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Google Pixel

Posted by: davidkircos in random 8 years, 6 months ago

I've been an iPhone user since the very first iPhone. I tried Android once for about 2 weeks, that was 5 years ago and I couldn't make the switch then.

My main reservations are one the time it would take to transfer all my information over and two that I'd have to learn the quirks of the Android platform. The Quick Switch Adaptor looks like it could alleviate most of my first reservation, its ability to transfer iMessages is pretty impressive. https://madeby.google.com/phone/switch/

I'm about 40% convinced to try switching again. With some additional small reservations:

• I've bought apps on iOS which would be lost.
• It would surely interrupt my workflow for a month or two.
• I use a Macbook at work and a MacBook Pro at home, Apple has some nice seamless stuff Mac <> iPhone. Though I suspect Google might do these too and possibly better.
• Transferring my massive library of photos.

Since I'm on the edge, I suspect others will actually make the change. Interested to see if Pixel makes a dent in the iPhone users market.

Expand or Cut the Cake (Creating Value)

Posted by: davidkircos in finance, life, work 8 years, 7 months ago

I've been trying to write a post on value creation and rent capture for a couple weeks now. My words weren't coming together the way I wanted and while researching I stumbled upon Yishan Wong's Quora answer to the question "What does it mean to create value?" He captures exactly the point I wanted to make, so I scrapped my writing and here is Yishan's full response:

What does it mean to create value?

It means making something out of nothing using human effort and ingenuity.

"Creating value" is a very important concept that for years I thought was just a business buzzword, but it captures a very important distinction from doing other things that make money, as making money is a big thing in our world, and for better or worse it's often the source of a lot of grief, joy, and politics. 

Creating value is something that people inherently understand from a young age, but then later forget.  For instance, a five-year-old will make a birthday card for you out of construction paper.  This is creation of value.  When we get older, many people forget this and start to think that such shoddy handmade things are worthless, that the only value is in things we pay money for, e.g. a store-bought card or gift.  But the five-year-old has no money, and no choice but to create something of value out of nothing but the application of her effort and ingenuity upon raw materials.  Money simply represents this value creation - the five-year-old could sell the card for money.  Likewise, money you use to buy a store-bought card came from real value you created by doing your job, which likely required your own effort and/or ingenuity.

There's another way to generate money, which is rent capture (see:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren...).  This is a money-making method that does not create new value, but rather exploits a property of the environment (physical, social, or economic) in order to incur favorable transactions.  The easiest example of this is forcibly taking over a piece of unowned land or open road and charging others a toll to use it.  No new value is created, but the ability to charge "rent" is captured.  Keep in mind thatcharging rent is not necessarily rent capture - if you build an apartment complex and rent out its units, you have created an item of value and are merely charging for it, i.e. making money exchanging something of value you created.  Rent capture refers to charging money for usage (or relief from) a facet of the pre-existing environment you have exploited.  There are complicated philosophical issues around whether the unilateral acquisition of unowned-but-finite environmental resources and their place in value-creation, but I still skip those.

Either way, the phrase "creating value" is typically used to designate activities which make money but which are not rent-capturing, i.e. new value is created through either mutually beneficial exchange transactions or producing something valuable out of raw materials through human effort and/or ingenuity.  "Enlightened" capitalists or businessmen often use this term to designate "positive" business activities that make money because they apply the effort of human beings towards creating new value, versus other activities that generate money but not value.  This distinction is significant because many metrics of business success are measured by numbers on financial statements, which are nominally blind as to whether increases in money flow are value-creating or not.

Basically, there are two ways to make money:

1) Create new value and capture x percent of the new value created. (creating value)
2) Capture rent on an already existing asset. (rent capture)

The first form is the one that moves everybody forward. I think it is altogether too easy to forget that new value can be created. While accumulating wealth, you are not necessarily taking money from others. If you create new value for society that did not exist before, you have created new wealth and are entitled to capture a sustainable portion of that newly created value.

Source: 

https://www.quora.com/What-does-it-mean-to-create-value

I Spill Stuff and You Should Too

Posted by: davidkircos in life, work 8 years, 7 months ago

The other night I was talking with a friend about what I'm working on at Techstars and why I'm excited about it. I was so focused on what I was saying I spilled beer all over myself. Later the same evening I was talking about how exciting it was to live in the rapidly changing Midtown Detroit neighborhood and once again spilled a cup of water on the floor.

Reflecting on this, my passion for what I'm working on that lead me to not pay attention to anything else, and spill shit. Spill shit passion is awesome to see in anyone when talking about what they are working on. My friend of 3 years Hunter Rosenblume (founder of Lunar) is spill shit passionate about his company. I can't count on my hands how many times he has knocked something over while feverishly talking about anything related to Lunar. Dedication and laser focus only come with strong passion, and it is essential for succeeding at anything really hard (like starting a cell phone carrier).

If you are not spill shit passionate about what you are doing, do something else.

Boulder Bound

Posted by: davidkircos in life 8 years, 7 months ago

I'm a born and raised Michigander. I grew up here (Grosse Pointe), went to college here (Michigan State University) and been working here ever since (Detroit).

Every city is unique and has a different personality. Most cities I travel to render the same sentiment in my mind "this place is great, but I'll be glad to go home". Boulder CO was different.

I first went to Boulder last year on a cross-country road trip with a friend. We were driving back to Michigan from the Grand Canyon and decided to spend 2 days in Boulder. We hiked in the flat irons and walked Pearl St Mall. For the first time ever I thought about a city outside of Michigan "this place feels like home, I would live here".

Boulder is touted for its 300 days a year of sunshine and having a 10mn walk to the foothills from downtown. Last week it became official, with a full-time offer from Techstars. I'm moving to Boulder. Next week I'll be hitting the road, Boulder bound.

Bill Gates in Cubic Beef

Posted by: davidkircos in random 8 years, 8 months ago

Last night I was out to dinner with a few close friends I've known since high school. We often talk about financial stuff and I jokingly asked the question "If you converted all of Bill Gates wealth into a cube of Beef, how big would that cube be?"

I had brought it up originally because of the classical idea that someone's wealth would be measured in how much cattle they have. Thinking that Bill Gates wealth would be difficult to picture by a number of cows, I thought it would be easier to picture as a cube. And certainly funnier.

The question set off a 15-minute diversion into coming up with the answer.

According to the napkin, Bill Gates is worth 11 million cubic meters of beef. That is a cube with side lengths of 225 meters. 225 meters high, 225 meters wide and 225 meters deep. That's a lot of beef.

There are a few big assumptions that went into our calculation. Such as the density of beef. We found the density to be around 1900 lbs/ m^3. Although the density would be much higher if there were 221 cubic meters on top compressing it. We also used the price 3.70 $ / lb of beef assuming there would be no discount when buying 80 billion dollars at once.

If you'd like to convert your own net worth to cubic beef, I created the Wolfram Alpha widget below. Put in a number and it will spit out the length of each side making up the cube, of beef, representative of your worldly worth.

I suppose my buddy was still entertained by the question after our dinner because he emailed me a spreadsheet this morning containing notable wealthy individuals and their net worth converted to cubes of various substances. Hilarious. Thanks for a great night my friend!

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