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Uncertainty Wednesday: Expected Value
Albert Wenger – Jun 28, 2017
In today’s Uncertainty Wednesday we start to explore the properties of random variables. The first one we will look at is the so-called “expected value” or EV for short. The EV is simply the probability weighted average of a random [...] Read more
Scifi Book Recommendations: Seveneves and Three Body Problem Trilogy
Albert Wenger – Jun 26, 2017
I love reading science fiction for two reasons: first, because of what I learn about the possible future and second, because of what it says about the present. For instance, I read a lot of William Gibson and Bruce Sterling [...] Read more
Health Insurance and the R Word (Redistribution)
Albert Wenger – Jun 24, 2017
There are a lot of outright lies (at worst) / profound misunderstandings (at best) on all sides circulating around health insurance at the moment. Today’s post is about the most fundamental one: the relationship between health insurance and redistribution and [...] Read more
Uncertainty Wednesday: Random Variables
Albert Wenger – Jun 21, 2017
Just a quick reminder on where we currently are in Uncertainty Wednesdays: I had introduced the idea of measuring uncertainty, then we defined what a probability distribution is and learned about entropy, which is a measure of uncertainty that is [...] Read more
MongoDB Stitch: A Fresh Take on Backend As A Service
Albert Wenger – Jun 20, 2017
Nearly 10 years ago, I wrote a post titled “I Want a New Platform” which led to our investment in MongoDB. At the time the company was called 10gen and had developed a Platform as a Service: a Javascript application [...] Read more
Getting Past the Dominance of the Nation State
Albert Wenger – Jun 17, 2017
One of the important topics that I have not yet addressed in World After Capital is the role of the Nation State. So I am gathering up some of my thoughts in a post first. I believe it is critical [...] Read more
Uncertainty Wednesday: Entropy and Communication
Albert Wenger – Jun 14, 2017
The last two Uncertainty Wednesdays we have looked at entropy as a measure of uncertainty. Today I want to tie that back to the original communications context in which Shannon introduced it. We can use our really simple model of [...] Read more
Optimal Token Sales
Albert Wenger – Jun 13, 2017
The problem of finding an optimal structure for a token sale is quite difficult. For starters, the objectives between teams and investors are potentially different. Furthermore, these are not homogenous groups. Teams vary widely along at least two dimensions: intent [...] Read more
Monetary Policy for Crypto Tokens
Albert Wenger – Jun 11, 2017
In an information sessions for Congress, Peter Van Valkenburgh used my favorite analogy comparing crypto tokens to tickets at a fair ground. And William Mougayar has a new post about tokens where he specifically refers to them as “privately issued [...] Read more