tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27917929137019678492024-03-13T18:26:05.248-04:00budgetnow blogDr.Rizzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18236393860461060022noreply@blogger.comBlogger27125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2791792913701967849.post-12668942174344022002019-01-01T19:13:00.001-05:002019-01-01T19:14:56.447-05:00Making personal finance fun?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Personal finance can be a dry topic. Reasons can be many. For a start, it is a vast topic with many options, hence suffering from paradox of choice. Then, it lacks instant gratification, something we like. Worse still, it involve some self-disciplining... Damn still... it is more work. No wonder I have a modest crowd to <a href="http://budgetnow.ca/" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background: 0px 0px transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">my budgeting app</a>, despite being express and free.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">In my readings and viewings, I came across "financial independence". The idea is my "passive income" (e.g. YouTube videos, stock dividends, real-estate rentals etc.) is big enough to cover my expenses. Then a full-time job becomes optional or a hobby. In contrast to a never-ending goal of becoming mega rich, becoming financially independent seems much more doable. I want to achieve it systematically and am at the very start. But personal finance is still dry... </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">To make things fun, my friend @Douglas Owusu introduced me to a free multiplayer online game <a href="http://www.richdad.com/apps-games/cashflow-classic" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background: 0px 0px transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">richdad</a> (inspired by RichDadPoorData philosophy of Kiyosaki?) I see many remain stuck in the inner circle of paycheck to paycheck. Possibly an eye opener for many. I think discussing with like-minded friends will keep afloat. Knowledge sharing will hopefully divide the work. Need to diversify revenue streams. I invite suggestions from readers? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">[Cross posted]</span></div>
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Dr.Rizzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18236393860461060022noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2791792913701967849.post-2432426017917077092018-08-19T12:00:00.000-04:002018-08-19T12:00:11.104-04:00Retaining 1-person newbie service - guidelines?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9dlhMI8KW6U/W3mS25nph9I/AAAAAAAAEik/iKtcIqj11GYRaSoow8bkGbUidLEud8QmgCK4BGAYYCw/s1600/ETF_growth_blurred.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="123" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9dlhMI8KW6U/W3mS25nph9I/AAAAAAAAEik/iKtcIqj11GYRaSoow8bkGbUidLEud8QmgCK4BGAYYCw/s640/ETF_growth_blurred.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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<br />
<a href="http://budgetnow.ca/" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #665ed0; font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">budgetnow.ca</a><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 20px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 20px;">is my side project. It is an express personal budgeting system at no cost. Yet, it has a modest and non-growing traffic. Somebody asked me if I retained a 1-person newbie service, how would I see it working. I write up my thoughts as a three step process:</span><div>
<span style="font-family: Source Serif Pro, serif;"><span style="font-size: 20px;"><br /><ol style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="color: #444444;">Discovery exercise: (a) establishing current status of traction, (b) establishing where the gaps are</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #444444;">The fix: (a) high-level ways to plug the gaps, (b) detailed plan with acceptance criteria</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #444444;">Execution and delivery: (a) executing the plan, (b) hand over</span></li>
</ol>
</span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.749019607843137); font-family: Source Serif Pro, serif;"><span style="font-size: 20px;"><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 20px;">I would certainly pay for 3 and 2b, but would be seeking a complementary 1. A goodwill 1 is needed to establish rapport and trust. 2a is up for negotiations. </span></div>
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Dr.Rizzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18236393860461060022noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2791792913701967849.post-62158326928395349402018-08-19T11:43:00.000-04:002018-08-19T11:44:53.863-04:00Top 10 questions for a potential startup employer?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Here is my list as a prospective employee. It is based on a <a href="http://www.paulgraham.com/13sentences.html" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #665ed0; font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">Paul Graham's essay</a><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.75); font-family: "source serif pro" , serif; font-size: 20px;"> </span>and my startup interviews earlier this year.<br />
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li>What is the value proposition? how do you validate it?</li>
<li>How often do you release the product to users? How do you interact with them and address their problems and comments?</li>
<li>How did the cofounders find each other? Are they all hands-on technical?</li>
<li>Are you pre revenue? break-even?</li>
<li>Who are your investors?</li>
<li>At your current burn rate, how many months of operation can you finance before next round of funding? </li>
<li>What is the biggest risk to your startup?</li>
<li>Do you have an equity plan in place for the employees?</li>
<li>How are the working hours like?</li>
<li>Has anyone already left the company? If so, why didn’t it work out?</li>
</ol>
</div>
Dr.Rizzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18236393860461060022noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2791792913701967849.post-69951276371601358912018-08-19T11:29:00.000-04:002018-08-19T11:29:33.465-04:00When everything is 4-star, how do you differentiate between them?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UnfLODoGQFs/W3mLxmXcNXI/AAAAAAAAEiY/lh91LkQYGRMQEBxzcvteKYNvCCcEypyAQCK4BGAYYCw/s1600/everything_4star.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UnfLODoGQFs/W3mLxmXcNXI/AAAAAAAAEiY/lh91LkQYGRMQEBxzcvteKYNvCCcEypyAQCK4BGAYYCw/s1600/everything_4star.png" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 20px;">Ranking on a scale of 1 to 5 stars has emerged as a standard. Whether it's reviews on Amazon, Google or for an employer on a job board. The coloured stars seems to be an average of all the rankings. It certainly makes it easier for a reviewer to give a ranking from 1 to 5, essentially between a choice of 4. I like that. Imagine if one has to rank them from 0 to 100. I'll be thinking too much. Yuck!</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 20px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 20px;">The problem I find is that they concentrate around 4 stars. I propose to keep the coloured stars as-is but augment them with a percent (%) score.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 20px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 20px;">How?</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 20px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 20px;">Anything less than half-a-star is hard to make out. This gives us 8 bins with width of 0.5 each, between 1 and 5. Assuming we round up all the decimal points, an average of 3.6 to 4 would render a full 4 coloured stars but the percentage score can will be between 72% to 80%. We get a bigger range if we add decimal points to % score.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 20px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 20px;">Still not convinced. Continuing with our running example of two average boundaries that render full 4 stars, namely 3.6 and 4. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 20px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 20px;">percent score with 3.6 average = (review_count x 3.6)/(review_count x max_score(i.e.5)) x 100 = 72%. Similarly, it is 80% with an average boundary of 4.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 20px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 20px;">Simple data science solving a real problem? :-)</span></div>
Dr.Rizzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18236393860461060022noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2791792913701967849.post-21961909351680580972018-08-19T11:04:00.001-04:002018-08-19T11:04:50.474-04:00Losing 15kg with (almost) the same eating habits<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-aGSjB2v9q-k/W3mBPMwe7fI/AAAAAAAAEiM/W66IG5OePmYTrHunHpwKWtOSDp2L64-YwCK4BGAYYCw/s1600/weight_loss.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="181" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-aGSjB2v9q-k/W3mBPMwe7fI/AAAAAAAAEiM/W66IG5OePmYTrHunHpwKWtOSDp2L64-YwCK4BGAYYCw/s400/weight_loss.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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First, I have done it and produce the graph as evidence. I share this example because I found it “easier” than I thought and'd like to help my peers wanting to lose weight. It serves as a concrete example of “you optimize, what you measure” (source: unknown entrepreneur). I use this principle in my life on many fronts from work to <a href="http://budgetnow.ca/" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #665ed0; font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">budgeting</a><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 20px;">. </span>Anyways, back to healthy weight loss:<div>
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li>I measure weight every day on Fitbit’s Wifi smart scale, namely <a href="https://www.fitbit.com/aria2" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #665ed0; font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">Aria</a><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 20px;">. </span>It keeps a log of my weight and shows my progress.</li>
<li>I culled processed sugar intake. They got it wrong. <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/fat-and-sugar-part-1-1.3635209" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #665ed0; font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">Sugar is the worst culprit</a><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 20px;">.</span></li>
<li>I reduced food and carb intake by prepending every meal with raw salad. Salads can be tasty too.</li>
<li>For the afternoon snack, I eat simple popcorn (nothing fancy). They are voluminous and fill up tummy.</li>
<li>Big fan of green tea, specifically <a href="https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00CKJ43MA/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #665ed0; font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">Genmaicha</a><span style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 20px;">. </span>It has a subtle taste, and I drink it hot (not boiling) with every meal instead of water.</li>
</ol>
Finally, I was consistent. Credits: @Sanaa Wasi for eating schedule, tasty salads and low-calorie snacks.</div>
</div>
Dr.Rizzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18236393860461060022noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2791792913701967849.post-40680079667899884042018-03-06T20:13:00.000-05:002018-03-06T20:13:53.385-05:00Don't ask Don't tell...this time current salary?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Recently visited NYC for a mini-reunion with school friends. One of them is a MD, one Research Professor, while the other two are bankers at Citi. Happy to know that banks are investing heavily in ML in both adoption and adeption. Though they don't see ML or valley as an existential threat, yet. I also see a lot buzz at the Canadian banks, hiring data scientists in masses. Many data scientists are PhDs with an interest or heavy weight academics. The unicorn in this case is someone who understands and marries business with machine learning.<br />
<br />
One thing my friends were all excited about is that it is now illegal in NYC to ask about the salary history during the hiring process since October 31, 2017. I'm surprised that Ontario labour laws lag behind on this question. Not only employers and especially recruiters ask this question but the latter seem insistent on it. They also seem curious on the demographics of the applicant's residency. While the previous salary may definitely play a role in low balling, demographics seem more subtle in lowering salary expectations. My comment on this is top talent merits top dollars, or employers risk flight of talent.</div>
Dr.Rizzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18236393860461060022noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2791792913701967849.post-78826670085278164712017-12-30T12:54:00.002-05:002017-12-30T12:59:30.172-05:00How much does an IT contractor cost compare to an employee?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="background: white; vertical-align: baseline;">
About the same!!!</div>
<div style="background: white; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.7); font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background: white; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.7); font-size: 12pt;">I hear from my large clients
claiming how much money a contractor makes compared to a full-time employee
(FT). I have always wondered the real cost of a contractor to a client. So, I
did the maths, and surprisingly the results show that the dollar cost is about
the SAME!</span></div>
<div style="background: white; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.7); font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background: white; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.7); font-size: 12pt;">How? Assume contractor cost of
$100 per hour, and pay of the similar FT is at $130,000 with a modest annual
combined contribution of CPP, EI, TFSA, RRSP and severance insurance of
$15,000. I subtracted 1_month_risk_premiums from contractor invoice since
a contractor is always on the hook! </span></div>
<div style="background: white; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.7); font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background: white; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.7); font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-trlrg_yqSC8/WkfSvXPNNwI/AAAAAAAAEcg/3wM2zYwIew0g-N_5uF9-H94G4Rnp0KhWwCK4BGAYYCw/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2017-12-27%2Bat%2B2.37.43%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="209" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-trlrg_yqSC8/WkfSvXPNNwI/AAAAAAAAEcg/3wM2zYwIew0g-N_5uF9-H94G4Rnp0KhWwCK4BGAYYCw/s320/Screen%2BShot%2B2017-12-27%2Bat%2B2.37.43%2BPM.png" width="320" /></a></span></div>
<div style="background: white; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.7); font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background: white; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.7); font-size: 12pt;">B</span><span style="color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.7); font-size: 12pt;">oth worker types cost about
the same. Am I missing something? </span></div>
<div style="background: white; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.7); font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background: white; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.7); font-size: 12pt;">W</span><span style="color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.7); font-size: 12pt;">hether contractor can get more
take home income is another story. Possibly, at the cost of risk of express
redundancy, no severance, no EI, filing additional taxes, self-training etc.
For a FT, an employer has to provide most of them.</span></div>
<div style="background: white; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.7); font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background: white; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.7); font-size: 12pt;">Then, why does the employer
prefer FT?</span></div>
<div style="background: white; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.7); font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background: white; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.7); font-size: 12pt;">Likely, the government incents
for keeping FTs. An FT has to be loyal for, at least, three years and grows
with the employer. The truth is my fellow contractors and I are delivery-ready,
love our work, want to deliver, avoid bureaucratic meetings and be responsible
for our own learning.</span></div>
<div style="background: white; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.7); font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background: white; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.7); font-size: 12pt;">With automation on AI steroids,
we are going to see the job market becoming exponentially fluid and temporary
e.g. Experfy, Upwork etc. My plea to the clients is embrace us, not hate us --
we don’t cost you extra!</span></div>
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Dr.Rizzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18236393860461060022noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2791792913701967849.post-69666118292114384202017-09-05T20:28:00.002-04:002017-09-05T20:30:57.103-04:00When is it a good time to educate youth about money?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.7); font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: 3.2rem; margin-top: 3.2rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The short answer is as early as possible. <a href="http://www.moneysense.ca/learn/how-not-to-raise-spoiled-kids/" rel="nofollow noopener" style="border: 0px; color: #827be9; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">Moneysense </a>puts ages for financial learning in bins, and the youngest bin is 0-6 years old. Ontario is rolling out <a href="https://www-thestar-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.thestar.com/amp/news/gta/2017/03/23/ontario-launches-plan-to-teach-high-school-kids-financial-skills.html" rel="nofollow noopener" style="border: 0px; color: #827be9; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">pilot </a>projects to teach high school kids financial skills. It is very much needed. The consumer debt is rising year-over-year states <a href="https://www.thestar.com/business/2017/09/05/non-mortgage-debt-spikes-for-canadian-consumers.html" rel="nofollow noopener" style="border: 0px; color: #827be9; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">Equifax</a>, and full-term jobs are eroding away with AI. </span></div>
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.7); font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: 3.2rem; margin-top: 3.2rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Teaching money does not have to be boring!!! It can be fun. I have put up posters to teach my kids count and summation. Game of monopoly, though invented by an anti-capitalist woman (<a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/120933/mary-pilons-monopolists-review" rel="nofollow noopener" style="border: 0px; color: #827be9; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">controversial</a>), is fun over holidays. I am thinking of turning my budgeting system, <a href="http://budgetnow.ca/" rel="nofollow noopener" style="border: 0px; color: #827be9; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">budgetnow.ca</a>, into a game. How would you make teaching money fun for your children?</span></div>
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Dr.Rizzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18236393860461060022noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2791792913701967849.post-25388606196038051782017-06-03T19:26:00.000-04:002017-06-03T19:26:02.356-04:00Emergence of non-linear and unconventional careers?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.7); font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 21px;">With automation on AI steroids, we are going to see the job market becoming exponentially fluid and temporary e.g. Fiverr, Upwork etc. Non-linear career paths are on the rise and alternate ways of making money is becoming a common place. Companies are turning to social media, and the "influencers" promoting products with their honest views to their fans (</span><a href="http://www.cbc.ca/radio/undertheinfluence/pastepisodes/the-wizarding-world-of-influencer-marketing-1.4047050?autoplay=true" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #8c68cb; cursor: pointer; font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 21px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">CBC 27m</a><span style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.7); font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 21px;">) -- win-win. This is sometimes even true for simple things such as You tube videos for "Unboxing videos: How 5-year-old kids earn $1 million a month" (</span><a href="http://www.cbc.ca/listen/shows/columnists-from-cbc-radio/segment/12736882" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #8c68cb; cursor: pointer; font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 21px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">CBC 4m</a><span style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.7); font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 21px;">). </span></div>
Dr.Rizzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18236393860461060022noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2791792913701967849.post-49752959625585542642017-05-15T22:44:00.000-04:002017-05-15T22:52:46.003-04:00Is social media damaging your career and life?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: left;">
Prof. Newport at Georgetown University says, "the harms of social media to your career are being underemphasized." [1]. Social media can be hugely distracting, killing creativity -- but *worse* is addictive along with other technology [2]. Some of the smartest brains in the world design these app to keep us engaged. While my Egyptian friends credit Facebook for their Arabian Spring, it harms children's language and communication development. For Adults, it is a time sink of around 4 hours a day on average. The irony is that the more time you spend, the worse you might feel [3].</div>
<br />
Alter's advice -- author of Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping us Hooked -- to technology addiction by picking up a screen-free time for some part of the day [2]. I only do Facebook for promoting my pet project <a href="http://budgetnow.ca/">budgetnow</a> [4], but suffering the ills of a mechanical life, and actively looking for ways out. Radio is one escape, audio books while commuting is another.<br />
<br />
[1] <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/radio/spark/337-sick-buildings-salty-storage-solutions-and-more-1.3875227/social-media-is-damaging-your-career-1.3878412">Social media is damaging your career, CBC 10m</a><br />
[2] <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/the-current-for-may-15-2017-1.4112604/why-technology-is-addictive-and-what-to-do-about-it-1.4112606">Why technology is addictive and what to do about it, CBC 27m</a><br />
[3] <a href="https://hbr.org/2017/04/a-new-more-rigorous-study-confirms-the-more-you-use-facebook-the-worse-you-feel">The More You Use Facebook, the Worse You Feel, Harvard Business Review </a><br />
[4] <a href="http://budgetnow.ca/">budgetnow.ca</a>: A fast, free and anonymous budgeting system.</div>
Dr.Rizzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18236393860461060022noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2791792913701967849.post-15062411247060253842017-04-16T11:38:00.001-04:002017-04-16T11:46:44.795-04:00No taxes in the Middle east -- myth or reality? <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Let's talk about Dubai for foreigners -- probably the most hip city in the middle east, and compare it to GTA. Yes, there is no income tax. But...there are taxes that you may not see...sales tax, property tax, highway tolls...<br />
<br />
And there is no public health, no public education, no child benefits, no employment insurance, no pension.<br />
<br />
Housing for an average family is more expensive, clothing is more expensive. Can't lease/finance a vehicle for 0% finance. I crunched the numbers and no income tax does NOT offset other expenses and benefits that I get at home in Canada.<br />
<br />
Budgeting was hard problem for me as a married PhD student at Queen's University. Empathizing with students and other salaried workers, I developed a *free*, anonymous and fast budgeting system [1]. My interactive application allows users to try "what-if" scenarios to save more, and provides "Jump Start" for investing the surplus cash.<br />
<br />
[1] http://budgetnow.ca/<br />
<br />
Credits: Sanaa Wasi, Jawad Arshad</div>
Dr.Rizzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18236393860461060022noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2791792913701967849.post-79348189197361669592017-03-18T12:52:00.000-04:002017-04-16T11:47:06.727-04:00Time is Money!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Time is limited (only 24 hours in a day) but money is NOT?! Trading money for time is not a bad idea if invested in something more meaningful, such as automating the damn chore that eats your time in the first place.<br />
<br />
One example of this is using Walmart Grocery Pickup. Select and pay for the items from home, and pick up at the scheduled time. Walmart remembers your past purchases, so future purchases can bank on past further relieving you from making a laundry list. Better than home delivery as you are NOT home bound at the time of delivery.<br />
<br />
Another example is buying lottery online instead of buying it at a store possibly waiting in line...and then later checking if won anything. Why not buy online using PlayOLG, and it emails you if you win anything.<br />
<br />
Credits: Imran Bashir</div>
Dr.Rizzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18236393860461060022noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2791792913701967849.post-2336114112513165012017-03-12T21:48:00.004-04:002017-03-12T21:57:26.329-04:009 + 1m HIIT is similar to 50m of moderate exercise!!!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 21px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: 3.2rem; margin-top: 3.2rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
Scientifically, 1m of high intensity interval training (HIIT) + 9m padding produces similar results of 50m moderate exercise. This includes treatment of free radicals, cleaning up of rusty protein and increased energy generation at microcondia of a cell. Hear the entire program at <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/listen/shows/quirks-and-quarks/segment/11956021" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #8c68cb; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">CBC</a> (15m). </div>
<span style="color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.701961); font-family: inherit; font-size: 21px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">The exercise routine:</span><span style="color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.701961); font-family: inherit; font-size: 21px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<ul style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.701961); font-family: inherit; font-size: 21px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">
<li>warm up</li>
<li>20s extensive climbing, running or biking</li>
<li>break</li>
<li>another 20s</li>
<li>break</li>
<li>another 20s</li>
<li>cool down</li>
</span></ul>
<span style="color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.701961); font-family: inherit; font-size: 21px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">
</span><span style="color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.701961); font-family: inherit; font-size: 21px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">10m, you are done! Saved you 40m + gym fees :-)</span></div>
Dr.Rizzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18236393860461060022noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2791792913701967849.post-85237903800445097992017-03-11T21:31:00.001-05:002017-03-11T21:31:04.480-05:00Near-clouds: Bringing Public Clouds to Users’ Doorsteps<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 21px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: 3.2rem; margin-top: 3.2rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
The rate of data growth in many domains is straining our ability to manage and analyze it. <em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 0.975em; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Cloud computing</em> appears as a promising platform for data-intensive computing because it offers “infinite” resources on demand, and on a pay-as-you-go basis. Surprisingly, we observe that public clouds are not being used for “serious” data-processing on a continuous basis except by the cloud vendors. We primarily attribute this observation to the long data transfer times over wide-area networks between the clients and the centralized public clouds. We introduce the idea of a <em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 0.975em; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">near-cloud</em> that brings a public cloud in the close proximity of a user to overcome the data transfer bottlenecks. The near-clouds also provide a unique opportunity to localize the privacy and security policies to boost confidence of a user in using shared resources for data processing. To the cloud providers, near-cloud ensures a minimum constant stream of revenue from dedicated clients.</div>
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 21px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: 3.2rem; margin-top: 3.2rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
[1] <strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">R. Mian</strong><em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 0.975em; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">, et al.</em>, "Near-Clouds: Bringing Public Clouds to Users' Doorsteps", in <em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 0.975em; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The 9th IEEE Symposium on Computers and Communications (ISCC)</em>, Madeira, Portugal, 2014, p. (accepted).</div>
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Dr.Rizzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18236393860461060022noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2791792913701967849.post-14552200109363460362017-03-11T21:30:00.000-05:002017-03-11T21:30:10.928-05:00Estimating Resource Costs of Executing Data-Intensive Workloads in Public Clouds<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 21px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: 3.2rem; margin-top: 3.2rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
The promise of “infinite” resources given by the cloud computing paradigm has led to recent interest in exploiting clouds for large-scale data-intensive computing. In this paper, we present an analytical model to estimate the resource costs for executing data-intensive workloads in a public cloud. The cost model quantifies the cost-effectiveness of a resource configuration for a given workload with consumer performance requirements expressed as Service Level Agreements (SLAs), and is a key component of a larger framework for resource provisioning in clouds. We instantiate the cost model for the Amazon cloud, and experimentally evaluate the impact of key factors on the accuracy of the model.</div>
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 21px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: 3.2rem; margin-top: 3.2rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
We formulate the constructs for modeling the cost of workload execution in a public cloud. We present a cost model for workload execution, and evaluate it in the Amazon cloud. Our cost model is workload aware and provides cost at the granularity of an hour. More importantly, we explore methods for building and instantiating a cost model for workload execution in IaaS-based clouds. These methods are relevant for other IaaS GoGrid or RackSpace. We believe that our cost model provides a basis for modeling dollar-cost for executing any workload type in the Amazon cloud. We anticipate that the users considering clouds for executing their application would find the cost model useful.</div>
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 21px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: 3.2rem; margin-top: 3.2rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
Our cost model provides an hourly cost of workload execution, and assumes that the data already exists in the cloud. The experimental evaluation shows that our cost model is a suitable tool for estimating the cost of workload execution for the pay-as-go-scheme in the Amazon clouds.</div>
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 21px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: 3.2rem; margin-top: 3.2rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
We vary the use-cases in the user-controllable variables: (a) workloads, (b) VM types and the (c) SLOs’ specifications. Our evaluation workloads consist of analytical, transactional and mixed types. We consider different workload combinations on different VM types. We also specify SLOs on the transactions and the queries belonging to different tenants. The SLOs vary in their threshold and penalty values. The <em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 0.975em; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">absolute</em>average error in estimating configuration costs across all experiments is 6.28%, which is about $0.02 of the total measured cost of the configurations on average. With the scarcity of training samples, we are unable to verify the distribution of results and resort to using average as the aggregation method. Therefore, these results must be taken with caution.</div>
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The current cost model, while adequate for workload execution in a single zone, needs to be expanded in order to deal with any inter-zone and inter-region communication costs. Also we do not address the cost of maintaining consistency between replicas, leaving it as future work.</div>
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<strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">R. Mian</strong><em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 0.975em; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">, et al.</em>, "Estimating Resource Costs of Executing Data-Intensive Workloads in Public Clouds," School of Computing, Queen's University Technical Report#: 2013-613, 2013. <a href="http://research.cs.queensu.ca/TechReports/Reports/2013-613.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #8c68cb; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">http://research.cs.queensu.ca/TechReports/Reports/2013-613.pdf</a></div>
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Dr.Rizzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18236393860461060022noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2791792913701967849.post-48393611897140285282017-03-11T21:22:00.002-05:002017-03-11T21:22:31.046-05:00Standing up to a bully boss -- are you kidding me?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Well, if you don't it gets worse -- research shows!!!</div>
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Handle a fired up boss calmly and assertively, <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/programs/theearlyedition/workplace-psychologist-jennifer-newman-explains-why-it-s-important-to-stand-up-to-an-abusive-boss-1.3693325" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #8c68cb; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">CBC states</a> -- easier said than done..right??? I had better luck keeping the conversation focused on work, and seeking his/her advice because s/he ain't listening. I would try to avoid the situation in the first place by keeping things transparent and informed. Also, surprise your boss with "above and beyond" bits here and there. But why not work for a smaller company where you are really needed!!!</div>
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Dr.Rizzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18236393860461060022noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2791792913701967849.post-7852528062868296872017-03-11T21:13:00.001-05:002017-03-11T21:15:17.583-05:00Selling Yourself: The Art of Personal Branding<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: black;">Gone are the days when being uni-dimensional tech guru gave you the highest growth. We now need a multi-facet profile or a "personal brand" to sell our offerings to top employers or angel investors -- the latter I am increasingly interested in. Towards this, I share a very relevant and fun radio program [1]:</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">"This week, we take marketing lessons from big brands and apply them…to you. This episode explores how to manage your social media, pick the best profile pic and avoid cliches in your resume."</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2674723240" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #8c68cb; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">[1] http://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2674723240</a></div>
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Dr.Rizzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18236393860461060022noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2791792913701967849.post-74538055604229429592017-03-09T10:56:00.002-05:002017-03-09T10:56:32.599-05:00"Don't take it personally: Growing a thicker skin at work" and life :-)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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We all feel we have a thick skin but answer this -- do you "replay" somebody's comments in your mind?</div>
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If the answer is yes, well... <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/new-brunswick/pierre-battah-thicker-skin-1.3558723" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #8c68cb; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">CBC</a> says grow a thicker skin, I say be more bubbly.</div>
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Dr.Rizzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18236393860461060022noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2791792913701967849.post-1189793203643217832017-03-09T10:26:00.000-05:002017-03-09T10:26:37.904-05:00Workplace -- Not delivering enough?!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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With so many "miscellaneous" things at work, is it fair to feel guilty for doing enough?</div>
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<a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/programs/edmontonam/workplace-column-do-we-have-time-for-this-1.3645536" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #8c68cb; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">CBC(6 minutes)</a> talks about "time wasters" that includes too many meetings, notifications, emails, chats, phones that distracts us from "thinking". It is hard to deny importance for some of these. But I actually feel guilty for not doing enough productive work.</div>
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"50/50" is something I came across in Manhattan where 50% time is allocated to "actual" work, and "50%" to everything else without feeling guilty.</div>
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Dr.Rizzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18236393860461060022noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2791792913701967849.post-3361490549526667772017-03-09T10:02:00.000-05:002017-03-09T10:02:16.428-05:00How an algorithm can help you make decisions?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 21px;">"Well you might already be turning to algorithms more often than you think, according </span><a href="http://www.brian-christian.com/" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #8c68cb; cursor: pointer; font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 21px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">Brian Christian</a><span style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 21px;"> and </span><a href="http://cocosci.berkeley.edu/tom/index.php" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #8c68cb; cursor: pointer; font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 21px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">Tom Griffiths</a><span style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 21px;">.They're the authors of a new book called </span><a href="http://algorithmstoliveby.com/" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #8c68cb; cursor: pointer; font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 21px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions</a><span style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 21px;">. It's all about how some of our everyday human problems can be untangled through algorithms." </span><a href="http://www.cbc.ca/radio/spark/319-make-better-decisions-with-math-and-more-1.3562081/video-how-an-algorithm-can-help-you-make-decisions-1.3562083" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #8c68cb; cursor: pointer; font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 21px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">CBC radio (15m)</a></div>
Dr.Rizzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18236393860461060022noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2791792913701967849.post-86840611487804507252017-03-04T18:51:00.003-05:002017-03-04T19:44:57.779-05:005-hour work day -- is it coming?!!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Imagine starting at 8 and finishing at 1. Working well at a <a href="http://www.towerpaddleboards.com/" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #8c68cb; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">Shart Tank company</a>. And I have increasingly started hearing/reading about this on <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/radio/spark/327-working-less-social-credit-scores-and-more-1.3762032/the-5-hour-workday-1.3762035" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #8c68cb; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">CBC</a> and Harvard Business Review (<a href="http://hbr.org/2015/08/the-research-is-clear-long-hours-backfire-for-people-and-for-companies" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #8c68cb; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">HBR</a>).</div>
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Productive hours in a day are around 5 anyways, the sources claim. Rest is filled with chatter, eating, face-book, youtube etc. I have even seen people playing video games in the afternoon, OPENLY! :-)</div>
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So, how this works is if the work done is measured by goals not time. If you slack, you go!!! Not for everyone. What are you going to do with rest of the time. Whatever you like. Spending time with kids in a park or doing creative work, which happen to be entrepreneurial interests in my case.</div>
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Dr.Rizzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18236393860461060022noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2791792913701967849.post-58063662058590608352017-03-04T14:08:00.001-05:002017-03-04T14:08:25.532-05:00Bad news is also bad news for your mental health!!!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Cut down on your bad news intake, please...It has a toll on your mental health, experts say (<a href="http://www.cbc.ca/listen/shows/columnists-from-cbc-radio/episode/10822908" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #8c68cb; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">CBC</a>). Worse yet, it is addictive. We do want to stay connected. Instead, solution-oriented bad news is more helpful. Why not be selective on what you hear on radio. CBC has a <a href="http://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ca.cbc.mobile.android.cbcnewsandroidwebview&hl=en" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #8c68cb; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">mobile app</a> that allow you to select the programs you want to hear from a featured list. This week I really enjoyed listening to another example of <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/listen/shows/st-john-s-morning-show/segment/10924219" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #8c68cb; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">goal-oriented flex employer</a> in Newfoundland. Check it out!!!</div>
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Interestingly, bad news is highly regulated in the state-controlled media in the middle-east. Yes, you guessed it right. The kings don't want to look bad. On a side note, I am working on a conjecture that "good news" would actually make us more productive and happy citizens.</div>
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Dr.Rizzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18236393860461060022noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2791792913701967849.post-1710558666735098782017-02-12T11:20:00.000-05:002017-02-12T11:20:44.448-05:00Too many choices: blessing, paradox or a curse? <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica neue custom" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;">"Psychologist Barry Schwartz takes aim at a central tenet of western societies: freedom of choice. In Schwartz's estimation, choice has made us not freer but more paralyzed, not happier but more dissatisfied."</span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica neue custom" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;">This <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/barry_schwartz_on_the_paradox_of_choice#t-270093">Ted talk</a> is such a "must" listen, both educational and comical...You'd be surprised how universal this observation is from buying an item to zeroing on retirement goals. By suffering from "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analysis_paralysis">analysis paralysis</a>", progress, if any, is snail-paced. How about agility?...get started with something and adjust the direction as we go along (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agile_software_development">agile methodology</a>), whether household <a href="http://budgetnow.ca/">budgeting</a>, <a href="http://budgetnow.ca/investing.php">investing</a> or a start up.</span><br />
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Dr.Rizzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18236393860461060022noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2791792913701967849.post-16375702672759620272017-02-12T10:26:00.000-05:002017-02-12T10:28:55.296-05:00Got surplus cash at the end of each month, now what?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Do something about it or let the compounding inflation eat it! Investing comes to mind, but with so many choices where to start. Try googling or asking for investment options at your bank or googling. They'll tell you so many options that you'll either pick one confused, or suffer from "analysis paralysis". In contrast to traditional financial planners that tell you to start from your retirement goals, I say J<a href="http://budgetnow.ca/investing.php">ump Start investing</a> and adjust the direction as you go along.<br />
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Dr.Rizzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18236393860461060022noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2791792913701967849.post-34732612392051457612017-02-05T14:35:00.000-05:002017-02-05T14:44:24.909-05:00Ballpark budgeting for the busy!!!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">We can go nuts accounting for the budgets and expenses. Frankly it is needed for the people who have no idea where their money is going, </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">says </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Moneysense. Meanwhile, my partner (Sanaa) and I did it during my PhD years out of dire need. Now, we do it to stay on top of our expenses. However, it burns too many cycles. I think once the expenses are figured out then there is no need for "nit picking". Ball park budgeting is fine. Only need to pay attention when the expenses are "out of whack" compared to the budget. Similar sentiments are voiced by MoneySense Nov 2016 issue.</span></div>
Dr.Rizzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18236393860461060022noreply@blogger.com0