introspectica

What makes you tick? Do you ever really think about it?

There are a lot of superficial answers; we can all point to people, items or situations in our lives that provoke a certain type of deep response. Of greater importance – at least to me – is why we have those responses at all. What is it about a situation, a relationship or a particular object that has the ability to elate or crush us? Why are we so torn between head and heart? Can we deal with uncertainty and its associates in a rational way? How can one get equally passionate about both the deeply scientific and the profoundly theological – sometimes at the same time? The underlying ethos of those questions is, at bottom, the key theme of introspectica. introspectica is a celebration of the non-linearities and complexities of life.

From a slightly different angle, my aim is to garner some insight on the relationship between the rational and the aesthetic by watching how they play out in various domains – I may even attempt the odd synthesis along the way. My plan is to explore and tease out some ideas by writing a collection of essays, brief commentaries and reviews that – to varying degrees – look at different aspects of life at the sharp end of the knife.

Most times you check in here, you might find a short piece that discusses a current event or perhaps reviews some cultural item – a little bit like notes or journal entries; it might be about a movie, a restaurant, a book or a scientific idea…anything really. Other times you may find a fairly lengthy spiel about something market related (i make my living in the market). In short, the notes will be entertainment value.  You are just as likely to find a good idea for a trade as you might a good wine recommendation or inspiration for some opening gambit in your next conversation. Who knows…

Every now and then, though, you might log in and find a feature essay. These essays will, I guess, be the culmination of all the prior notes and reviews. I plan to be fairly eclectic in the topic range, but the over-riding themes will usually be the same. I hope that’s where you will find the good stuff that makes you think: time will tell.

Being a buffoon by nature, I plan to have a little fun along the way as well. As one of my great guiding lights, Nassim Taleb,  writes at his website, “My major hobby is teasing people who take themselves & the quality of their knowledge too seriously…you may not be able to change the world but can at least get some entertainment & make a living out of the epistemic arrogance of the human race“. So, in that spirit, there will be more than a little bit of light-hearted scathing going on here as well… there aren’t too many places on the web where you can find a synthesis of the philosophy of Taleb with the humour of Will Ferrell, but this might be one of them .

The last part of commentary will be the technical. As mentioned earlier, I work in the market, so you have a better than even chance of finding the odd Bloomberg graph,  a swatch of code for R or Mathematica or discussions about the philosophical problems of trading. Every now and then, I might also poke some fun at the ridiculousness of faux elitism in investment banking culture…I’m only human after all.

Finally, a little bit of disclaimer. I realise that it’s the height of arrogance to assume that anyone might actually want to read what I have to say: so be it. I’m starting this from scratch as a bit of an outlet for my thoughts so, if it takes an audience, fantastic. If not, I’m equally fine with that. If you do read this, I hope you comment along the way…comments will remain private, but I will do my best to respond individually where merited.

PS: Why the Paris picture? It will become clear over time, but let’s start by saying it’s a great example of a city that combines the rational and aesthetic in many ways….more on this later.