"If you’re unsure you should lean slightly negative by default" ha. that's a good heuristic!
80 karma · joined October 10, 2013
from my .zshrc:
#block Twitter, Facebook, reddit and Linkedin. alias on="sudo mv /etc/hostx /etc/hosts" alias off="sudo mv /etc/hosts /etc/hostx"
Afaik, current versions of Chrome already implement the functionality of the great suspender natively.
Generating alpha is very, very hard; If you want to maximize your financial wealth it might be better to focus on earning more money (for example by acquiring in-demand skills), living frugally and be content with market-returns (which have been fantastic over the last 200 years).
What is true for most skills is true for investing: instead of reading about it, start doing it right from the start: Pick a company (maybe smallish <$250m market capitalization, so the complexity is less overwhelming) and learn as much about that firm, its competitors and the market it operates in as you possibly can. This process can take weeks of full-time work for a single firm.
At the end of the investment process you have one task and one task only: have an opinion on whether the company is selling for less than it is worth.
You don't actually have to commit capital, just start a watchlist (a couple of dry-runs will be a good learning experience!)
Be aware of the fact that investing requires a lot of discipline: thorough analysis is tough and time-consuming. Also, investing is contrarian by default: you don't outperform the market by doing what the market does (D'oh!), you have to think and act independently.
Investing can be an emotional roller-coaster (e.g. it is tough to admit that your judgement was wrong and cut your losses).
Investing is more art than science, uncertainty about the future and facts you cannot know are lurking everywhere, you'll have to develop your own principles (and refine them over the years) to become successful. I recommend creating a checklist that reflect your principles and sticking to that list religiously.
Fundamental analysis crucially relies on understanding the three parts of financial reporting: the profit & loss-statement, the cash-flow statement and the balance sheet. Studying those from one of the numerous free online resources should serve you well.
In conclusion: investing is a intellectually rewarding endeavor (and I wouldn't want to miss it) but, and that is true by definition, almost no one can reliably generate alpha. So spend your time, effort and (!) money wisely.
I think it is a great way to stay up-to date on what happens in startup-land and in open source, the granularity with which you can follow people still fascinates me. Seeing that 95% of what active human accounts post is pretty useless, I don't see justification of a $20bn+ market cap, especially without growth.
PS: They've recently cranked up ads, next earnings report could surprise ...
There are many opportunities outside of prison guard unions for innovation regarding the overall institution/process of incarceration in America.
Domain expertise will only be built by tackling a problem in that domain. How could one possibly decide against pursuing a topic without trying it at all?
Tough, seemingly entrenched markets often prove to be the most interesting: SpaceX, Uber etc
do you think you'll be able to use your specific insight into the prison system as a basis for your idea? I bet there are many problems waiting to be solved.
Prisons are big money, especially in the US.
Greetings and all the best for your journey to YC