I just finished reading "Fooling Some of the People all of the Time", by David Einhorn. Very informative story about a short position his hedge fund GreenLight Capital took on Allied Capital back in 2002. Underlying the interesting narrative and anecdotes of the specific story, there are much broader themes about the lack of oversight on the part of regulators, government, media, analysts and retail investors, how debt investments can go wrong, and how smart but corrupt management teams and profit from fools.
I recommend the book and some of David's most recent public interviews, like this one with Charlie Rose where he points out that the last crisis was not properly dealt with and a new crisis is now in the making, explains he doesn't buy the efficient market hypothesis (does anybody now?), defends short-selling as a positive force in markets, and talks about how he got into investing because he enjoys solving complex puzzles and difficult problems.
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Friday, July 30, 2010
Amazon & Facebook Integration - Beyond the Buzz
There's been a lot of buzz this week about Amazon's integration with Facebook. Some are describing the new functionality offered by Amazon as social recommendations and talking about how a user's social circle is used to improve your recommendations, etc... This is making more out of it than there really is.
I like Amazon's recommendations and I have been testing the integration with Facebook Connect over the last few days. As I mentioned in a recent tweet through my @japindado account, I am unimpressed from a technology and software engineering perspective: Amazon has had a shareable wishlist feature for a long time now, and through this option users have been able to publish which books and other gifts they are wishing for. Once a user makes their wishlist public, other users can find it and explore it. I had done this a few times with friends, both to let them know about my interests, and to find out more about theirs.
The "only" new experience that is now enabled through Facebook is an instant presentation of the wishlists that my Facebook friends have shared publicly. Useful to me? Somewhat... If I am in a "giving" mood, I might look at my friends b-days and start dolling out some presents. Useful to Amazon? Definitely, in the sense that it will encourage buying gifts for others using their explicit wishes.
But the key thing to understand from a software, features, and functionality perspective is that this development does not represent a leap in the quality or the relevance of the recommendations that Amazon offers. The "barrier-to-imitation" here is very low, and as long as the Facebook Connect API is there other stores can and will easily implement this functionality.
It is also interesting to note that Amazon has brought Facebook into their domain, not the other way around. This makes sense because many of us on Facebook already have public Amazon wishlists. With smaller stores, it is unlikely that my circle of friends in Facebook will have made a public wishlist. That's why the reverse flow of information make more sense: Stores should think about taking their wishlists and sharing them in Facebook. Stay tuned for an announcement from Strands Recommender on how to do just that soon!
I like Amazon's recommendations and I have been testing the integration with Facebook Connect over the last few days. As I mentioned in a recent tweet through my @japindado account, I am unimpressed from a technology and software engineering perspective: Amazon has had a shareable wishlist feature for a long time now, and through this option users have been able to publish which books and other gifts they are wishing for. Once a user makes their wishlist public, other users can find it and explore it. I had done this a few times with friends, both to let them know about my interests, and to find out more about theirs.
The "only" new experience that is now enabled through Facebook is an instant presentation of the wishlists that my Facebook friends have shared publicly. Useful to me? Somewhat... If I am in a "giving" mood, I might look at my friends b-days and start dolling out some presents. Useful to Amazon? Definitely, in the sense that it will encourage buying gifts for others using their explicit wishes.
But the key thing to understand from a software, features, and functionality perspective is that this development does not represent a leap in the quality or the relevance of the recommendations that Amazon offers. The "barrier-to-imitation" here is very low, and as long as the Facebook Connect API is there other stores can and will easily implement this functionality.
It is also interesting to note that Amazon has brought Facebook into their domain, not the other way around. This makes sense because many of us on Facebook already have public Amazon wishlists. With smaller stores, it is unlikely that my circle of friends in Facebook will have made a public wishlist. That's why the reverse flow of information make more sense: Stores should think about taking their wishlists and sharing them in Facebook. Stay tuned for an announcement from Strands Recommender on how to do just that soon!
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