The good folks over at First Round Capital, an early stage venture capital firm, have put together another fantastic holiday video this year, a parody of Rebecca Black’s Friday. Enjoy!
Category Archives: Miscellaneous Musings
Good Work
A colleague recently forwarded these words to me, which are written in the Tao Te Ching and attributed to Lao Tzu:
Fill your cup to the brim
And it will spill.Keep sharpening the knife
And will become blunt.Chase after money and security
And your heart will never unclench.Seek the approval of others
And you will become their prisoner.Do your work, and then step back.
That is the only way to serenity.
Silly Awards
Despite his iconic status, Woody Allen generally avoids the Academy Awards:
The whole concept of awards is silly. I cannot abide by the judgment of other people, because if you accept it when they say you deserve an award, then you have to accept it when they say you don’t.
Advice worth remembering.
Congressional Committee Sizes
In today’s New York Times, Tom Friedman writes:
Our Congress today is a forum for legalized bribery. One consumer group using information from Opensecrets.org calculates that the financial services industry, including real estate, spent $2.3 billion on federal campaign contributions from 1990 to 2010, which was more than the health care, energy, defense, agriculture and transportation industries combined. Why are there 61 members on the House Committee on Financial Services? So many congressmen want to be in a position to sell votes to Wall Street.
What an interesting proposition: The size of a Congressional committee will be directly related to the availability of campaign contributions and lobbyists. Growing (shrinking) committees are related to increased (decreased) campaign contributions and lobbyists.
This same logic suggests that: The total number of committees and committee memberships will likewise be directly related to the availability of outside funding. As total spending on contributions and lobbyists goes up (down) the number of committees and committee memberships with increase (decrease).
To follow the money, simply follow the ebb and flow of Congressional committees over time. Taken together the propositions above suggest that Congress functions like a market, and not a ballot box.
Numbering the Discontent
The graphic accompanying a recent New York Times article seems to capture in numbers the sentiments so many have been trying to express lately. Among 31 OECD countries ranked on social justice, the United States is among the bottom 5 overall (just ahead of Greece, Chile, Mexico and Turkey), and in the bottom 5 or 10 countries on 7 out of the 8 indicators ranked. For those of us who were (a) once children, (b) enjoy remaining healthy, or (c) hope to grow old someday, the news is a sobering reality check.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/29/opinion/blow-americas-exploding-pipe-dream.html
Washington Initiative 1183
I find the stark differences between the distribution and retailing of alcohol on the one hand, and almost any other consumer product on the other hand, to offer a fascinating commentary about US society. No doubt the contemporary wine and spirits industry remains a potentially interesting, if unwritten, chapter in the history of the Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism.
In a previous post, I discussed the bizarre shipping prohibitions that still encumber many wine buyers. Today, my attention was drawn to a Wall Street Journal article on a ballot initiative in Washington state aimed at replacing “hundreds of state-run liquor stores with private retail outlets” while also allowing “retailers to buy liquor directly from distillers and negotiate volume discounts.”
To add to the intrigue, rather than an instance of grassroots mobilization, the initiative is being sponsored primarily by corporate interests. Costco has funded almost the entire “Yes” effort, while the Wine and Spirits Wholesalers of America have funded almost the entire “No” effort. The State is involved too, seeing privatization as a chance to generate more revenue. As a result, “[i]t isn’t clear whether a consumer buying a bottle of whiskey would see prices go down.”

In other words, no matter who wins the initiative, consumers may not come out ahead, even though their “interests” are allegedly at the heart of the matter. Instead, what appears to be at stake is simply how the liquor pie gets divided. Costco and Washington state want a bigger piece, while the existing wholesalers and retailers are reluctant to give up what they have had since the end of prohibition. How’s that for reform?
Occupy Wallstreet
Today, I stumbled upon the “Occupy George” effort, which uses $1 bills to convey a series of facts about income and wealth disparities in America now and over time. Worth a visit.

Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/68482153@N07/6239420112/
Charting the Debt
The New York Times has a nice set of infographics charting the history of the U.S. debt crisis. Of the $14.3 trillion debt, all but $1 trillion has been accumulated during the Reagan, G. H. W. Bush, Clinton, G. W. Bush and Obama presidencies. Democratic presidents were in office during $3.8 trillion of deficit accumulation, compared to $9.5 trillion of deficit accumulation during republican presidencies.
Persons, But Not Personal
In the Citizens United case, the Supreme Court ruled upheld the view that corporations are persons.
In its AT&T ruling, it declared unanimously that corporations have no personal privacy rights for purposes of the Freedom of Information Act.
Writing for the court, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., seems not to have noticed the deep antagonism between these two positions.
In short, corporations are persons, but they cannot take things personally. But then, what kind of person does that make them?
Mapping Diabetes
Fast Company reprised a Slate story on the growing diabetes epidemic. The animated infographics suggest a potentially controversial question: Is diabetes something you can “catch”?

2008 Map of Diabetes Incidence Rates by County