Just finished reading Michael Lewis' Moneyball..

...was unputdownable. Had a lot of drama.

The book had a number of themes from Taleb's Fooled by Randomness such as "process vs outcome", "trouble with using small sample sizes" & "underplaying the luck-factor" etc. The author was also drawing parallels between Warren Buffet's/Benjamin Graham's value-investing principles and Billy Beane's strategies. However, structure-wise I feel it could have been better. After reading the book one has to make a real effort to summarize the "winning strategies of Oakland A's" (which I am going to attempt below).

The Busy Life

Everybody is very busy these days, regardless of what we do or don’t do. Makes me wonder why we are so busy? And of course – are we really that busy?

I got some real good answers from a recent article in NYTimes [Outdoors and Out of Reach, Studying the Brain] about a bunch of professors on a week-long trip in Utah to study the effect of “unplugging” from modern modes of communication (emails, blackberries, TVs…). A few of them explain how busy their lives were.

I was surprised and found it hard to understand why someone engaged in researching such a casual topic should be so strapped for time. A few fireside chats would give enough material to talk & write about. These topics are not particularly time sensitive or critical.

Self-Centering Routine

Overall things are fine. In spite of that every once in a while anxiety, frustration and similar reactions rear their ugly heads. Life then feels difficult & unmanageable. I lose the balance & begin searching for the centre.

To this end, I have begun to appreciate the usefulness of a daily routine (Not a strict minute by minute regimen). However, coming up with such a routine has been a trial and error process.