Strategy's Business Thread

[JubilantLankyLad 1,957]

I think people who classify themselves as "cigar smokers" generally won't be cigarette smokers and vice versa. It's hard to identify yourself as a cigar smoker (as opposed to a cigarette smoker) when you smoke 20-60 cigarettes a day - you may smoke the occasional cigar but that's probably it. Its just hard to find the time to maintain both a cigarette and a cigar habit simultaneously, and the sheer volume of cigarettes would probably cause people who smoke both to ID themselves as cigarette smokers.I guess it depends if the question is "do you ever smoke cigars?" or "are you a cigar smoker?" or "are you a smoker?"

[Balloon guy 158]

Besides, I'm poor now, just like you. Except for the golf club membership and the other stuff

[Balloon guy 158]

I think people who classify themselves as "cigar smokers" generally won't be cigarette smokers and vice versa. It's hard to identify yourself as a cigar smoker (as opposed to a cigarette smoker) when you smoke 20-60 cigarettes a day - you may smoke the occasional cigar but that's probably it. Its just hard to find the time to maintain both a cigarette and a cigar habit simultaneously, and the sheer volume of cigarettes would probably cause people who smoke both to ID themselves as cigarette smokers.I guess it depends if the question is "do you ever smoke cigars?" or "are you a cigar smoker?" or "are you a smoker?"

How do you rope smokers classify yourselves?

[ShakeZuma 585]

I guess it depends if the question is "do you ever smoke cigars?" or "are you a cigar smoker?" or "are you a smoker?"

if I remember correctly, the question on the application regarding smoking was something like: do you smoke? and the answers were like "yes" "occasionally" and "never". if you answered occasionally you had to elaborate, like "a cigar once a month" or something. didn't matter though, still got rated as a smoker. pretty funny actually.

[JubilantLankyLad 1,957]

How do you rope smokers classify yourselves?

i don't smoke anything anymore, really (thanks for the cigar in vegas, tho).

[SBriand 4]

fuck cover letters

[strategy 4]

You pigeon hole me into a social-economic group than brag that you are part of a group that doesn't make these distinctions?I see a flaw in your ability to reason that I am going to let you figure out yourself.

schooled yet again by balloon guy

if I remember correctly, the question on the application regarding smoking was something like: do you smoke? and the answers were like "yes" "occasionally" and "never". if you answered occasionally you had to elaborate, like "a cigar once a month" or something. didn't matter though, still got rated as a smoker. pretty funny actually.

can't wait to have to do all these things for myself.

[SBriand 4]

Nevermind, wife offered to write my cover letters. Whew. Good thing I married an actual writer.

[Jeepster80125 0]

You are considered a higher risk if you have consumed, even once, tobacco. The delivery method doesn't matter. BG and his cigar smoking will get neck, throat and mouth cancer along with the chewing tobacco guys, and not as much lung cancer as the cigarette guys. In most areas, you are considered a tobacco user until you have been tobacco free for two years.BG, once again, why do your poor decisions (cigars) make you any better than cigarette smokers or chewing tobacco users?

[Napa_Don 688]

I wanna be poor like BG.IRT Smoking:I (mistakenly?) answered on my insurance questionnaire that I had smoked in the past year because I had a cigar the night of my graduation (only kind of smoking I've ever done). Now I have to pay $60 more in premiums for the year until I can take a "freedom from smoking" course next year, which should be a blast. I see it like AA "I've smoked xx packs for xx years" "Hi, I'm Napa, I had a cigar once on the night of my college graduation and haven't smoked before or after that"

[Balloon guy 158]

You are considered a higher risk if you have consumed, even once, tobacco. The delivery method doesn't matter. BG and his cigar smoking will get neck, throat and mouth cancer along with the chewing tobacco guys, and not as much lung cancer as the cigarette guys. In most areas, you are considered a tobacco user until you have been tobacco free for two years.BG, once again, why do your poor decisions (cigars) make you any better than cigarette smokers or chewing tobacco users?

Poor decision?Have you ever met a chewer? With their spit bottle in their cars? Pretty sure everyone is better than them.It's better than smoking pot according to This siteSo why are you making such poor decisions?

[DrawingDeadInDM 0]

Poor decision?Have you ever met a chewer? With their spit bottle in their cars? Pretty sure everyone is better than them.It's better than smoking pot according to This siteSo why are you making such poor decisions?

So because someone makes a worse decision than you, it means your decision isn't poor..?

[Balloon guy 158]

So because someone makes a worse decision than you, it means your decision isn't poor..?

I can live with this logic

[strategy 4]

excellent interview with nassim taleb from yesterday. he wrote a new section for his book (black swan) earlier this year that talks about debt's influence on certainty in predictions/models. anti-keynsians and anti-obamas will love it.

[El Guapo 8]

excellent interview with nassim taleb from yesterday. he wrote a new section for his book (black swan) earlier this year that talks about debt's influence on certainty in predictions/models. anti-keynsians and anti-obamas will love it.

I just had a client recommend that book to me, have you read any of it?

[strategy 4]

I just had a client recommend that book to me, have you read any of it?

I bought it like two months before he released his updated version. I liked it, but I guess I'm a little baffled that it sold as well as it did. it is not the kind of writing you encounter in a gladwell-type book.

[strategy 4]

saw this a while ago, never got around to posting it:three economists go hunting a moosethe first misses far leftthe second misses far rightthe third jumps up and down shouting, "we hit it!"

[Naked_Cowboy 0]

i like this guy a lot (i know, you're shocked). thanks strat.

[strategy 4]

i like this guy a lot (i know, you're shocked). thanks strat.

maybe you'll find it shocking that mk likes him too? I think he does, anyway. he posted a piece taleb wrote on avoiding "too big to fail" from the FT a long time ago.np!

[El Guapo 8]

MK is not as crazy as he pretends to be.

[Jeepster80125 0]

You should have spent the ten grand and bought the lolcat sites.http://www.urlesque.com/2010/06/15/cheezbu...times-coverage/

[strategy 4]

potash looking for alternative offersI have never understood the hostile takeover. even in a field like potash where PPE is a pretty huge deal, you are still paying a premium for all the human capital that can and will leave for one of the other canadian potash miners (canada is the saudi arabia of potash) at the earliest opportunity. it seems like this effect will be magnified with the acquirer being a foreign company.if I ever take a company public, it will include a poison pill if I can manage it. because suicide is always a good option, amirite?

[speedz99 145]

I (mistakenly?) answered on my insurance questionnaire that I had smoked in the past year because I had a cigar the night of my graduation (only kind of smoking I've ever done). Now I have to pay $60 more in premiums for the year until I can take a "freedom from smoking" course next year, which should be a blast. I see it like AA "I've smoked xx packs for xx years" "Hi, I'm Napa, I had a cigar once on the night of my college graduation and haven't smoked before or after that"

I want you to know how thoroughly I shook my head at you after reading this.

saw this a while ago, never got around to posting it:three economists go hunting a moosethe first misses far leftthe second misses far rightthe third jumps up and down shouting, "we hit it!"

There are about a thousand jokes like this...the best one has something to do with drowning (as all great jokes do), but I can't remember it at the moment. What a useless post I just wrote. I'm submitting it anyway.

[strategy 4]

http://www.gallup.com/poll/122840/Gallup-D...ic-Indexes.aspxfrom this guy's perspective, it seems like people ought to be a lot more concerned than they are.http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=^VIX+In...ource=undefined

[strategy 4]

here we go again, spammin' my favorite podcast. I just eat this stuff up. I was going to say "shit" there but assumed someone would pop in with the line from happy gilmore.the basel committee and its role in financial reformthey open with a discussion of the housing situation. basically, it looks like there are fundamental problems in that market despite the efforts to guarantee mortgages and all the rest. this is why the stock market closed as it did yesterday. it helps to sum it up as such:that tiny uptick there at the end of the chart? that's the sum total of our efforts to prop up the housing market. data released yesterday makes it appear as though it won't be a lasting phenomenon.as for the meat of the podcast, they've got a bunch of interesting discussion on the international committee that may end up responsible for key aspects of the financial reform. they interview quite a few different people previously involved in that process. I really liked the vacationing former fed bank chair guy from goldman, even though I have this strong bias against slow-talkers.