on 03-Sep-2022 (Sat)

re. Roam

Pros

• It is straightforward to link ideas together.
• The interface is clean and does not have a lot of distractions.
• Users can integrate images and videos easily.
• The learning curve is very short.

Cons

• There are no printing capabilities included in the program.
• There is no way to export documents in Docx or PDF formats.
• There is no web clipper available.

Graphic approach

The third technique based on capitalizing on previously established memories is the graphic approach. In previous sections, declarative memories and emotion memories have been employed. Graphic approach makes use of the powerful visual processing capability of the human brain. It has been discovered long ago that visual memories are by far more stable than verbal memories. Indeed, the core of mnemonic techniques makes use of the visual processing capabilities to enhance memory retention. In graphic approach, graphs, illustrations, photographs or video clips are used instead of verbal descriptions. As it will be shown later, textual representation of knowledge does not preclude graphic approach; nevertheless, it is usually a graphic figure that makes the most straightforward solution.

Finally, the most universal solution to enumerations are Cloze deletions. For example, instead of asking the student to recall different kinds of production such as unique product production, rigid mass production, flexible mass production and flow production, one might construct a series of Cloze deletion items in the following form:

Q: The types of production are:
- unique-product production (e.g. an office building)
- rigid mass production (e.g. old Ford's cars)
- ... (e.g. new GM cars)
- flow production (e.g. oil refinery)

A: flexible mass production

The above approach is universal and, in most cases, highly effective in dispensing with the enumeration problem.

(problem of enumerations)

Another approach can be taken in extending the definition of production discussed earlier and considering various kinds of resource inputs. These can most generally be: raw materials, labor, capital, land and managerial skills. An enumeration of exemplary raw materials might be reversed to a definition of raw materials through an enumerative example:

Q: What is the name of resource inputs such as coal, steel, water, etc.

A: raw materials

(problem of enumerations)

A partial solution to the noticed shortcoming, which does not bear the negatives of an enumeration might be:

Q: What exemplary goods show inelastic price demand (recall at least two)?

A: basic necessities, durable products, saturative goods, unique products, etc.

The remark in the parentheses plays an important role in ensuring that the student does not treat the above item as an enumeration, and that it clearly specifies the satisfactory degree of recall that can be used to decide when and when not to provide a passing grade.

Here again is an example of an item based on Cloze deletion. The important thing to notice is the clear visual image of the three-part enumerative structure evoked in the process of learning.

Q: The options for a higher cost company in competition with a more cost-effective rival:
- ... (big losses expected)
- collusion (rather illegal)
- improvement (of the product or cost structure)

A: price war

Naturally, at least two other items of the same sort will appear in a well-structured database; the missing component being collusion and product of cost-efficiency improvement. Additionally, elements of the declarative part preceding the enumeration might be made missing. As a result, several items will work on enhancing the visual component of the textual structure; the net result being better recall of the elements and the entire piece of knowledge.

Taleb posits two worlds: Mediocrestan and Extremistan. He describes Mediocrestan by having the audience imagine a group of 100 people and their distribution of weights. Then he says to determine how the average weight of the group would change if we added the heaviest person in the world to that group. It turns out to not affect the average that much – even if we add a 1,000 pound person, it shifts the average by only 0.5% or so. This is the world of the normal Gaussian distribution that we understand very well with standard deviations and the like.

Now do the same thought experiment, but use people’s wealth instead. Imagine a group of 100 typical people, and their average wealth. Now add Bill Gates to the group. At this point, 100 of the 101 people in the group are below average in wealth, and Bill Gates has approximately 100% of the wealth of the group. This is the world of Extremistan, where outliers can blow up the normal distribution. This is the world of the Black Swan.

And what’s interesting is that we are so bad at dealing with Extremistan. We just don’t intuitively get it, even though we are surrounded by examples of it. Finance and wealth. Book publishing (a significant portion of all book sales are Harry Potter books). The music industry. eBay. We live in an Extremistan world, but our intuition (evolved in a simpler time without network effects) is still stuck in Mediocrestan. So we have to beware of our instincts, because they will get the wrong answers. And we have to beware of charlatans using Mediocrestan theories because they are calculable – it’s like physicists treating everything as a simple harmonic oscillator because that’s the only equation they can solve.

In mathematics and science, a nonlinear system is a system in which the change of the output is not proportional to the change of the input.

A star is defined as a business which is the #1 player in its market niche, and its market is growing fast (at least 20% - 30% per year). These two simple characteristics, set apart the business success stories, which make their backers tens of millions of pounds, from the run-of-the-mill businesses that just about breakeven but never make anyone rich.

If you are founding a business, look for a gap in the market where you will be number one from the beginning. And look for a niche big enough that you can sustain rapid growth for many years. Once you establish a leadership position, do everything you can to retain it. More importantly, if you fail to get a leadership position, or you find your niche is not as big as you thought, it is better to cut your losses and direct your efforts elsewhere.

If you are an investor, look for embryonic star businesses that you can back, where you can have an active say in their management (and ensure they remain stars).

If you lack the resources to found or invest in a business, try your utmost to find a star business and go to work for them – the ‘first 20 people’ in on the ground floor can reap the benefits later on by getting shares or options. What’s more, working for a star business is much more fun and a much better learning experience than working for big corporates.

Koch exhorts every reader to try one of these three: found, invest in or work for a star business.

“Between 95% and 99% of businesses are not stars. For every 20 ideas you have, you can confidently junk 19 of them, because they won’t be ideas for a star venture. This saves an awful lot of money, sweat, toil and tears. Star ventures are rare...but they contribute over 95% of long-term value and probably at least 120% of the cash ever generated.”

To use the chart, analysts plot a scatter graph to rank the business units (or products) on the basis of their relative market shares and growth rates.

Cash cows is where a company has high market share in a slow-growing industry. These units typically generate cash in excess of the amount of cash needed to maintain the business. They are regarded as staid and boring, in a "mature" market, yet corporations value owning them due to their cash-generating qualities. They are to be "milked" continuously with as little investment as possible, since such investment would be wasted in an industry with low growth. Cash "milked" is used to fund stars and question marks, that are expected to become cash cows some time in the future.

Dogs, more charitably called pets, are units with low market share in a mature, slow-growing industry. These units typically "break even", generating barely enough cash to maintain the business's market share. Though owning a break-even unit provides the social benefit of providing jobs and possible synergies that assist other business units, from an accounting point of view such a unit is worthless, not generating cash for the company. They depress a profitable company's return on assets ratio, used by many investors to judge how well a company is being managed. Dogs, it is thought, should be sold off once short-time harvesting has been maximized.^[6]

Question marks (also known as a problem child or Wild dogs) are businesses operating with a low market share in a high-growth market. They are a starting point for most businesses. Question marks have a potential to gain market share and become stars, and eventually cash cows when market growth slows. If question marks do not succeed in becoming a market leader, then after perhaps years of cash consumption, they will degenerate into dogs when market growth declines. When shift from question mark to star is unlikely, the BCG matrix suggests divesting the question mark and repositioning its resources more effectively in the remainder of the corporate portfolio.^[6] Question marks must be analyzed carefully in order to determine whether they are worth the investment required to grow market share.

• Stars are units with a high market share in a fast-growing industry. They are graduated question marks with a market- or niche-leading trajectory, for example: amongst market share front-runners in a high-growth sector, and/or having a monopolistic or increasingly dominant unique selling proposition with burgeoning/fortuitous proposition drive(s) from: novelty, fashion/promotion (e.g. newly prestigious celebrity-branded fragrances), customer loyalty (e.g. greenfield or military/gang enforcement backed, and/or innovative, grey-market/illicit retail of addictive drugs, for instance the British East India Company's, late-1700s opium-based Qianlong Emperor embargo-busting, Canton System), goodwill (e.g. monopsonies) and/or gearing (e.g. oligopolies, for instance Portland cement producers near boomtowns),^{[ citation needed ]} etc. The hope is that stars become next cash cows.

Stars require high funding to fight competitors and maintain their growth rate. When industry growth slows, if they remain a niche leader or are amongst the market leaders, stars become cash cows; otherwise, they become dogs due to low relative market share.