On the Jefferson Reading Seminar

One of my favorites here at Darden for several reasons. Some of books that we read -

1. Jefferson and his time – Jefferson the Virginian

2. Jefferson and his time – The Sage of Monticello

The above books are part of a 6 volume biography by Dumas Malone. They are the word on Jefferson – One downside, they are long and every page is quite dense.

3. John Adams – Biography by David McCullough.

- Phenomenal book

4. Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West by Stephen Ambrose

- A Beauty, fascinating details

5. The Founding Brothers by Joseph Ellis

- I liked all the books we read but this one takes the title. A fabulous book which through its series of anecdotes portrays the character of Washington, Adams, Hamilton, Burr, Jefferson, and Hamilton among others. Probably the most unbiased account (if there can be one).

Ventures..

This summer I am in Chantilly, VA. Northern Virginia, DC suburbs as they say. I am at a Venture Capital firm that looks at companies in the software sector. Quite interesting work and challenging. Although quite a lonely place.

My introduction to the Venture Capital industry was through the company I helped get started (www.indiaretailnews.com). That was the first half of last year. I wish I had done more on that.

I had dabbled with several things in the past – tried to help an open source project, an online fantasy sports platform among other things. Those two were driven by pretty motivated and capable guys and I never felt I was a part of it to the extent that I would go out of my way to get things better. Truth was that I never really bought into the vision. And unless that happens, it is hard to put things aside and gun. I still did reasonable amount of work on both for free but I never felt that I achieved anything. The venture last year was much more promising. Unlike others, I felt like a part of this endeavor. It went far. Mainly because the other founders strongly believe in the vision to the extent that they left things behind to pursue this. I am sure they will succeed.

I am still looking for the elusive idea that will drive me to work those nights and those times that I surf aimlessly to put something together that I am proud of. And that is a tall order.

Coffee cup size mystery

The coffee cup size has always been a mystery to me. Laziness has prevented me to look into this matter till yesterday. I bought a brand new coffee maker, a Capresso 455, among the big daddies of coffee makers. It is pretty darn good I must say and saves a lot of money as well since I drink “10″ cups a day, even though it set me back by a cool $325 including taxes. So far, I highly recommend it. Coffee is one of the few things where I can distinguish between the grades ( 1-5, whole numbers).

Coming back to the size of the coffee cup again. A cup that you will find in the kitchen would be about 8oz. Anything less would be considered puny. It defies logic that coffee makers continue to fool the audience by marking 2-10 cup coffee machines when their coffee cup sizes are closer to 5 oz. I established the above by doing a scientific experiment last night (I used a sample of 2 high end coffee makers to derive this conclusion, but some googling confirmed this hypothesis). The only reason I can see them do this is to drum up the size, since in this land of hummers and ford expedition hybrids which give you 17 mpg, size does matter.  

Is warranty an innovation?

Not for the engineers. I saw the new Chrysler commercial recently which talks about how Chrysler was the first company to some of the biggest engineering feats (first wind tunnel, power steering, muscle car(?)). The commercial ends with a note that from the company of firsts, now comes the first limited lifetime powertrain warranty.. Now, how sad is that? These companies have to be really screwed up to not understand the markets and its needs.

From my experience big companies take a long time to react and some can never adapt due to the levels of management entrenched in them. This is not about a lack of talent but a lack of direction and vision at the any given hierarchical level, of which there are many.

I don’t want to proffer advice to fix Detroit but one thing is for sure, doorknob polishing won’t do it.

CFA prep course

I finally signed up for the CFA preparation course with the NYSSA to get some routine into my preparation. Macroeconomics was fun and I ran through the material but subsequently the material has gone drier and things have been very busy with applications and the new job.

Hope the course pays off. It cost me $1071 as I had the material from Schweser already.

I also bought some of the recommended text for CFA mainly from amazon marketplace (cheap). Here is a list -

Fixed Income Analysis (for CFA program) – Frank Fabozzi

Quantitative Methods for Investment Analysis (DeFusco et. al.)

Mukul recommended this book -

Investment Analysis and Portfolio Management (Reilly/Brown)

Queens tow pound

My parking luck ran out yesterday. This is NY and I had outlived the average time between parking tickets. I parked in a spot where there is no standing 4-7pm at around 3:30pm. Did not notice the sign but I DID feed the meter! Come back at 4:12 and the car is gone. Took 15 mins to locate the car (311, connected to 911, no luck -> Google 411, which does not understand my accent -> 411 -> Manhattan tow pound -> voicemail -> 411 -> Brooklyn tow pound -> Queens tow pound). No biggie since I located it. Getting there was a pain as no cab driver comes to Jackson heights to pick a passenger. They come to eat. Finally, we get one and get there.

The Queens tow pound is a masterpiece. It is under the Kosciusko bridge (I cannot still pronounce the damn thing) in front of a cemetery. The bridge is a heavily used. It is high and very old. It was a rainy day and rain was coming down steady. It is one of those scenes which you get either in an indie move when the actor is going through the roughest time of his life or in some horror action movie like seven or silence of the lambs. So we get there and are greeted by a ‘rookie’ guard. He clearly did not fit into this place. Too cheerful and too eager to help. I would like to see him in 5 years if he is still there. The others had clearly put in their time and given up. You go into this shack where you line up behind a clearly marked line facing a tiny window. I line up and wait for my turn. When I come up, I ask the rough looking dude behind the counter if my car was there (I knew it was but to reassure myself) and he says ‘she sure is.. and enjoying every moment of it’. He hands me a slip to take to the guard outside. We are asked to wait for a shuttle that will take us to the car, from which I will get the papers. So, we wait. After 5 mins, the shuttle arrives. A big guy is driving this and is in hurry whatsoever. He drives around the relatively small area (definitely not requiring a shuttle) and stops and watches me intently as I get out and get the things from my car. Imagine the life of this guy driving around in a 200 yard circuit all day in this forsaken place. So, back to the window again. This time a guy transgressed the line and was tailgating another guy at the window. The rough dude blew off. Took some time to settle down and then I paid the $185.00 fees and got another slip to get the car. Back to waiting for shuttle and the slow ride to the car and finally out of the pound. I also got a $115.00 ticket for parking in a no-standing zone. All for a $7.00 meal of a goat curry and 2 nans at kabab king diner.

I was with Kiran and we both kept wondering about the three characters, the rookie, the driver, and the fine collector. If I had a bad day, these guys are having these days everyday under a old rusty bridge in Maspeth, NY in front of the laurel hill cemetery. Do they think about things in perspective? But perspective of what?

Phyllis Diller and Object Oriented Programming

Now, this seems a little far-fetched. Phyllis Diller is 90 and a comedienne. She was on ‘Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me‘ on the ‘Not My Job’ section of the show. She does not sound like she is 90 though. She was asked why she always referred to her husband as ‘fang’ in her acts and explained that in her real life she had more than one husband but ‘fang’ was the stage persona representing them all. That way she changed husbands she did not have to change her acts. Now, that is something!

I definitely want to read her autobiography sometime.. ‘Like a Lampshade in a Whorehouse‘

CFA Study

I started this study and realize that it is a big order. On this blog, I will keep track of my study material, notes, and stuff. CFA covers the following broad areas in level 1 -

1. Ethics

2. Economics

3. Quantitative finance concepts

4. Accounting and Corporate Finance

5. Portfolio Management

6. Asset Valuation

Accounting is probably the only area I know well. Maybe Economics. The rest need to be mastered over the course of 16 weeks. It will be done!

Of special concern is the area of investments (fixed income, alternates) which I have no idea of. It will be a learning experience if not anything else.

CFA

I finally signed up for the CFA yesterday and bought the necessary materials. Advice from friends who have taken this before suggests that the books from Schweser should be good enough for the completing level 1 which covers material for almost the entire MBA courses in finance. It seems like a tall order but I think it should be do-able! Lets see.

Some links -

CFA – http://www.cfainstitute.org/

Schweser – http://www.schweser.com/

From my research so far, it seems these Schweser guys have a stranglehold on the market. They are part of Kaplan.

Why MBA?

One of the questions that every student that wants to get into business school has to answer is the reason why he wants to get that degree. It is not too much to ask especially since it is in the candidates best interest to understand whether his investment of time and money makes sense (after all this is business school). It is said that this reasoning should be logical, the candidate is not held to their word about pursuing the goals that they outlined in their application. If logical reasoning and eloquent writing were the only things being judged, there are better ways of doing this. I agree with the idea that a lot of thought needs to go through for me to take that step, and it is in my own interests that I think through all those aspects before I step in. Why is there an enforcer that makes sure I have done that? Once someone steps into the school, the reputation of the school carries them into the places they want to go and do their job (given the objective criteria most schools look at with regard to academics and test scores). Doing the job is not enough, you should have the potential for the top job. And the process is all about picking those from the pile, and the enforcer makes sure that they pick the one with the highest chance to make the upper echelon. You could already be in the upper echelon, or have the utmost desire and competence to get there.

One thing that is looked down upon is the use of admission consultants. I wonder why. They don’t write your essays, they help you organize your thoughts and write them. So, it makes a good economic decision, if anything if you think it will help. This is like staging a house before selling it. One of the downsides to that, and I am not sure if that is what is being discouraged, is that if someone needs help dressing up and presenting himself, they will need that even more later on when they have to present themselves and the organization that they represent. That would be a tragedy. There is something to be said about being self-made. Anyway, this practice continues and I know a lot of people who spend the money and get in. How many will eventually become successful, who knows. Besides, success could mean different things to different people.