What happens when too much money chases a fixed number of stocks? Is the result an inevitable crash? Everyone can't do well at the same time can they?

Completely Useless Speculation

It would've been interesting if the European Union would've mandated the adoption of a common language as a prerequisite to adopting the Euro. (English is an obvious candidate, but there would've been an uproar among people fearful of losing their culture.) Something similar to how Indonesia declared market Malay as their national language to unite thousands of islands with their own languages.

Damned interesting books

The Black Swan and Fooled by Randomness by Nicholas Nassim Taleb are the most interesting nonfiction I think I've ever read.

Random thought of the day

I think Mexican ninjas would've been sweeter than Japanese ones.

Launching a startup is one of the most mentally unhealthy things you can do. (Especially alone.) All your fear and inadequacies sit there and stare back at you and say, "How you gonna pull this off, fuckface?" I've wanted to quit, but I have to finish now. I don't even care if I lose money now, I've got to finish.

Years of experience in the industry is a poor indicator for how much somebody can actually accomplish. What matters is how many of those moments were focused, and is the stuff you're learning useful for the future.

And if you're 3 or 4 times more productive and useful than another employee in your field, no company will ever pay you 3 or 4x what that other employee makes. The only way out of a company not valuing you accurately is starting your own company.

Asstastic Countrywide

I'm getting the following message trying to transfer money from my savings account at Countrywide Bank:

Our online banking system is currently unavailable. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. Please try again later.

I read on Paul Kedrosky's blog that the entire financial sector is being cluster bombed in order to scare out rumors that a large financial company is filing for bankruptcy protection, with Countrywide stock down 28%. I had to make sure Countrywide still has FDIC protection this morning (imagine if any bank ever lost it; the run on the bank would be catastrophic! I should know more about the protocol for losing FDIC coverage...) Countrywide is even putting press release style messages above my account info, saying that their business is actually looking up, which of course erodes my confidence further.