Numbers

…numbers are pale reflections of reality, shaped to validate the views of those who produce them, often based on invalid premises, and easily subject to manipulation…

quote from here

Finance

“In physics you are playing against God, who does not change his mind very often. In finance, you are playing against God’s creatures, whose feelings are ephemeral, at best unstable, and the news on which they are based keeps streaming in.” [Emanuel Derman]

That’s how winning is done!

“The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place and I don’t care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done!

Now if you know what you’re worth then go out and get what you’re worth. But you gotta be willing to take the hits, and not pointing fingers saying you ain’t where you wanna be because of him, or her, or anybody! Cowards do that and that ain’t you! You’re better than that! ” [Rocky Balboa]

Realistic

some people are idealist, some people are realistic, and some other are pragmatic. There should be a way to belong to more than one group without being a hypocrite

Statistics

“By their very nature, statistics can only be misused when the audience doesn’t bother checking them. Statistics are just a numerical summary of evidence that has been collected. They give people the starting point to delve directly into that evidence and see if the arguments hold together.”

taken from here

Probability

Dari melempar dadu sampai poker, kita berurusan dengan probability dalam kehidupan sehari-hari. Tapi bagaimana caranya mendefinisikan probability secara matematis? Pertanyaan inilah yang coba saya ulas di sini. Sekali lagi yang akan dibahas adalah bagaimana mendifinisikan probability, bukan menghitung probability.

Melihat kembali bagaimana probability didefinisikan, kita bisa membagi dalam 3 periode:

Busking

For some reasons I always admire street performers. They have their own charm, unlike most of the reality shows and a lot of talent-seeking competitions on televisions nowadays which are fake, they are real. Performed by people who aren’t really looking for popularity, they don’t sell their sad story nor hoping people “vote” for them only because of their melodrama. They are there just to perform, to create an entertaining, attracting and amusing ambiance.

The fact that they do all the things in the street make it more interesting, where either they will get a direct “reward” or people just ignore them and passing by without giving any attention whatsoever. And this is what I call a reality show!

1 - Rock on!

Chance

Chance is a precious thing, some people simply don’t have access to it. It’s the obligation of every fortunate people to create more opportunities for others. Maybe it won’t solve big problems in the world, but it does help, to create a better society, to make a world a better place..for every single person on the earth!

lesson learned from Grameen Bank story.

Stats

“Our students who think statistics is an unnatural subject are right. This isn’t how humans think naturally. But it is how humans think rationally. And it is how scientists think.” [Dick De Veaux]

taken from here

Life

“go out and write your own story, or you’ll just be a character in someone else’s”

taken from here