Whose Nose Knows

Common sense

2009-09-26T16:24:00.000-07:00

We all know that the nose can know. Why let shenanigans, like mis-used mathematics, take that away?

Ken Fisher has a new book on how to smell a rat. Sounds like a message of value.

Remarks:

10/11/2011 -- Business has stunk for a long while. The protesters can smell the rankness.

10/05/2009 -- Trouble is that these things are never easy, no matter how hard we try. Hence, the little people need to develop talents for them to use on behalf of themselves and others. There are people who are not lying in wait to exploit opportunities, as opposed to types like the golden sack'rs.

Modified: 10/11/2011

Importance of nose

2009-07-06T17:17:00.000-07:00

While we were looking at the nose as a prime means for truth processing, we haven't forgotten about the other senses. It's just that the nose has a lot going for it that we need to understand better.

USA Today recently published an opinion article that talked about people losing their smell from using a pharmaceutical. That the author lost smell is very much part of the opinion.

As Turing proposed an AI test, we ought to do one in regard to some real world thing (see 07/05/2009 Remarks), such as fooling someone to think they were flying by using a flight simulator.

On the other hand, if we learned how, perhaps the nose could augment visually based assessments in areas where the requirements are strong and not easily met.

A new day

2009-03-10T07:54:00.000-07:00

We're a few weeks in, so it's a little early to see substantial changes. Yet, that they are coming is in the air.

The bean counting world, how is its nose? It's an important part of the financial (economic) side. On the product side, we'll need more discussion.

Remarks:

03/11/2009 -- True, the Poster boys, et al, motivate, yet, so to does the flimflam of the game definers.

Modified: 03/11/2009

Necessity of nose

2008-09-22T07:07:00.000-07:00

This blog's outlook is part of a triad. Of course, it is by no means sufficient, the nose, that is. We are multi-sensed and talented.

But, for now, if we look at current events, financial and product, from this means, perhaps a more full model will emerge.

We have to admit, though, that the old smeller can be very effective, hence it is the starting place.

Remarks:

12/13/2008 -- Much water has passed under the bridge. But, new types of revelations continue to arise.

Modified: 12/13/2008

Nose and its peers

2008-07-03T08:17:00.001-07:00

The thing is that we can pick the nose's view as interesting. Our observations seem to show its importance to certain species. Too, the good and the bad are easily discerned, for some, along this sense axis.

But, as we know, there are other axes (senses) that could bear equal weight in determining truth and not. One may even argue that a fully balanced entity (truthful) would collocate across all the spaces in what might be called the positive region.

Now, the focus to date has been more on the entity being evaluated, somewhat assuming that the nose is. Well, the nose may have a stroke and return awry results. That is, it may lead us to worse than the perdition path.

So, what are we to do? Therein lies one rub that has led to the modern, relativistic viewpoints. Therein lies another rub relating to the ease of misjudgment.

But, the problem, though not solvable, is manageable. That is the focus that we'll be taking, in a multi-sense framework, bowing to the nose, though, as it spawns such wonderful alliterations.

Nose and fallacy

2008-06-01T11:47:00.000-07:00

Since the nose, of any type, is the measures under our model, the question would always arise as to its ability in ferreting out the truth. That is, who knows whose nose knows best.

That power and money trump much is a telling tale. Somehow we need to bolster an independent view that cannot be brokered or bought.

The 'ludic fallacy' of Taleb points to one mode of discussion. Elsewhere, much has been said about abstractions and gaming, albeit that the latter is in the context of our financial world.

In terms of a program, one would think that levels of management, or involvement, would be characterized by different nose functions. For instance, that the CEO sees a different picture than does the program manager who has to deal with details of problems is obvious.

So, in determining truth, role needs some attention as well as do other factors.

In any case, the nose would tell us what stinks, mainly.

In defense of Nick

2008-04-23T08:54:00.000-07:00

Oprah has been doing a weekly webcast using Tolle's book. The event is an example of things to come, technically. The book is touching a nerve across the world. Analysis about this will be an interesting topic for some time.

During the 4/21/08 webcast, a young guy, named Nick, asked about issues of practicality which is a good question. To some, Tolle's work may look to be 'navel' gazing; that is, we all don't have the luxury of being present (or receiving presents, we have to work) all the time (example: the Moscow guy already brought up the issue of having to handle the boss); there are things that have to be done in real-time where we need to show that being present contributes to efficacy.

Nick's comment about the cell-phone was right on. It may be working now, in the present. But, unless one takes action now to make sure that the thing is working in the future, it will not be working in the future. Nick's use of 'worry' in this case may have misdirected the discussion.

Tolle's response says that, yes, we need action, yet 'not to worry' is the key. Oprah noted that many think that being present leads to passivity.

Nick's question goes to the core of a hole in Tolle's approach. Since, this topic is of interest to truth engineering, let's look at that further.

Business and the nose

2008-01-22T18:09:00.000-08:00

The Economist recently had an article about the 'salaryman' of Japan. Well, we know that the US has been trying to impose its worker-unfriendly methods on our partners, so the salaryman is being replaced by part-time workers who get nothing in the way of benefit, essentially creating a whole generation without the means to care for their future.

Gosh, are we proud of that or what?

Similarly, many have worked for US business and have had their dreams shattered at a point in their life where possibility of recovery was virtually nil not that an earlier point would be any more ethically palatable.

If one looks at the median income line for the US, it has flat-lined, in real terms, for the past few decades. Yet, during the same period (and in the same graph), note the top 5%. Looking at the top 1.5% is even more dramatic. That old thing of getting rich has really taken hold.

But, and this is a big but, many whose pockets are bigger are financial gamers. One wonders why this might be; well, not wonder, as the tools and systems are better leading to the inevitable exploitation of such; it's just that those who care and want to make things better can't seem to catch.

Well, the nose and truth engineering are apropos to this.

Remarks:

10/11/2011 -- Business has stunk for a long while. The protesters can smell the rankness.

Modified: 10/11/2011

Financial nose

2008-01-18T06:49:00.000-08:00

It's obvious that we'll need this. However, there are many issues to address, such as motivation, measure, etc.

We can look at the general market issue or address specifics such as retirement (where the motive is not richness so much as moderate wealth (beyond sustenance)).

Remarks:

12/13/2008 -- Much water has passed under the bridge. But, new types of revelations continue to arise.

10/27/2008 -- Yes, things fell apart for several reasons: fiction, leverage, and more.

10/11/2008 -- It keeps getting more interesting.

08/24/2008 -- One example where we see a 9 to 1 increase off of $100K is equivalent to a reserve ration of 10% which can be considered a historically low figure for the reserve or a high multiplier. This notion is related to leveraging in the sense of creating something out of nothing from one view. Of course, as argued before, the lowering of the reserve ration goes hand in hand with increasing use of mathematics through growing computational prowess which can exacerbate the Minsky ponzi tendencies, as we've seen of late. If we're going to model the economy via computation, why not base it on some physical analog, like energy (no endorsement intended)?

Modified: 12/13/2008

Nose is nose?

2007-11-27T06:41:00.000-08:00

A recent post on 7 'oops 7 suggested that a medical metaphor (or that whole set and its myriad relations) may be powerful.

Well, that plays into the theme of this blog; let's say the focus here is measurement which requires resolution of what, why, who, when, how, and a lot more (as there are relations between these, for instance).

Of course, we have more senses than that of smell, yet the nose, as the more prominent (after the skin, of course), may play more of a role than has been realized.

We'll have several things to look at.

Thanks for the noses

2007-11-21T06:56:00.001-08:00

We can be thankful that nature gave us our nose and its close tie to our brain (Proust, et al).

We can be thankful that we can learn how to apply our nose to ferret out the truth while balancing that glorious instrument with all of the other means at our disposal, whether of sense, common sense, or other.

Modified: 11/24/2007

Noses and sock puppets

2007-11-09T07:09:00.001-08:00

Given the new media in all its potentials and glorifications, we find ourselves in a predicament of not having the proper 'nose' for determining the truth. The issue of the sock puppet is one thing of concern, or some might just say the use of aliases for anonymity.

Perhaps there is a better characterization that we need since some PR work can border on disinformation when what we would expect ethically would be misinformation, at worse.

The younger generation likes to talk about things sucking. The evolution of that phrasing has some interest aspects, yet thinking about the same issues in terms of stinking would appeal more to the appropriate intuitions.

That we need to develop various types of 'noses' will be one focus in this blog.

Nose by role

2007-10-26T06:22:00.000-07:00

Remembering that the 'nose' stands for the evaluative process (form and function - fit, too), one can apply this anywhere.

A recent example could be a new airplane program. There would plenty of nose types involved here.

For one, there would be the internally based nose whose operation results in the public stances and statements. One could imagine all sorts of permutations, though, in differences between the organizations, such as engineering, manufacturing, PR, etc. Even management would split between the operational types and executives.

Now outside, there would be even more. Yet, what a nose in the outside would have access to would be what the company allows to be exhibited. As one would guess, that would be a fairly strained entity (in the sense of filtered) and probably of a better odor than is real.

How can the nose know?

Modified: 06/01/2008

The collective as a nose

2007-10-12T02:50:00.000-07:00

As a reminder, the underlying theme pertains to how we know the truth which then supposes that we can define various types of truth and our related mechanisms for knowing the truth such as the knowing by nose. Could there be a collective nose?

Of course, there are other ways of knowing depending which will be discussed under the guise of truth engineering.

But back to to the nose of the crowd, techniques related to Collective Intelligence are interesting. One approach uses a market framework where money is the value for stock trading whose meaning is related to some question. To avoid some troublesome aspects, such as greed or the aura of gambling, monies won are contributed to charity.

In the recent case of the 787 delivery vote, a stock was defined and offered; the decision for the voter was to determine an opinion on the likelihood which would then be an offer for the stock; the last buy offer was in the $0.20 range. There are other examples, such as sport games (which may offer a way to play and to do so in a positive manner).

In lieu of other measuring devices, could voting like this represent a collective nose? Well, it's something that is worth more consideration.

That stinks

2007-10-02T17:33:00.000-07:00

A professor used to remark in response to an argument or statement or proof, in the classroom setting, that was not quite what it seemed, or ought to be, with "that stinks" as an expression of his evaluation. The use of "what stinks" leads to a discussion about how a nose (or what nose) helps us ferret (if you will allow) out the truth.

There are several types of noses ranging from the protuberance with which we face our daily lives to a high-ranging nose applied in the rarefied air of some mathematical spaces. Of course, we'll need to look at little 't' and big 'T' aspects of the nose.

Too, to further our explanation of the problematic aspects of computation, we can talk about several nose models. Truth engineering postulates that 'truth' assessment requires some 'nose' (its or their [as it could be noses] attributes to be defined) that is associated with intelligence of a humanly type.

Now, going to a concrete example of something that stunk then and still stinks, we can look at the consequences of some business practices. In this particular case, a significant number of older workers lost their retirement benefits. This is problematic as one trait of advancement in age is diminishing chance of recovering from failure. How are lost benefits to be made up by the older folk who lost, not due to their taking risk [except for working at the site] but due to what could be characterized as greedy manipulations by financial sharks.

One area to discuss in an objective manner might be the role of the union in cases like this. What could the union have done, perhaps, to help the matter? It needs to be noted that the whole affair seemed to have a union busting flavor; what is there that might allow a more clear assessment of such a claim?

Whose nose knows?

Remarks:

09/22/08 -- Well, Goldman Sachs wants to change the game. Why is this important? Well, the event was handled by their expertise; you see, they had rolled in the dough for years. Fortunately, for those who made it here; the timing worked. Not long after this, the financial games started to unwind. It's taken awhile. But, now with this development, we'll be more explicit and analytic.

01/01/08 -- 'stinks' pertains to one of several senses. As we know, in our advanced state of knowledge, there are ways that we can get better at the control issues. So, expect the 'nose' to become more multi-dimensional and multi-faceted (nose with legs, so to speak).

Modified: 09/22/2008

Mission and method

2007-10-01T06:42:00.000-07:00

This blog deals with how we can know where the 'nose' (a proper metaphor) is the correct tool and how to apply such. That we all have noses ought to help the intuition; however, that attribute of ours does not as well work in the virtual, of yet.

To where would the nose be applied? Many business decisions shatter dreams. There are endless arguments about business and ethics. Yet, work is central to people's well-being, using work in a fairly broad sense.

Business decisions affect us in other ways, too.

One approach might be to collect, document and discuss experiences related to business practices from all angles, and not just those hyped in the media, trying to ascertain and to maintain 'truth' related to events.

In terms of 'collect' and 'document' we may hopefully provide some persistent record that was not covered in the media. An example might be someone who lost their job in a divestiture detailing the cost. For one example, we can easily look at who won out. In terms of discuss, the idea is to handle both the concrete and the general (case studies).

Too, we can look at current events that may provide the grounds for developing the nose. An example might be a very visible program that has a very broad appeal and that covers so many aspects of modern technology and life that will be of interest to the needed effort.

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Modified: 11/24/2007