by Jason Zweig

Better: A surgeon's notes on performance by Atul Gawande (Strand, $6)

Mindset by Carol Dweck

More Finance

Fooling some of the people, all of the time by David Einhorn (Strand, $15)

The Fundamental Index by Rob Arnott

The Investor's Dilemma by Louis Lowenstein

Financial Shenanigans by Howard Schilit (Strand, $18)

Creative Cash Flow Reporting by Charles Mulford and Eugence Comiskey

More Investing

Howard Marks' Memo to Oaktree clients

Distressed Investing by Marty Whitman and Fernando Diz

Think Twice by Michael Mauboussin (Oct availability)

More than you know by Michael Mauboussin (Strand, $14)

Best Townme pages so far

Golfing:

http://www.townme.com/philadelphia-pa/Golfing-in-philadelphia

Parks, bike paths:

http://www.townme.com/philadelphia-pa/The-great-philadelphia-outdoors

Dentists without an appointment:

http://www.townme.com/philadelphia-pa/Dentists-to-call-without-an-appointment

Budget living:

http://www.townme.com/philadelphia-pa/Budget-living

Girls' Night out:

http://www.townme.com/philadelphia-pa/Girls-night-out