Image via Wikipedia In an era of lifelong learning, I wonder if the mark of real graduation is a ceremony at the end of the classes or is it measured by what you do with the education for the rest of your life? Is there even such a thing as graduation for lifelong learners? I […]
Tag: Math
10 sigma in the news again
Image via Wikipedia Risks are magnified after a historically volatile event like Thursday. The 11.3% intraday move was a 10 sigma event (if you treat the daily range of SPY as a normal Gaussian distribution). Per the excellent blog at http://www.aleph.se/andart/archives/2009/09/ten_sigma_numerics_and_finance.html, a 10 sigma event can be expected to occur in 1x 10^23 days or […]
Systems dynamics meets the Afghan war via Powerpoint
It is becoming a common practice to laugh at that slide, but try on this thought experiment: what if someone made a slide of a zoom in on the surface of a semi-conductor chip? Wouldn’t that seem as incomprehensible and “foolish”? and yet by the slow process of developing knowledge we have become capable of extraordinary […]
Complexity in process consulting: a good thing?
Image via Wikipedia A colleague used the word “simplistic” in describing the 10 principles of process consulting offered by Ed Schein. I interpreted his use of the word simplistic in describing shines 10 principles as a negative thing. There’s a part of me that remembers the 10 Commandments are simplistic too. In my studies of […]
Chaos links of interest
Image via Wikipedia Chaos: Links http://classes.yale.edu/Fractals/ http://math.bu.edu/DYSYS/applets/ http://mathforum.org/library/topics/dynamical_systems/ http://www.student.math.uwaterloo.ca/~pmat370/JavaLinks.html Books: Chaos: Making a New Science. Gleick, James. The best book on chaos. It has everything—wonderful storytelling, memorable characters, an exhilarating sense of intellectual adventure, and exceptionally good explanations of the main ideas and why they matter. Read this book! Does God Play Dice?: The Mathematics […]