Rod Motta - User Experience Visual Designer » economic

Tufte is going to Washington!

Rod Motta — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 20:09:44 +0000

On March 5, Tufte was appointed by Obama to a panel to advise the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, which monitors the way the $787 billion in the stimulus package is being spent.

Tufte’s initial work will be on the recovery.gov website, which is the primary way the board will conduct business transparently to the American public.

Wonder if he brought his own litter of kittens, or will be borrowing them from DC shelters…?

Why smart people do dumb things: a lesson from the financial meltdown

Rod Motta — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 00:36:57 +0000

As we dealt and continue dealing with the fallout from so many executives making such terrible decisions, the simplest advice seems the most appropriate. Figure out what you care about and devote yourself to that purpose. Stay the course, even when your colleagues wander off course. And never forget that if something sounds too good to be true—from no-money-down-mortgages to instant riches with a hedge fund—it probably is. “When you run with the pack, what you generally see are other people’s backsides,” Arkadi Kuhlmann says. “We know why we’re here, and it’s not to copy other people’s bad ideas. Every person who tries to do real innovation is going to be tempted by money, greed, acceptance, being in the middle of the action”.

Sometimes, the most important form of leadership is resisting an innovation that takes hold in your field when that innovation, no matter how popular with your rivals, is at odds with your long-term point of view.

Words to live by.

Quote: Approval, though, is not the goal of investing

Rod Motta — Fri, 15 May 2009 00:39:31 +0000

“Approval, though, is not the goal of investing. In fact, approval is often counter-productive because it sedates the brain and makes it less receptive to new facts or a re-examination of conclusions formed earlier. Beware the investment activity that produces applause; the great moves are usually greeted by yawns.”

- Warren Buffett, in his letter to the Shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway (PDF) [via tipwn]

Can investors count on the stock market to produce handsome long-term returns?

Rod Motta — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 07:09:25 +0000

Last Sunday’s New York Times pointed to new research that indicates that future returns of the stock market are far more uncertain than appreciated, making the market much riskier than investors believe. As investors come to grips with the study, stocks could be permanently discounted at a level below Professor Jeremy Siegel’s mean (over a course of around 30 years the market tends to revert to a mean of relatively high performance) due to the additional risk.

Embarrassing attempt at Social Media.

Rod Motta — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 20:09:37 +0000

Charley Schwab had an opportunity to create a true conversation about retirement built around some very interesting survey findings. They had the chance to create a social media community. Instead, they just plugged in some corporate talking heads and made it just another site selling IRAs.

Take a look at Rethinking Retirement, and see if you agree or not.

You can read more about this at Market Research Insights.

Quote: Psychological and economic theories

Rod Motta — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 16:33:26 +0000

“Psychological and economic theories suggest that humans seek to minimize costs and maximize gains. Increasing the perceived benefit/cost ratio increases a person’s motivation to engage in the behavior.”

- B.J. Fogg