Let us start the new year thinking about how motivation works. What encourages us to action? How can knowledge help us with motivation for the new year’s resolutions? Simple Views Of Motivation Dan Ariely has a new book on this topic. And to motivate you to read it I’ll say it is a very short book. Ariely…
Showing A Problem Does Not Equal Demonstrating A Worsening Problem
Cathy O’Neil has a great book on big data, Weapons of Math Destruction, but one with a fundamental flaw. The flawed claim is made in the book’s subtitle and permeates throughout the book. The subtitle is: “How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy”. I could find no significant evidence of big data increasing inequality in the book. She shows…
Is Math Racist?
Cathy O’Neil’s book – Weapons of Math Destruction – is an entertaining and informative read. She has done a great job of highlighting the challenges with math models. (I have one massive problem with the book but I’ll detail that next time, see here). First I’ll address the question on everyone’s mind: Is Math Racist? Math Models…
How Long Will We Be Unhappy?
A fascinating line of research tackles the problem of affective forecasting. Such forecasting involves questions such as: How Long Will We Be Unhappy? Affective Forecasting This area of research studies our predictions of how we will feel when events happen. We typically aren’t very good at affective forecasting. .. expectations are often important and often wrong. They are important…
Hovis And The Valuation of Brands
Today we turn to a history lesson on brand valuation. The story is of Hovis and the valuation of brands. Hovis And The Valuation of Brands Rank Hovis McDougall, a big U.K. food manufacturer in the 1980s decided to record the value of its brands on its balance sheet. This included its internally generated brands. (These are…
Capitalizing Spending On Intangibles
My final comment on Lev and Gu’s The End of Accounting discusses their idea of how to improve financial reporting. This is a bit more controversial to my mind but worth considering. They suggest capitalizing spending on intangibles. Too Many Estimates? The authors argue that accounting uses too many estimates. As such, although the authors…
Who Has An Interest In Changing Accounting?
Baruch Lev and Feng Gu, accounting professors, ask a simple question. Why are managers and auditors so blasé about accounting for intangibles? Lev and Gu, 2016, page 90 Intangibles are a mess in financial accounting. Everyone knows there are obvious problems. So who has an interest in changing accounting? Intangible Assets And The Concept Of Matching…
Financial Information And Stock Prices
For the next few weeks I’ll discuss Lev and Gu’s new book on the problems of financial accounting, The End of Accounting. Here the authors discuss financial information and stock prices. Basically, the relevance of accounting information to investment decisions. Financial Information And Stock Prices: Little Connection This book sets out the case that financial accounting…
The Flat Maximum And Data Science
Steven Finlay has a useful book on Data Science, (Predictive Analytics, Data Mining and Big Data). He has lots of helpful practical advice in an easy to access form. He highlights the idea of the flat maximum. The Flat Maximum This is a general recommendation to read the book. I will also highlight a point Finlay makes….
Behavioural Economics And Policy In Canada
One of the most interesting things about behavioural economics is that it is quite practical. The findings can apply in the public sphere. Such application can often be very direct. Furthermore, many of the ideas generated in behavioural economics are simple tweaks. Tweaks can be very cheap to implement. This, therefore, can make the ideas popular…
