LongHaul Posted June 9, 2015 Share Posted June 9, 2015 How is new technology (ie smartphones,etc) changing us with regards to patience and the stock market? This is a 2 minute video of students at MIT. Some have to multitask or they fall asleep in class. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/digitalnation/living-faster/split-focus/multitasking-at-mit.html How do you think smartphones and new technology is changing humans (if at all) and how do you think that might affect the stock market? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oddballstocks Posted June 9, 2015 Share Posted June 9, 2015 I like the notion that you focus on one thing at a time. I've recently started to re-orient my life to really take advantage of this. I do one thing until I can't progress further. Then I switch to something else. I get more done, and it's better work. What if I'm stuck? I just walk away...literally. I take a walk, run, get a drink or a snack. A short (or long) break does wonders. What does this mean for students who can't focus on one thing? They will probably be unproductive workers until they can adapt. I've never worked with someone who checks Facebook every 15m who is very productive. Truth is they aren't engaged either, if they were they wouldn't care about checking Facebook. Days when I'm in the groove I don't visit here, Twitter, email anything. I just get in the flow and get things done. Days when I find myself here reading all the threads I know I'm in an uphill battle. I respond to email those days mostly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jurgis Posted June 9, 2015 Share Posted June 9, 2015 Technology does not... just a moment, I'm gonna answer that IM ... where was I? 8) Seriously, multitasking has been shown to be bad for performance. So, don't do it. (I multitask all the time... don't look at me). Sherry Turkle is known for anti-technology rants. I would take what she says with a huge spoon of salt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Schwab711 Posted June 9, 2015 Share Posted June 9, 2015 I think the market undervalues quality companies for similar reasons more so than in the past. The current premium for the highest-quality companies (V/MA/MCO/ect) is roughly 20% greater than average as opposed to 33%-40% in the past (just one example of why I hold this opinion). Consecutive bad quarters has caused MSFT and INTC to sell at 11x-12x earnings (and 8x-9x for CSCO). The present has a long history of being perceived to have "more extreme" everything compared to the past, but in the case of attention span (and public opinion) I think it's true. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jobyts Posted June 9, 2015 Share Posted June 9, 2015 Before, responding to an email from your boss could be delayed for a reason that you are at lunch break. With the smart phones, the expectation is to respond immediately wherever you are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest longinvestor Posted June 9, 2015 Share Posted June 9, 2015 Before, responding to an email from your boss could be delayed for a reason that you are at lunch break. With the smart phones, the expectation is to respond immediately wherever you are. ...and expect you to complete the task on your smart device right away. Before, you could've said "let me get to my screen and I'll send you something". In time management, key is to separate urgent and important tasks. The crackberry is singularly responsible for the tyranny of the urgent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpecOps Posted June 9, 2015 Share Posted June 9, 2015 My attention span can be a real problem, if I constantly check things online throughout the day then I can't do anything meaningful in terms of work because my attention just cannot focus. I have at times in the past stop reading things online and on my phone completely for weeks and its amazing how much more productive you become. For some reason though I can never keep it up and the interweb drags me back into procastination eventually. I think people dont realise what a detrimental affect it has on them until they give it up, I didnt either until I gave it up for lent one year and suddenly I found myself far less irritable, I was sleeping better, and overall felt better. I dont think multi-tasking is the solution to lack of attention span at all, it may help in the short run but is actually the opposite of what you should be doing to address the problem. You need to get used to focusing on one task and in the start it pretty much means forcing yourself to do just one task, even if focusing on it is a real struggle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boilermaker75 Posted June 9, 2015 Share Posted June 9, 2015 Notice very few are taking notes. Why? Because the students are probably provided a copy of the PowerPoint presentation, which is just being read to them. I'll have to take a photo during one of my classes next semester. You'll see no open laptops. Not because I forbid it, but because there is no room on their desk to have a laptop open and to be taking notes, which they have to do in my class. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jurgis Posted June 9, 2015 Share Posted June 9, 2015 Before, responding to an email from your boss could be delayed for a reason that you are at lunch break. With the smart phones, the expectation is to respond immediately wherever you are. ...and expect you to complete the task on your smart device right away. Before, you could've said "let me get to my screen and I'll send you something". In time management, key is to separate urgent and important tasks. The crackberry is singularly responsible for the tyranny of the urgent. You guys have bad bosses. Change them. 8) If I don't answer boss' email, he knows it's because I am busy on something important (like posting on CoBF :P ). I'm in tech industry and I don't look at email on mobile devices at all. Some of my colleagues are out of reach outside 9 to 5. Of course some are online outside job hours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LongHaul Posted June 9, 2015 Author Share Posted June 9, 2015 Throughout history humans have been impatient in the stock market. Everyone wants to make money fast. And this was prior to smartphones. Smartphones may make them less patient with recessions and market downturns and less able to think long term. This will be to the advantage of those who can act long term and have the discipline of patience. That's my current hypothesis anyway. Perhaps it will be marginal though. It is the electronic herd. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jurgis Posted June 9, 2015 Share Posted June 9, 2015 Notice very few are taking notes. Why? Because the students are probably provided a copy of the PowerPoint presentation, which is just being read to them. I'll have to take a photo during one of my classes next semester. You'll see no open laptops. Not because I forbid it, but because there is no room on their desk to have a laptop open and to be taking notes, which they have to do in my class. Hah, I think we gonna disagree again. :) IMO note taking during the lecture is a waste of time. Trying to follow and understand is much better than trying to cram the notes. If you have pre-printed notes, just adding your comments on them during the class is much better than trying to write the notes wholesale. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oddballstocks Posted June 9, 2015 Share Posted June 9, 2015 Notice very few are taking notes. Why? Because the students are probably provided a copy of the PowerPoint presentation, which is just being read to them. I'll have to take a photo during one of my classes next semester. You'll see no open laptops. Not because I forbid it, but because there is no room on their desk to have a laptop open and to be taking notes, which they have to do in my class. Hah, I think we gonna disagree again. :) IMO note taking during the lecture is a waste of time. Trying to follow and understand is much better than trying to cram the notes. If you have pre-printed notes, just adding your comments on them during the class is much better than trying to write the notes wholesale. Knowing how to take good notes is truly a skill. I am a note taker, I write a TON down. It makes it easier for me to follow along, the notes are helping me remember what's going on. You need to be able to write key points as well as facts and figures. I like to jot down facts and figures so I can refer to them later in the call. "How do you deal with the 117 processes you have today?" When they say "117" I think I'll remember it, but 3 minutes later it's gone. So I jot it down. Sometimes I review my notes later and I can often recall almost an entire conversation from them. Other times the notes are thrown away right after a call, they serve no purpose. When working in a giant corporation notes are essential. I can't begin to count the number of times topics repeated themselves in meetings, or people would change their minds and swear they never said otherwise. With notes you can say "Oh March 13th you had indicated you wanted feature x." The act of physically turning through pages in a notebook and stating something like that has never met resistance in my experience. This isn't for an "I told you so" factor, but rather it moves the discussion forward. Without notes I've been in meetings where people flip flop back and forth for months without doing anything. With notes you can move the discussion forward to a resolution. To me the holy grail will be when I can finally take notes on my iPad Mini as easily as a notebook. I've tried stylus apps, all are distracting. Need a stylus that works exactly like a pencil and isn't some giant nub on the end of a fat stick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jurgis Posted June 9, 2015 Share Posted June 9, 2015 Oddball: I completely agree with the points you made. :) My point to boilermaker75 was different from what you are talking about. It was about the fact that having content available beforehand makes it easier to take quality notes. If you have the slideset or prepared notes or 10K or whatever before you listen to the talk, you can just comment/note/scribble on a particular point that you have thoughts/questions/insights/opinions about. You don't need to try keep up with the speaker writing what they are talking about. :) Peace. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpecOps Posted June 9, 2015 Share Posted June 9, 2015 Back in my day lecturers didn't use powerpoint, they used chalk and a blackboard. If you didnt take notes you didn't pass! (This was only 10 years ago, my lectures were pretty old school) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jurgis Posted June 9, 2015 Share Posted June 9, 2015 Back in my day lecturers didn't use powerpoint, they used chalk and a blackboard. If you didnt take notes you didn't pass! (This was only 10 years ago, my lectures were pretty old school) We already had big argument about chalk and blackboard in another thread. I'd rather not resurrect that. ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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