One ought to be allowed to wander, and to wonder aloud.

I shocked my friend when I stated to a dinner table full of our friends: “I am deliberately trying to avoid the news cycle right now (during the UK General Election). It’s full of noise and I don’t believe that it’s improving my ability to choose between candidates” To which my friend responded “Why are you proud of being ill informed?” This is a reasonable question. I used to be a news junkie....

“The game taught me the game. And it didn’t spare me the rod while teaching.” Jesse Livermore (the character that inspired Reminisces of a Stock Operator) Having previously worked in finance as an analyst, one of the roles that was most interesting to me was trading. I interacted on a daily basis with the traders, producing analytics (read: pictures created in matplotlib) that helped them come to a decision. I also produced data that was fed into more automated strategies, but even then I was producing a dashboard of charts and graphs to ensure that the processes were running correctly....

“Not all those who wander are lost.” - J.R.R. Tolkien “If you would not be forgotten, as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worth reading, or do things worth writing.” Benjamin Franklin I am in dire need of flexing my writing muscles and bringing some coherence to the things I am reading and doing. The pages that follow will contain a selection of thoughts, essays and book reviews reflecting what I’m thinking about, what I’ve been reading and what I intend to do next....