GUILLERMO WECHSLER

Bica Coffee House

Coffee treated as if it were great tea, in an austere, functional Bauhaus setting, hundred yards from Rockridge BART Station. A 24 inches mac display fully devoted to trains real time departures and arrivals. No comments on musical ambience. A horizontilly mirror, 4 feet by 10 feet. 6 tables inside, 2 outside, 2 bar seating areas (one very nice in front of a glass wall.

The big short

Here there is a great map about Michael Lewis book. Short investment has become a great game after the invention of CDSs. First, it has produce enormous value to the private investors that have played the game, and second, it has made a great contribution to transparency, performance and market organization. The Big Short has been a good reading to me.

USA Banking performance: Credit quality improving?

Credit quality has been improving for a few quarters in a row -however, USA mortgages are not expected to improve anywhere soon-. CFOs' of some banks are "optimistic" about their assets quality... while they may be more nervous about new regulations and "de-intermediation" -reduction of people willing to use their services-... so, the optimism looks shallow. There are no interesting proposals coming from bankers about restructuring financial services industry... except consolidation, and that pathway drives to the wrong place: criminal complacency and legalized unethical compensations  "... don't worry, we are too big to fail".

Educational environments and emergent virtues

Jane McGonigal thinks the opposite of games and gaming is not reality, but depression. In ten years from now, playing games in synthetic environments (MMORPG) will become a skill that new generations will perform at a virtuoso level. As a result of that a new range of dispositions will be available for that generation: urgent optimism, social fabric, blissful productivity and epic meaning. A whole new educational environment of planetary scope has emerged in a decade, with enough force to tackle our "real" contemporary challenges.

Financial Services

Peer2Peer lending in China. Great.

Engineering based innovations

I was writiing a paper for the Chilean Legislative Commision for the development of the National System for Innovation Based Competitiveness. We were struggling to make the distinction between sources of innovation (science and generative theories; engineering and technology; emerging cultural turns) and innovation itself. I come across this Dean Kamen's interesting TEDtalk about engineering addressign human concerns and resignations...and opening the possibilities to load a new product with tons of services.

comfortably numb

If it is too complicated you are missing something. So, start again...break through numbness and feel the discomfort of some disorientation and anxiety...first step for valuable innovations...if you already have enough experience and commitment in that world.

Volver

On the dunes close to the ocean threre was a gentle wind , warm...en el Alicia que se opone al Popocatepetl uno detenido muy cargado...en la noche del desierto de Tarapaca uno levisimo, extremadamente leve, uno que no cargaba nada y se lo llevaba todo...hasta los pensamientos...in Los Cuernos del Paine and its cousin Mount Shasta I tried the coldest and wildest...no, the coldest was Michigan Lake...en Machupichu un flujo lento como una boa que lo abrazaba todo...un ir y venir y nada de comienzo a end

Open Innovation at InnoCentive

InnoCentive is a very interesting innitiative. A kind of crowdsourcing to deal with challenging situations along innovation procesess. I havent seen the "Open" part to the story yet. It seems to work mostly with a private IP modality.

Entrepreneurship?

I heard from Carlos Slim speech in the Mexican congress. But I didn't paid attention to it until my friend Julia Menendez sent me an email urging me to read it and to read Denise Dresser comments on it. Take a look, it open a valuable perspective.