Dr. Burton Malkiel, professor at Princeton university, is one of my favorite authors on the subject of investing. His book, A Random Walk Down Wall Street, is considered one of the cornerstones of personal investing literature. In 2008, Dr. Malkiel published another book, From Wall Street to the Great Wall, in which he makes the case for investing in China. Having read both books, I was puzzled by the apparent conflicts between the two.
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May 10
May 10
Building software is hard.
It’s always difficult to tell potential customers that we simply don’t know how long it’s going to take to build a software system, if said system is moderately complex. This is one reason we avoid fixed-priced projects — when the cost of building something is unknown, you want to make sure both you and the customer are on the same side of the table. It’s also why the principle of building the simplest system possible is so important.
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May 10
May 10
El Chorro – Camino del Rey
This Saturday we visited another intriguing and spectacular area of Andalucia — the city of El Chorro, and its historic “Camino del Rey.” El Chorro, about an hour northeast of Marbella, is a small city that sits at the base of the “Desfiladero de los Gaitanes,” one of the world’s most impressive canyons, with a depth of over 700 meters (2,300 ft). Back in 1901, the King of Spain, wishing to visit the El Chorro electrical installation had a pathway — known as the “Camino del Rey” — constructed along the side of the canyon walls.
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May 10
May 10
Hike: Cañon de las Buitreras.
This 6km round-trip hike took us from the Estación de Cortes de la Frontera to the famous Cañon de las Buitreras (Vulture Canyon). Again, it was an absolutely astounding hike — and the bridge crossing the canyon could easily be the centerpiece of a national park. Continue reading →
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Apr 10
Apr 10
Hike: Benaojan to Montejaque Loop.
On this beautiful spring Saturday in Andalucia, we decided to do a hike from Benaojan to Montejaque. Leaving Marbella early in the morning, and stopping for coffee and a catalana breakfast at our favorite venta along the Ronda road, we arrived in Benaohan at around 10:30 to start the hike. Although Pino and I have covered all of this hike, in bits, during the various 101 km de Ronda and Homenaje events, we’d not done this particular 12 km loop before. It turned out to be probably one of the most beautiful hikes we’ve done. Continue reading →
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Apr 10
Apr 10
An overview of personal investing.
In this article, I’m going to compress a lot of study, experience and opinion about personal investing, into a single essay to which I can refer others. It covers the power of compound returns, definition of asset classes, importance of diversification, role of asset allocation in the setting of risk, and introduces the Exchange Traded Fund (ETF). Continue reading →
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Apr 10
Apr 10
Following Twitter in an RSS reader.
Varied reasons for following people on Twitter (including sheer imprudence) has resulted in a stream disproportionately populated with tweets from people that I’m either not really interested in hearing from on a daily basis, or are a bit too prolific in their tweeting. And as a consequence, I often miss tweets from certain people from whom I want to read everything said.
Until lists are supported in Tweetie for Mac, I’m going to experiment with following Twitter in an RSS feed reader (NetNewsWire — on both OS X and the iPhone), subscribing to the Twitter RSS feeds of a limited number of people. Expected benefits include:
My stream should now be filtered on what I’m most likely to be interested in reading.
I can read my twitter feed at a dedicated time (i.e. far less frequently), and will be sure not to miss anything said by those I want to hear from.
I’ll now get to see people’s @replies, which I’ve long missed.
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Apr 10
Apr 10
How am I doing today, asks JungleDisk.
Having long switched to better solutions — e.g. Dropbox and Backblaze — I’d kept my JungleDisk account around because, uh… well, I’m not really sure anymore. Anyway, that’s besides the point. This morning, I logged into the JungleDisk billing interface to change my billing method from one AMEX card to another AMEX card. Simple enough, right? Wrong. Continue reading →
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Apr 10
Apr 10
Can’t cancel a Screen Sharing window. Skitch saves the day.
This morning I tried to connect from my MacBook to another Mac using OS X’s Screen Sharing application, and ended up staring at an unsuccessful connection window, that couldn’t be canceled. Skitch, the screenshot capture, annotation and upload tool, unexpectedly solved the problem. Continue reading →
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Apr 10
Apr 10
Properties for sale in the US and Spain.
Just wanted to mention that I’ve recently created a dedicated page here on the blog listing some properties that I have available for sale. If you, or anyone you know, would be interested, feel free to get in touch.
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Apr 10
Apr 10
The benefits of setting limitations.
I’m currently reading “The Power of Less,” by Leo Babauta, the guy behind the ZenHabits.net blog. The book focuses on the benefits of setting limitations on what we do and consume, and focusing on the essential things in life. Right now, I’m reading the chapters on setting limitations.
Examining my own life, while I can’t see many areas where I’m excessive, I could only find one area in which I consciously set limitations, and that’s in the area of diet. I follow the Paleo diet, which avoid sugars and carbohydrates (pastas, breads, grains, beans, etc.), and focus on meats, vegetables, nuts and fruits — basically what the “hunters & gatherers” ate during the Paleo age.
In part due to the Pareto 80/20 principle, and in part due to the suggestion that it helps the metabolism from resetting, I allow myself one day per week to eat anything I want. On that day, I might have Churros con Chocolate for breakfast, paella for lunch, a double ice-cream in the afternoon, and maybe some spicy Jamaican jerk chicken with lots of beer for dinner.
I’ve definitely observed that limiting consumption of sugars and carbs to once per week both amplifies my enjoyment of them, and allows me to enjoy them without any of the detrimental health and weight-gain consequences of their regular consumption. (Particularly interesting is the amplification of enjoyment.)
So on the point of setting limitations, it looks like Leo Babauta may be right on the money.
