Journals of Doc Surge

Jul 24

Opting for Stock Options

July 24, 2009 by Chris Billows in Business Beller 0 comments tags: Investing Knowledge

Purchasing stocks carry with it risk. Your money could be lost if the company goes out of business. You could lose money if the company is losing sales. What if you could own a ticket that would allow you to purchase a company if it did well? Would it not be kind of like having insurance policy that you could exercise if the conditions were right? Film or theatrical producers often buy the right – but not the obligation – to dramatize a specific book or script. That is what a stock option is. A stock option is the right to buy (call option) or sell (put option) a specific number of shares of a company, at a certain price, by a specified date. They add a delay effect to the normal direct purchasing and selling of companies. This delay if used wisely, can give you added advantages as an investor. Because of this, Options are very sophisticated financial instruments and should only be done once you have a working understanding of the stock market. Options Help Limits Losses Consider this for a moment; two men invest in the same stock. One man invests $10,000 and he hopes the stock […]

Jul 09

The Components of Talent

July 09, 2009 by Chris Billows in Mental Mischief 0 comments tags: Change of Mind, Defining Life, Human Condition

I had a discussion with a friend about musical talent. We both love music and discussed why we never ended up playing it. We arrived at different conclusions about why this happened. For me, I remember making a conscious decision when I was about 17 years old to give up on playing music. I loved it but not enough to want to play it. Playing music did not resonate with me the way it would resonate with somebody who needed to play it. I can play music and believe I would have been a competent musician if I put in hours into it. Its just that I have other interests. My friend says that he desperately wanted to play music but just could not. He said that people would show him how to play the guitar but he could not get his fingers to move the right way. It is was such a struggle that he decided that if it is not going to come easy, then its simply was not meant to be. He said that this proves that we both lacked talent. I disagreed with him. Part of the reason for that disagreement is that we lacked a […]

May 25

The Ecology of Art

May 25, 2009 by Chris Billows in Spirit Speculations 0 comments tags: Comprehensive Analysis, Critics and Criticism, Defining Life, Extrapolation

Does Art have to be controversial to be real Art? When does Art slip into Performance and Entertainment? When does Criticism become irrelevant? The purpose of these questions is to tease out answers that hopefully will lead to a better understanding of Art. As long as there has been Artists there have been Critics. But there are other players besides these two players. In addition to Artists and Critics, there are Consumers and Reviewers that appreciate the Art. Each contributes to a delicate ecology. Artists are driven by the need to create Art. At times, Artists will seek feedback on what they create and sometimes that seeking will lead them to simply become Performers. As Performers they derive their feedback in the form of money, ticket sales, fame, etc. For a Performer the Art becomes a means to Performance and at the highest levels, the Performance becomes the Art itself (Cirque du Soleil is prime example of this). Performers and Consumers have thus created a balanced ecology. If the Performers give they Consumers what they want (a good performance or Entertainment), the Consumers will give the Performers what they want (money, accolades). The Art itself becomes a product that is […]

May 18

Polls, Parties, and Power: Waste and Distortion in Canada’s Elections

May 18, 2009 by Chris Billows in Political Ponderings 0 comments tags: Change of Mind, Comprehensive Analysis, Political Opinion

It’s a cruel joke. I worked for hundreds of hours on my publication, Polls, Parties, and Power: Distortion and Wasted Votes in Canada’s Election 1980-2000. I was convinced that people would see “the facts” and naturally gravitate to adopt Proportional Representation. Now, I have come to admit that voting reform does not matter. What I thought was important, is important no more. But that does not mean I am discounting my efforts. I am proud of my publication and my early efforts in the voting reform movement. I learned so much from doing it and would like to share the culmination of my efforts with you. Check it out… Polls, Parties, and Power: Waste and Distortion in Canada’s Elections 1980-2000 Published 2002 312 Pages ~ Format: PDF ~ Size: 4.86MB Download it by right-clicking and selecting Save As.

May 13

Static Democracy and Changing Ideals

May 13, 2009 by Chris Billows in Political Ponderings 0 comments tags: Change of Mind, Political Opinion, Poltical Party Corruption

An interesting (and personally changing) result in the May 12 Referendum held in BC. The proposal to switch the existing system (First-Past-the-Post) to the single transferable vote electoral system (BC-STV) proposed by the Citizens’ Assembly on Electoral Reform was defeated. The results were 38.82% in favor of switching, which was far away from 60% they needed. They did not even come close to reaching the second referendum requirement, capturing only 7 of the 51 required ridings. In the spirit of full disclosure, there is a part of me that is disappointed with the outcome. I was involved in the Voting Reform movement back in its beginnings in 1995. I believed that by changing the way our leaders are elected, that we would change the outcome, which would lead to better government. That idealism has been steadily eroded over the years to the point I am now distrusting of political parties, ideological purity, and democracy. I remain interested in politics, but more from the perspective of leadership and how that leadership is developed. This will be a huge blow to Fair Vote Canada, as the result demonstrates the complete lack of political and democratic imagination possessed by BC voters. I would […]

May 09

The Answer to Organizational Failure: Complexity Science

May 09, 2009 by Chris Billows in Business Beller 0 comments tags: Comprehensive Analysis, Corporations Don't Think, Defining Life, Foolishness, Institutional Learning, Summarizing a Business Organization

I can’t recall how I stumbled onto this concept and websites, but a while ago I found this riveting theory which I believe explains why most modern organizations are so inadequate at times and spend far too much time chasing the wrong priorities. I have touched on parts of this in previous blogs such as Driven to Distraction and Even the Best Systems Fall Victim and A List of Guidance. The reason why this happens is they fail to embrace Complexity Science. Basically, it is because our social institutions continue to operate like machines, believing that events can be tracked in a linear fashion and have measurable inputs that neatly match known outputs. While there is no denying that some institutions do operate like machines (take most factories), the fact that humans end up doing most of the work leaves the model sorely lacking. What is more accurate is to realize that all human based organizations are non-linear and complex. It is common for these systems to exhibit the following characteristics: Small inputs can lead to dramatically large consequences. Very slight differences in initial conditions produce very different outcomes. Global properties flow from aggregate behavior of individuals. Emergence (of order) […]

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Opting for Stock Options

The Components of Talent

The Ecology of Art

Polls, Parties, and Power: Waste and Distortion in Canada’s Elections

Static Democracy and Changing Ideals

The Answer to Organizational Failure: Complexity Science

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