Inspirational Ideas

I was at a talk, and the keynote speaker made a few points. Here are my thoughts on them.

Life is suffering,  but people are made to struggle

There are two fears: the fear of exposure and the fear of conflict

The fear of exposure is perfectionism, and courage is required to overcome it.

The fear of conflict comes from imbalance in two important values:  compassion and connection.

Compassion is kindness to others, and authentic connection is finding common cause with others.

We need to have strong enough connection to embrace conflict, and sufficient compassion to be in conflict with grace.

Jeff Haden's 7 Habits of People with Remarkable Mental Toughness

Jeff Haden , who describes his profession as ghostwriter, wrote an article about how to be mentally tough. He wrote it with the internet meme of X things.

The article is on Inc.

The seven are

1. Always act as if you are in total control. (Meaning stop waiting for God to help)

2. Put aside things you have no ability to impact. (Easier said than done.)

3. See the past as valuable training... and nothing more. (That is, forget about Freudian analysis)

4. Celebrate the success of others. (Generosity of Spirit is good.)

5. Never allow yourself to whine or complain or criticize. (I don't agree. If you don't complain you are a marshmallow not tough.)

6. Focus only on impressing yourself. (Internal focus can be sick, but it is better than sycophantic.)

7. Count your blessings.  (It would make you happier.)

Ghost 7 Running Shoe Review

Ghost 7

My last few pairs of shoes have been Brook's so this shoe blog has been getting dull. My lastest one is the Ghost 7. It is very similar to the Ghost  6 without the gel midsole in the heel, or if it is there you can't see it anymore.

I got this shoe because it protects my forefoot from stone bruises. That is damage to the foot from running on gravel on cement roads. I had an injury of that kind last summer, and it reoccurs if I don't take care of it.

The yellow outsole of the Ghost 7 stains easily. 

Ghost 7 weighs 321 grams, which is 24 grams less than the Ghost 6, or almost an ounce.  It has a four part sole with a two part mid-sole - the white and the orange additionally at the heel.

This shoe has a yellow outsole unlike the Ghost 6 which is black. You can see the staining on it in the picture. These shoes have 18 miles on them, and the blackness does not wipe off. It doesn't bother me, but I could see it bothering my DW if I would wear them inside.

Ghost 6

The Ghost 7 is a little less flamboyant than the Ghost 6. Less orange and more yellow with a lighter gray color. I don't find either shoe that attractive. When they wear out, and I can't use them as running shoes. The won't be cool looking casual shoes.


As mentioned I have 18 miles on these shoes, and I find this shoe very comfortable.

Shoe Review: My running shoe update

I have purchased three pairs of shoes since the last review in 2012. These are the Adidas Boost Supernova, the Brooks Rivenna 4, and the Brooks Ghost 6.

The oldest shoe is the Adidas Boost Supernova. This is made from expanded TPU that my employer BASF makes.  This is a light shoe at 300 grams, and it is touted as having excellent "energy return." Meaning that the sole elastically returns energy to the running. When you are in the shoe, it feels like it has a better grip on the street. It is a light-weight shoe so the foot protection is not that great.

A pretty nice shoe, but I don't wear it much. I have had sore feet and need more protections.

On the bottom you can see the little balls that make up the shoe sole. I don't know why the sole n the bottom you can see the little balls that make up the shoe sole. I don't know why the sole is sn the bottom you can see the little balls that make up the shoe sole. I don't know why the sole is staining yellow.

This is the Brook Ghost 6. It is 345 g (for one shoe) and has high foot protection. It is my newest shoe, and it does a nice job. 

 Here you can see the bottom, and the "gel" in the sole.



...


This is the Brook Rivenna 4. It is stiffer than the Ghost with less protection, and it is heavier at 407g per shoe.

It is an OK shoe, and I still wear it once in a while.

Computerized Trading on News Releases is Too Fast for Humans

People with high speed connections to news releases are reacting to news in much less than a second, 50 milliseconds, in one case. In this case, the selling started 50 milliseconds after the news release, and faster than normal news service (Bloomberg, Dow Jones, Yahoo Finance) had rebroadcast the information.

Wall Street Journal: link

This means that traders are downloading news releases and analyzing it automatically. Further, since company releases don't have info on expected returns, the computer was pre-conditioned with what the expectations were.  Based on the computer analysis hundreds of millions of dollars of trading was made.

Nothing illegal about this, but it shows that small time investors can't trade on market news. Unless perhaps they are trying to profit from the over-reactions of the automated trades.