2021
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Defense Against the DARQ Arts, Optimization: Part 3 – My Optimization Odyssey, the Mormon Trail
My Optimization Odyssey continued in Utah, but not without a temptation to go back to Cali. In many ways, I was doing a reverse trek. You see, Wallace Stegner, the legendary founder of the creative…
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Defense Against the DARQ Arts, Optimization: Part 3 – My Optimization Odyssey, the Oregon Trail
Now, that we’ve had a little introduction to linear programming, I think the most useful thing to do before proceeding into more complex areas is to give you a walk-through of my own experiences with…
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Defense Against the DARQ Arts, Optimization: Part 2
Among my friends and associates, we have a varied group of heroes we follow, so much so that confusion sometimes occurs. For example, a while back I mentioned to my colleague Hal Tolley, “I…
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Dan Bricklin is a Loser and Other Things Bankers Say
Some months ago, I had an investment banker tell me that “Dan Bricklin is a loser!” He told me that he had met Bricklin at a Vermont ski resort and that Bricklin was a loser because, while he was…
2020
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The Silver Age, Part 3 – Columbia, Value Investing, and Computer Science
As it turns out, the whole investment problem basically turns on valuation. Imagine that, in order to invest we need to figure out value? Again, just like with Cowles and Colorado, the Great…
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The Silver Age, Part 2 – Berkeley, Churchman’s men, and Bionic Betas
So it’s April Fool’s day, so I’d like to start this entry with a question, “What do a peace-loving philosopher, a Nazi-trained engineer, and a Buddhist Monk have in common?” The answer is that they…
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The Silver Age, Part 1 – Cowles, Colorado and the Mining for Alpha
It makes sense starting the discussion of the Silver Age with a few words about Colorado, where it all began. No, I don’t mean the Comstock Lode of Louis L’Amournovels my dad used to read, but rather…
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The First Data Wars
I had an interesting conversation today with the head of the C. Kem Gardner Institute, which is a group here in Utah that has some of the best state macroeconomic statistics of any state in the…