Is investing like gambling? Should you get into investing right now? Watch this video for a clear explanation about where the market is right now and what ordinary investors should do.

2020s, Business, Economy, Finance, Thought Provoking

So many interviews on financial television is full of bullshit, meaningless nothingness or jargon filled inability to communicate anything useful.

Just came across this interview with Howard Marks on Bloomberg and it was amazing to hear answers that was clear and direct to the questions that were asked.

Is it a good time to get into the market? Risk is higher now because the market has been on a bull run for a long time.

Is investing like gambling? Investing relies on four factors. Information, luck, timing and skill.

What if you don’t have skill or information? In the past, mutual funds were paid over 1% in fees. However, they have shown that generally they don’t beat the market. So invest in index funds aka ETFs.

Watch the video here.

Some things take time to get used to but always try something new constantly

2020s

A year ago, I got myself a midi keyboard. I was always a huge electronic music fan and had always wanted to try some things out in that space. I came across it as I was searching for a Christmas present for one of my goddaughters. After I had gotten it and given it to her, I wanted one for myself.

Then came the process of experimenting, watching loads of YouTube videos and of course, taking long breaks. With me, it’s an iterative long process learning something new and going through peaks and troughs of enthusiasm.
But now I’ve made a breakthrough in terms of learning music theory and chords and scales. It’s the combination of watching the deconstruction videos on YouTube and using Beatmaker on the iPad and then iterating back to the Arturia Minilab. There isn’t anything that is any good so far but now I can see possibilities instead of searching around in the dark.
So my humble advice is to play around and enjoy the peaks and take breaks in the troughs of enthusiasm for learning something new. It’s the journey that is fun.

Here is the link
https://amzn.to/37XP5OV

Margin Call – still a hell of a film

2020s

Binging a lot of Amazon Prime video stuff before my membership expires in a few days. Didn’t realize how many great shows are on there.Bridget & Eamonn (really funny if you know 1980s Ireland)
Faking it (early 2000s reality show, photographers still using film)
And then there is Margin Call, fantastic cast, great script, intelligent filmmaking. I would love to watch more films like that to show the world of business in a way that the public can understand. Like the way Jeremy Irons character tells Zachary Quinto to explain the financial problem as if he were telling it to a small child or dog. Another aspect was that the main actor from the Netflix show You plays a junior analyst in the film.
One other show I rewatched was Anthony Bordain’s No Reservations show about his visit to Helsinki in winter. I’m not such a big foodie but that episode is still really enjoyable to this day.
Okay, I need to stop watching so much great shows and films but that’s my recommendations for today.

Not like winter in Helsinki

2020s, Finland, Helsinki, Photography, Thought Provoking, Travel

The weather has been far too mild in Helsinki so far this year. Only a few days of snow earlier in the season. Nothing like the problems in Australia of course. Taking a walk in the centre during the weekend, even the market stalls don’t seem to fit the atmosphere.

Enjoying the James May travel series in Japan on Amazon Prime. Recommended!

2020s, Thought Provoking, Travel, TV

Japan is a fascinating place and I have loved visiting there. I would have loved to have lived there for a while but alas, it wasn’t possible. I’m thinking of going back there again this year. I just saw that James May of Top Gear fame has done a travel documentary on Amazon Video. I’m halfway through it and have really enjoyed it.

Loved the bits in Tokyo and Sendai so far.

I should start looking for flights soon…

Dear @youtube, please provide an option to remove the pause overlay.

2020s, Music, Video, Web

I’m a huge fan of YouTube and have learnt a lot from many of the tutorial videos on there from photography to cooking. Today, I have been trying to recreate a video reconstructing the song Feel Good Inc. by Gorillaz from Point Blank Music school.

At some points in the video, I want to pause it to see the pattern in Ableton that is being shown and recreate it in BeatMaker 3 on the iPad. However, each time I pause a YouTube video, this overlay comes up when I want to see the full screen.

It would be great to have an option to turn off the overlay, especially when I paying for the premium package.

By the way, here is a link to the video in question. Highly recommended if you like to see behind the scenes of a work.

https://youtu.be/I_fWfmQ1ZbM

It’s 2020!

2020s, Thought Provoking

I noticed that there was quite a reaction to the fact that it is the end of a decade. I don’t remember there being a big deal going from 2009 to 2010. I wonder if it was related to the fact that it was the first decade change of a new century and millennium.
So with all new year resolutions, one of them that I want to do is post something here everyday. I’m not sure how long this will last. Leave a comment when will be the first day that I will miss. 😉
Happy New Year.

Control Your Content by having your own platform

Development, Tech, Thought Provoking, Web

Just saw this from twitter : Matthias Ott – Into The Personal Website-verse

Such a thought-provoking article that reminds me that I need to publish more of the work that I on here rather than on Instagram or Twitter or Flickr. I think of businesses that run their pages from Facebook or Instagram and wonder how they are giving control over their audience to another platform. Break their rules and years of content could disappear. Remember “musicblogocide 2010”?

One day, Twitter and other publishing platforms like Facebook, Instagram, or Medium will indeed die, like so many sites before them. And every time this happens, we lose most of the content we created and with it a fair amount of our collective cultural history.

Data loss isn’t our only problem, though. If you decide to publish your work on a platform like Medium, you’re giving away control over it. What if Medium suddenly decided to extend the already existing paywall to all articles? There’s not much you could do about it. Simply because you don’t own your content anymore.

Go there and read the whole article as he articulates it much better than I can.

If you’re a beginnner and prepared to rollup your sleeves a little, get a domain on NameCheap for less than €10 and hosting with WordPress on SiteGround for €4 per month. It’s not that hard to do and allows an easy way to get your content on your own platform.