Author: Steve
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The inflation storm is here. It’s more than just eggs and postage stamps. Whether you realize it or not, your org is sailing through rough waters of inflation. You cannot control the winds and swells, so you just have to trim your sails and navigate through it as best you can. How bad is the…
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Tesla has a rule of thumb: Assume the car did something wrong every time the diver moves the steering wheel while in “self driving mode”. If the driver steps on the brake or overrides the steering, Tesla does the OPPOSITE of giving the car “the benefit of the doubt”. I do the same when I…
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A “Steel Man” is all about empathy. A steel man is not who you ARE. It is something you DO. It is something you can CREATE if you master your emotions, listen attentively, and take a long term view of your relationships. A “steel man” is the strongest version of the argument made against your…
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Let’s talk politics. More specifically, let’s talk about why people HATE to talk politics… But HAVE TO all too often. Remember the wise career advice given in the late 90’s: “Don’t discuss sex, religion or politics at work.” This was the brief and wonderful window of time between the reckless, misogynistic “Wolf of Wall Street”…
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Do not wait for “normal” times to return. There is no “normal” interest rate environment. There is no “normal” rate of inflation. The job market will never be “normal’. There has never been so much money printed. The national debt has never been this high, both domestically and abroad. We have never been so close…
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It has been an amazing 19 months with Five Star Bank. I am grateful for the opportunities and friendships. I am proud of the accomplishments and personal growth across my teams (including myself of course). Best wishes to everyone at Five Star Bank. I expect big things!
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Things are not going according to plan. Mike Tyson saw this coming. “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” I have a video conference shortly. An infant is sleeping on my chest. My haircut is conspicuously DIY. It has been two months since my last handshake and even longer since my…
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Normal isn’t coming back. There is no such thing. Never was. No steady state equilibrium. There is only ongoing disruption and adjustment. The economy is always adapting to find better “Patterns of Sustainable Specialization & Trade” (“PSST” by economist Arnold Kling). When conditions are relatively stable, we specialize and optimize: 2% efficiency gains here, some…
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Everyone I know has a big “but”. My plan was perfect, BUT there is a pandemic. His algo was brilliant, BUT trading was halted. I’ve never seen so many but’s at once. These are strange times. Strange enough to seek the wisdom of Pee Wee Herman. In his 1985 movie, Pee Wee tells Simone, basically:…
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FinTech firms are in a superposition of regulated and unregulated states until they are observed (by a regulator). For those unfamiliar with the Double Slit Experiment, physicists proved: Reality is not defined until it is observed. What you observe now can change the past. Until an observation, all possibilities are simultaneously true (“superposition”). This is…