Renewing the Winter Tradition of Reading the Classics and Other Matters

(An Oldie but Goodie)

As mentioned before, being mindfully aware is the key to succeeding in any endeavor. Sometimes it does not hurt to re-read the classics (super text of know-how) to remind us of the various fundamentals of life. 

Recommended Classics
In a previous post, we discussed the topic of taking one quiet weekend to re-read the classics (The Seven Military Classics of Ancient China, Dao De Jing, Zhuang Zi, etc.) during the winter season while standing.

One of the following weekends, some of the group will be re-reading some of the following books:

• Against the Gods (The Remarkable Story of Risk);
• Sherlock Holmes Detective Stories;
• The Protracted Game;
•  The Thirty-six Stratagems Applied to Go;
• The Tao of Physics; 
• Strategies for the Human Realm;
• The Tao of Deception;
• 100 Unorthodox Strategies;
• Dao De Jing;
• Zhuang Zi;
• The Romance of the Three Kingdoms; and
• other unique strategic classics.

Here is an abridged list of the past "hot" books that we have read:

• Anti-Fragile; 
• Made to Stick;
• The Physics of Wall Street;
• The Signal and The Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail- but Some Don't 
• Turing's Cathedral: The Origins of the Digital Universe

For those who are audio listeners, we recommended the following books:

• Sawyer's translation of The Seven Military Classics of Ancient China
• Sawyer's translation of Sunzi's The Art of War

The rest of us will also be working on our Tangible Vision and our Compass Script while drinking hot tea.

This specific tradition and the use of the standing table have also enabled us  to hone our strategic and tactical skills.

Other Traditions and Suggestions
Following are other interesting yearly traditions that some of our strategic associates have always abide by:

• Renewing one's yearly subscription of Business Week, Psychology Today, The Wall Street Journal and The Economist;
• Reviewing and updating one's tactical playbook;
• Reviewing and updating one's contacts notebook;
• Backing up the data bank. 
• Upgrading one's own technological infrastructure;  and 
• Updating one's own security practices.

Our friends at Cook Ding Kitchen and other strategic groups have always reminded us to abide the subsequent list of suggestions that would help the underdogs:

• Donating some cash or books to your local libraries;  
• Donating some cash and/or food to your local charities; and 
• Offering strategic advice to your local non-profit charities.

Comment From the Compass Desk
Practicing the process of reading the configuration of a situation, reflecting on the pluses and the minuses and adjusting to the  situation, is the daily proclivity of a good strategic implementer.

In our case, we preferred the practice of assessing, positioning and influencing.  We will discuss about that specific practice in a future post. 

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...

The Yin and Yang of The Dao

Source:  brtu.com

Heaven signifies night and day, cold and heat, times and seasons. 
- Sunzi  (Lionel Giles translation)

Is the Value of Lego is Greater Than Gold ? (An Interesting Investment for the Long Term Thinkers)

According to an analysis by the UK Telegraph, the building-block toys are a better investment than gold or the stock market.

The FTSE 100 (an index of 100 companies on the London Stock Exchange -- similar to the S&P 500 on the New York Stock Exchange) has increased in value an average of 4.1 percent since February 2000, according to the Telegraph analysis. By comparison, Lego sets kept in perfect condition have increased in value 12 percent each year during the same period. If you invested in gold, you received a 9.6 percent annual increase in value, according to the Telegraph.

The secondary market for Lego sets, especially ones that are no longer in production, is the reason why Legos are better than gold. For instance, the value of the Cafe Corner Lego set, which originally sold for $139.99 in 2007, can fetch as much as $1,600 on sites such as BrickPicker.com, as long as the box is unopened. But where's the fun in that?

Source:  SF Gate

• Original Source: UK Telegraph

Side Notes 
Lego Mindstorms and Lego Mindstorms NXT are great learning tools for those who have kids who wanted to learn how to program robots.  This tool teaches the implementer how to think and visualize their objective and their tactical approach in a three-dimensional mode.

A Defensive Pointer for Surviving in The Cyber Economy: Using Panopticlick

To protect oneself from non-consensual Web tracking, check out panoticlick.  Also, click here for more information on this nice defensive tool  and click here on other security tools.

Click here for three good rules for online safety and click here for the 10 immutable laws of cyber security.

As we enter into 2016, it is advisable for each one of us to be mindfully aware of our surroundings and beyond.

Some More Food For Thought: A Pragmatic Idea for December 25

Comments From The Compass Desk
On this holy day, many people will pursue the historical strategic approach of eating Chinese food .

Click here on the Jewish tradition of eating Chinese food on Christmas Day.  

A few of our associates favorite Americanized Chinese food is  the General Tso Chicken.
While it is an slightly over-rated dish, some people consider it as comfort food. Click here for a quick history lesson on this "fun" dish.

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The late and great Red Auerbach the former coach of the Boston Celtics (a professional basketball team) , always had Chinese food for dinner regardless whether his Boston Celtics team won or lost a game.   ... He always insisted that his team consumed Chinese food for dinner, especially before a game. 

The presumption was that good Chinese food should never create the feeling of "heavy" with the eater.  Whether Coach Auerbach and his team have ever completed a Chinese "nine course" banquet, is a different story.   

"Being light is right" is the basic principle of consumption.  ...   The state of lightness enables one to be agile and mobile.  Conclusively, this state causes one to feel balanced. 

In our case,  some of us have always followed the Compass Principle of being balanced. 

Chinese Food + Netflix = A Good Day

Be  safe. 

Suggestions of Strategy Books for The Desktop Strategic Thinker

(updated on 12.25.15  5:55 am)

"A desk (or a conference room) is a dangerous place to view (or manage) the world." 
- Our version of a John Le Carre quote.

Suggestion

To succeed in the information economy, one must understand the "connective configuration" behind The Big Tangible Picture that operates within our information economy.  We highly recommend the following two books

Click here on our perspective 
of The Tao of Spycraft book.

Click here on our review on the 
Strategies for the Human Realm book.

Final Thoughts 
Once the Sunzi's essay and Jiang Tai Gong's classic are understood, it is time for the serious strategic thinkers to advance to those two books.

Both books are quite dry read for most amateurs unless one is seriously interested in enhancing their strategic analysis skill.

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Some More IPTV Trends (Autumn 2015)

IPTV Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends ...
Digital Journal
Growth of the IPTV market is also driven by factors such as the rising demand for video on demand, high-definition channels and hybrid services along with IPTV ...

Research and Markets: SAARC IPTV Market Q2 2015 - Total Active ...
Business Wire (press release)
India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are the three countries with active IPTV subscriber base in the SAARC region. IPTV is still evolving and is not widely accepted as a ...


Multi-screen content discovery engines market - global industry ...
WhaTech
The application segment consists of televisions, tablets, personal computers, internet and smart phones, while the platform segment includes IPTV, OTT, and ...

eSports forecast to be almost as big as Formula 1 by 2020
IPTV News
New data from Juniper Research has found that online eSports services, such as Twitch, will grow to over 310 million by 2020, increasing from 133 million this ...

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Telcos take a fifth of pay-TV market
informitv
“While the flurry of M&A activity has boosted numbers of Telco TV connections over cable and satellite, IPTV is also still growing, both organically and via ...

Pay-TV market slows in Western Europe
Advanced Television
In particular, the report highlights the growth of IPTV (and broadband TV), which became the second subscription-based platform after satellite, surpassing cable ...

Q3 pay-TV losses slow in the US
Rapid tv news
Verizon once again made the greatest gains , adding 42,000 FiOS video customers. IPTV compatriot AT&T, however, lost 92,000 U-verse television subscribers.

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Research and Markets: Global Video on Demand Market by ...
SYS-CON Media (press release)
Whereas as per platform the market has been segmented into IPTV, Pay DTT, OTT video and others. Key Topics Covered: 1. Introduction. 2. Executive Summary.

Global Video on Demand Market 2015-2020 - $74 Billion Revenue ...
IT Business Net
Whereas as per platform the market has been segmented into IPTV, Pay DTT, OTT video and others. Key Topics Covered: 1. Introduction. 2. Executive Summary.

Telcos take a hold of the pay-TV market
Rapid tv news
The growing power of IPTV has been revealed in research from Ovum that shows telecoms operators now own around a fifth of the world's pay-TV subscriptions.


Global Video on Demand Market by Revenue Model, Platform ...
MarketWatch
... market has been segment into SVOD, TVOD and NVOD. Whereas as per platform the market has been segmented into IPTV, Pay DTT, OTT video and others.


US pay TV down almost 400000 in Q3
TBI Vision-20 hours ago
“IPTV operators, which had offered the only bright spot in the US pay TV market, seem to be heading for a fall,” Ampere said in a blog post. “The rate of growth for ...

Canadians opt for IPTV over cable, satellite
Cartt.ca (subscription)
“The ongoing trend of the cable companies losing customers to the IPTV companies continued with the latest subscriber results,” said Boon Dog partner Mario
...

Canada: Record TV subs loss
Advanced Television
“The ongoing trend of the cable companies losing customers to the IPTV companies continued with the latest subscriber results,” notes Boon Dog Partner Mario ...


Cord-Cutting In Canada 7 Times Faster Than Last Year, But Telcos ...
Huffington Post Canada
Bell has been losing satellite customers, but has been gaining IPTV (Bell Fibe) customers, enough to be named recently Canada's largest TV provider, taking the ...

Pay-TV market slows in Western Europe
Advanced Television
In particular, the report highlights the growth of IPTV (and broadband TV), which became the second subscription-based platform after satellite, surpassing cable ...

Q3 pay-TV losses slow in the US
Rapid tv news
Verizon once again made the greatest gains , adding 42,000 FiOS video customers. IPTV compatriot AT&T, however, lost 92,000 U-verse television subscribers.

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Survey: 17% of Australians watched SVOD in last 6 months
IPTV News
Subscription video on demand (SVOD) is growing rapidly in Australia, according to a new ACMA survey of 1,505 Australian adults. From January to March this ...

Streaming subscribers to reach 4.7m in Australia by 2019: Ovum
ZDNet
Service guarantees are limited, and service quality cannot reach the same levels as pay TV and IPTV unless OTT providers convert themselves into IPTV ...

UHD specs with broadcasters by 2017 says DVB Project
Rethink Research (subscription)
... approach to UHD could happen, and Laven eventually conceded that the internet and IPTV would be important for delivering UHDTV, and that leads to access ...

Global IPTV Market to be Propelled by Mounting Demand for High ...
Industry Today (press release)
IPTV refers to internet protocol television.Any user with an IP device such as a laptop, tablet, or smartphone can avail the IP service at any point of time and in ...

Global Digital Video Content Market 2015-2019 - Key Vendors are ...
PR Newswire (press release)
The report includes digital video content in the following segments: digital cable TV, IPTV, online video, and VOD. The VOD segment considers revenue ...

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Digital Video Recorder Market Sees 14.82% CAGR Growth to 2019
Digital Journal
To calculate the market size, the report considers revenue generated from the sales of DVR through cable, DTH, IPTV, and DTT. The global DVR market is ...

1/5 instantly abandon poor streaming experiences forever
IPTV News
One in five viewers will abandon poor experiences immediately, regardless of genre. Furthermore, following a poor experience, one in five will never return to ...

9/10 demand single app experience for TV
IPTV News
9 out of 10 US pay-TV subscribers (86%) want a single app for all of their video watching, according to new data released today from Altman Vilandrie ...

DVR market to grow at 15% CAGR to 2019
Advanced Television
To calculate the market size, the report considers revenue generated from the sales of DVR through cable, DTH, IPTV, and DTT. The market research analyst ...

Increased Broadband Penetration Driving Growth of Global IPTV ...
Digital Journal
Albany, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 11/27/2015 -- Integration of advanced technologies with current Internet Protocol television (IPTV) systems is anticipated to boost the ...