Recently in Books Category

I've recently finished a pretty decent book recommended by a co-worker, Accelerando, by Charles Stross. It's a SciFi book about the impending singularity and how humanity has to adapt to the changing world around them. For about the first half of the book I didn't care all that much for it. I felt like the author was a decent author but he spent a lot of time bashing the United States and Capitalism, not a sure way to win my heart. But as the book goes on this tones down and I started liking it much more.

One of the more intriguing questions of the book is what it means to be human. It's asked throughout the book but is never directly addressed. For example, in the book humanity has figured out how to completely map the human brain into a computer (the book assumes that if you could do this you would capture the essence of a human) or into other bodies (like animals or whatever). At one point the main character spends a number of years as a flock of pigeons (no, not one pigon, but a whole flock) as an experiment in collective consciousness. IF that's not challenging traditional ideas of what it means to be human I don't know what is.

Overall the book is worth the read and presents many challenging philosophical questions and the possible outcomes of the current technological race we are competing in. I'd recommend reading it. If you want to order it you can get your copy from amazon here.

I have never read this book and I don't ever intend too.  But I have read several of this guys articles on Yahoo Finance and I can't believe that there is much worth while to learn from this book,  From the reviews on Amazon that I saw and if reading his articles are any indicator of his advice, it's pretty bad.

In the first article that I read he argues that no one should invest in mutual funds because they are too expensive for investors and do not earn good returns.  In his example e argues that your average mutual fund will ding you 2.5% of your invesment on an annual basis.  This is flat out untrue.  According to morningstar a review of all the US mutual funds the average expense ratio of a mutual fund is 1.5% of total assets invested.  Now I agree that there are lots of mutual funds out there that aren't worth the money to invest in but when we are trying to decide if mutual funds belong in our portfolio we should at least take a fair few of how much they are going to cost us.  As with everything a fair asseswsment of the situation requires us to look closer.  There are mutual funds which will charge obscene amounts of money for mediocre returns.  But there are also funds that are run by talented managers and have much lower costs.  For example, take a look at John Montgomery funds at Bridgeway.  He offers a wide range of funds and has shown himself to be an ethical and talented manager and they come with a reasonable price tag.  Some mutual funds aren't worth there exorbitant fees, but some are priced more fairly and deserve a look at.

The second point in this article by Richard Kiyosaki is that mutual funds don't offer the performance that a good active investor should expect from the market.  He says you can expect about 10 to 25 percent annual return.  That's crazy!  Show me the fund that offers 25% annual return and I'll sign up.  This is when you know this guy really is a nutter.  The S&P 500 is generally used as the benchmark for average US stock return and that benchmark has acheived 10.25% annually or the last 75 five years on average.  Small caps have done a percentage point or two better but no where near the 25% return that Kiyosaki says you can expect.  The greatest part is that he scoffs at that though!

 In another article I read by Kiyosaki he argues that only stupid investors diversify to cover their financial planners butts.  He says you should be a focused investor because that's what the worlds greatest investors are.  Guess he's never heard of Ben Graham, the father of modern investing.  According to Graham and many other studies by intelligent people asset allocation which means diversification is a good thing.  I feel bad for the focused investor who took Kiyosaki's advice, done his due diligince but invested in the next Enron ... bye, bye nest egg and riches.  I guess for Kiyosaki your not an investor unless you are perfect.  I for one am not and don't know anyone who is so I think I'll stick with the rational people and stick to an intelligent asset allocation.

From his two articles I'm pretty convinced this guy knows next to nothing about good financial practices.  There will always be the cult followers who say this guy has made a bundle and is trying to enlighten us.  But, as for me I think I'll stear clear, and my pocket book will probably thank me for it.

So long story short: don't waste your money on this guy. 

Ok, yes, I'm lame, I read books that are meant for twelve year olds, and I read them multiple times.  But you have to admit J.K. Rowling is very good at keeping her audiences attention.  She has the rare skill of writing witty, humurous dialog.  Someting rarer than one might hope.  I'm reading the 6th Harry Potter book again... so there, I've admitted to my childness, leave me be in my fantasy world :)

I like books, I like them a lot.  I love how they help me to think clearer and the ideas they present.  I don't why but I've always loved books.  I just finished Beggars in Spain which is a scifi book by Nancy Kress.  It won the hugo award in 1992 and a friend of mine at work, Derek, told me about it.

Basically it's about the jeolousy that is bred in a society where there are genetically engineered humans who are clearly superior to the rest of the race.  One of the major genetic alterations is the ability to not sleep.  It turns out that these "Sleepless" are better in every regard, they are smarter, better socially adjusted, etc.  There are no negative side affects.  Kress disuccesses the idea of what it means to have community and what should be done with the unproductive members of society, the "beggars."  I think it's an interesting book because the technological ideas such as sleepless that she presents are interesting to me but I also belive she comes to an interesting conclusion about the social aspects of a society with clearly superior beings.  It is obvious that all men are not created equal in ALL regards--some are better looking, some are smarter, the list goes on and on but the important thing is that we are all created equal in the innate rights we are born with: liberty and freedom.  Kress challenges and explores these ideas which makes for a very intresting read.  If anyone out there likes to read definately add this one to your list.  If you don't like scifi I would still give it a chance because there is a lot of discussion of philosophy under the guise of scifi.