A repost from 2008.
I made a serious career track mistake.
Years ago a counselor pointed out that I seemed to have an affinity for animals (It's true. Kids and dogs like me. So do drunks and and folks suffering from various psychopathologies).
Had I followed up on her thinking I would now be tenured, trading outside my species and living the grant-proposal dream.
From RISK Over the Counter:
In a radical overturning of conventional wisdom, scientists in Georgia and California have found significant differences between commodity traders and chimpanzees. Chimps are, in fact, not very good at commodity trading:
the researchers found that chimpanzees often did not spontaneously barter food items, but needed to be trained to engage in commodity barter. Moreover, even after the chimpanzees had been trained to do barters with reliable human trading partners, they were reluctant to engage in extreme deals in which a very good commodity (apple slices) had to be sacrificed in order to get an even more preferred commodity (grapes)...The report becomes particularly readable when it speculates on the reasons why:
because of their lack of property ownership norms...See also:
...or, for that matter, pockets.... ...chimpanzees in nature do not store property and thus would have little opportunity to trade commodities....MORE
Jim Cramer beats Monkey in Stock Picking Contest!
(for one week only, the monkey is ahead on performance: see below)Regarding the importance of
"...You know what – I don’t work for Murdoch”
Cramer; Aug. 20 show. Then he said let Cramer be Cramer or something, I wasn't paying attention, I was reading Warren Buffett's story about arbitraging cocoa beans against an equity....
To Create A "1%" In A Social Hierarchy You Don't Need An Economic Surplus, Just A Storable Form Of Wealth
