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Thoughts

GDP density

Why is the world so much obsessed with per capita GDP?
Its gives us an illusion that population is the limiting factor for every nation. However we very well know that in most countries 5-7% unemployment is considered healthy. Also if you are as rich as USA/Western Europe then one of the major concern of the country is to limit the population influx and keeping illegal immigrants under check. So essentially a country can always increase its workforce.

So what is the most limited of all resources… LAND.
In the paper Geography and Economic development the authors John Gallup, Jeffrey Sachs and Andrew Mellinger plotted the GDP per unit land all over the world.
sachs-gdpdensity
Notice how prominent are the rivers like the Ganges and the Grand canal in China in this plot. The plot reinforces our conviction that most wealthy cities are ports which are close to the sea/inland waterways and hence the wealth of the nation is a function of the connectivity and influx of man and goods.

What i could not stop wondering is that how close this graph is to the night sky of the Planet Earth. So its like the Big Mac Index. The economist can spend a year collecting data and crunching it, or just take a picture and get a fairly accurate answer. After all the more prosperous you are, the more outdoor lighting you need.

 

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Thoughts

Sentence structure with Sarah

Watch this wonderful video.

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Thoughts

Investment Bank and Pigeon

How is an investment banker different from a pigeon?
A pigeon can still leave a deposit on a new Ferrari!

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Thoughts

marking the territory

Why do women clean the room?
Is it because of some primal instinct to mark one’s territory? Dogs have strong olifactory senses, Hence they piss all over their territory, maybe females use cleaniness in the same way. Don’t beleive me? Look at this room


I have known this guy for 8 years now and there is no way in hell a guy’s room can look even remotely like that. So it did not take me long to realize that his wife had paid him a visit for the festivities.

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Thoughts

Are we fools

It is interesting that among all the countries in the world, we are the only country where the government is repeatedly saying that nothing is wrong and everything is all right. At the seminar, the comments in the lobby were that if all is well, why are our markets down by more than 60% while the others are down only by about 35%? Why are our external commercial borrowing rates so much worse than those of our Asian neighbours, and why is credit for exports not available?

This line by Mint exactly summarize what i think about all the statements made by the lap

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Thoughts

truths of life

GREAT TRUTHS THAT LITTLE CHILDREN HAVE LEARNED:

1) No matter how hard you try, you can’t baptize cats.
2) When your mom is mad at your dad, don’t let her brush your hair.
3) If your sister hits you, don’t hit her back. They always catch the second person
4) Never ask your 3-year old brother to hold a tomato.
5) You can’t trust dogs to watch your food.
6) Don’t sneeze when someone is cutting your hair.
7) Never hold a dust-buster and a cat at the same time.
8) You can’t hide a piece of broccoli in a glass of milk.
9) Don’t wear polka-dot underwear under white shorts.
10) The best place to be when you’re sad is Grandpa’s lap.

GREAT TRUTHS THAT ADULTS HAVE LEARNED:

1) Raising teenagers is like nailing jelly to a tree.
2) Wrinkles don’t hurt.
3) Families are like fudge…mostly sweet, with a few nuts
4) Today’s mighty oak is just yesterday’s nut that held its ground.
5) Laughing is good exercise. It’s like jogging on the inside.
6) Middle age is when you choose your cereal for the fiber, not the toy.

GREAT TRUTHS ABOUT GROWING OLD

1) Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional.
2) Forget the health food. I need all the preservatives I can get.
3) When you fall down, you wonder what else you can do while you’re down there.
4) You’re getting old when you get the same sensation from a rocking chair that you once got from a rol ler coaster.
5) It’s frustrating when you know all the answers but nobody bothers to ask you the questions.
6) Time may be a great healer, but it’s a lousy beautician.
7) Wisdom comes with age, but sometimes age comes alone.

SUCCESS:

At age 4 success is . . . not peeing in your pants.
At age 12 success is . . . having friends.
At age 17 success is . . having a driver’s license.
At age 35 success is . . having money.
At age 50 success is . .. . having money.
At age 70 success is . .. . having a drivers license.
At age 75 success is . . . having friends.
At age 80 success is . . . not peeing in your pants.

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Thoughts

Love Case Studies?

Well in that case you must watch the 1973 movie Paper Chase its about how scary Case Studie

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Thoughts

Break Even Analysis

Last year I replaced all the windows in my house with those expensive, double-pane energy-efficient kind.

Yesterday, I got a call from the contractor who installed them. He was complaining that the windows had been installed a year ago and I had not paid for them yet.

Hellloooo. Now just because I’m blonde doesn’t mean that I am automatically stupid.

So I told him just exactly what his fast-talking sales guy had told me last year…namely, that in just ONE YEAR these windows would pay for themselves!

Helllooooo, I told him. It’s been a year!

There was only silence at the other end of the line, so I finally just hung up.

He hasn’t called back, probably too embarrassed about forgetting the guarantee they made me.

Bet he won’t underestimate a blonde anymore.

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Humor Links Thoughts

South Indians and Hindi

First of all Hindi is not our national language, so it is not necessary for people to know it.

However as this guy rightly points out, there are a few barriers to speaking in Hindi as well.

Hindi and Me

So next time feel a bit for those guys who only learn Hindi in school.

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Thoughts

dilemma

Like in real life, the outcome is determined not only by what the winner’s strategy was, but also what decisions the rest of the competition took.
Now suppose because of a few bad early moves, you have reached a stage where you know there is no chance of your winning. Also since its winner takes all, it does not matter how badly you lose. Now what should be your future strategy be:
1. Accept your losses and stop spending any more time on it. After all time is very precious.
2. Give in your best, continue to do Game Theory analysis and try finding what would be the best course of action.
3. Have some fun, do something crazy. After all, with your decisions, you can still shape the outcome.
4. A combination of the 2 and 3.

Now does your answer change when you are assured of anonymity i.e. nobody knows your identity, nor
you know whom you are pitched against.

Now the big question…. Why is that anonymity is making you biased towards option3? After all it does not make a rat’s ass difference even if everybody knows my name.