Tag: New York Stock Exchange

De-clutterization

With Kindle, one can download library e-books and save a trip to the library.

(no more browsing video titles like Yoga for beginners, Yogurt for vegetarians….).

Just search, type in your ID and click “borrow”.

I first noticed that huge book, entitled KNOWLEDGE, with a fine print which says, “Printed in China“.

Now, even those outsourcing jobs are eliminated as we get closer to full digitazation. Spell checking, meaning look-up, translation, archive and links, all on one screen.

Our offices at home and at work should be adapted accordingly (except for Zappos‘ which positioned its desks in the way to encourage staff interaction and reinforce its people-oriented culture).

Just look at the NYSE Euronex’s traders on their feet all day, with wireless headsets and eyes glued to terminals. They still use bookie’s notes, but not for long.

In ten years, we will hook up headsets into our ears and maybe water into our mouth (to skip the bottles which take 60 years to decompose).

Living longer, with less stuff and more data. Welcome to our 21st century, when less is more. Welcome to the age of de-clutterization (not anti-materialistic, just less stuff). You might want to put the 3-D glasses in a special case, next to the remote control, to go along with our new minimalist green-and-sustainable life style. One thing we can’t get rid of is the mattress (personal library can go). The evolution of man has been to go from sleeping bags at a garage start-up, to foam mattresses for baby boomers.

Mattress comfort is ranked up there, right along with our library book download in large-font.

The trilogy and the tragedy

Back in September of 2008, the first of the Trilogy (Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) provided us with a perfect literary escape: exotic, foreign yet so close to home. She managed to play with fire and rose from the grave to finally “kick the hornet’s nest”.

What a catharsis! You look at the two columns, fiction and non-fiction, the choice is clear: who wants to read about “Too big to fail”, “Crash of the titans” “On the brink” etc.. Our heroine got juice: she could ride the motorcycle,

hack into a database and defend herself in the subway.

Sort of Charles Bronson (Death Wish)  reincarnated.

The trilogy acquaints us with an alternative and fascinating life style. It is an euro-exotic escape, at least for the entire three installments.

Stocks were up, stocks were down.

Our character was shot down, bandaged up and got in shape to stand trial against the system, or more likely, a rogue group using the system to keep her down.

Hollywood was thriving during the earlier Great Depression.

This time around, it plays safe with the return of Superman, Spider Man, Batman and Iron Man.

Except that, this time around, the audience won’t sit still and wait to download the movies.

The audience (User-generated content) is filming real events (and should Superman fly by, he will get on video as well).

Street protests in Iran, Tunisia, Egypt and Libya , shot by I-phones,

gave us front-seat view.

No, the trilogy has nothing to do with the tragedy surrounding us still.

But somehow, it resonates and connects the millions of us, who read the books, and viewed the films. It’s as if finally the adults can show their kids that “hey, I am hooked on something too” ( since you got your Harry Potter series.)

Most of us, in our life time, might not get to Stockholm. But this gives us a chance to hear , see and feel the winter chill of a Nordic street. And perhaps, for the first time, felt connected with those Icelanders, who despite similar distance from New York Stock Exchange, have been affected in a big way by securitization and CDO’s.

Just like Asian stocks today. The event in Tripoli triggered a $100/barrel of oil, which forced a lot of automobiles in China and elsewhere to stay idle in their designated garages. If the “Girl with a dragon tattoo” is finally translated into Mandarin, I am sure many will find the time to read and feel fascinated.

At least, in fiction, the ending seems to tidy up.

Unlike our common tragedy called life.