First of all, my personal feelings? I understand the rational behind the 15% capital gains tax meant to encourage investment and help grow companies. However, I also agree with Fred Wilson that it’s silly for carried interest to fall in the 15% designation, and with Mark Cuban that high freqency trading shouldn’t count as capital gains income since you’re not actually investing.

Now, on the the ridiculousness of the WSJ oped by John Berlau and Trey Kovacs.

The former Bain Capital CEO and Massachusetts governor caused a brouhaha last week when he estimated the tax rate on his investment income at 15%. “How unfair!” pundits exclaimed, noting that the top marginal rate for wage income is more than 30%.

The tax rate on investors is unfair, but for the opposite reason. Our tax code layers taxation of dividends and capital gains on top of a top corporate tax rate of 35%—which even President Obama acknowledges is one of the highest in the world.

This is ironically the embodiment of the “corporate personhood” legal doctrine otherwise so decried by the left. The law taxes corporations as if they were separate beings from the shareholders who own them and then levies a separate tax on shareholder payouts and gains. This double taxation brings the effective tax rate on investment income to as much as 44.75%.

Well, here are a few problems with that analysis (outside of the common argument by anti-corporate tax folk that “corporations don’t pay taxes anyway, they just pass it on to the consumer!”):

1: It assumes that capital gains income from stock prices matches up 1-to-1 with profit earned. So if the profits for a company were $10 per share, it assumes that the stock price would go up and by exactly $10.

2: It assumes that corporations are actually paying a 35% effective tax rate (hint: they’re not).

So let’s break this down a little using Apple since they just blew the stock market up. A few links that may be helpful: Apple’s Q1 press release, Apple’s 2011 10-K filing, and the Google Finance chart for AAPL.

Now, AAPL just posted a quarterly profit of $13.87 per diluted share. Since the start of their quarter (10/1/2011) shares have risen from $381.32 to a current price of $446.10, or $64.78 in capital gains.

So already stock gains are 467% of profit. Capital gains tax on that $64.78 increase would be $64.78*15% = $9.72 in personal taxes.

Also, according to their most recent 10-K, AAPL’s effective tax rates for 2010 and 2011 were 24.2% and 24.4%. Assuming it stays at 24%, on that $13.87 AAPL is paying $13.87*24% = $3.33 in corporate taxes.

So actually, for that $64.78 gain to the investor, the government as a whole is receiving $13.05 in tax, or 20.15%.

Math is hard.

So, I’m in this weird spot right now where the script actually does more than I originally planned, but only has the extra logic half-finished.

Basically what it does is:

1) Copy any known numbers from the starting matrix to the answer matrix
2) Look at a cell, and then create an array of any number it CAN’T be (already in the row, column, or square)
3) Remove any number in the “can’t-be-the-answer” array from the answer array
4) Do this for all 81 cells
5) Any answer array that has a length of 1, convert to an integer in the answer matrix
6) If the answer matrix has changed since starting step 2, do this loop (steps 2 through 5) again
** This works for all easy sudoku puzzles **
** If you just end now when the answer doesn’t change, you’re good to go **
** Here is where shit gets a little wonky **
7) If the answer hasn’t changed, then look at the first row
8 ) Figure out what the “missing numbers” are in that row
9) If there is a missing number that is only an option in one cell, put it there
10) Do this for all 9 rows
11) If the answer matrix has changed, go back to step 2.
12) If the answer matrix hasn’t changed, print the answer matrix

The piece that’s missing is doing that same pass9 function for columns and squares like I do for rows. It wouldn’t be THAT hard to implement I don’t think, but I have to think about exactly how I’d do it.

This code is fairly easy to read but probably a distaster to anyone who writes in Python a lot. Thankfully I don’t think you qualify yet.

The example coded in here was from the “Hard” level of my sudoku app. I had already beaten “Easy” and “Medium” with steps 1-6. It took 19 iterations to complete this one and basically no time except for the printing functionality

If you want to see the code for some weird reason, you can check it out here.
If you want it in a .py file (because you’re just too lazy to copy the txt, I understand) well then here you go.

Like I said, one of my 2012 resolutions is to “create” every day. That’s a pretty broad term, and I can use it to describe a lot of things. So far I’ve considered that everything from new processes for getting stuff done, to little journal entries describing new ideas I want to flesh out.

But I also want to focus on computer programs. Whether they’re little web apps, new page designs/templates, or just Python scripts like this sudoku one will probably end up being it doesn’t matter. Hopefully by the end of 2012 I’ll have done a few cool things.

My goal is to write a Python program to solve a “beginner” level puzzle from the random suduko app I downloaded on my iPhone.

Now if you’re coming here expecting some awesome solution, you’re going to be disappointed. Go check out this guy instead because he solved every possible sudoku puzzle. I read Norvig’s description of his code a while ago, but am going to try to stay away from it while I work on this one. Afterwards I may go back and compare, but I won’t actually be coming up with stuff on my own if I’m just copying his thought process and code.

I’ll try to remember to update the blog with code samples and what I’m thinking about in each step, so be ready to rip it to shreds.

I had been falling in and out of sleep all evening. Read a little finishing up the Steve Jobs biography before going to sleep, and then suddenly was in the midst of an hour long cleaning session. I’ve picked up, done laundry, dusted, de-cluttered about a garbage bag full of stuff, swept, and even made the bed just so I could get back in it and write this post.

And all the while all I was doing was lecturing in my head to some imaginary class of students.

I want to say “Strange” here, but I actually think I understand it a lot more than I would’ve expected.

1. Health – Run a half marathon
2. Mind – Create a mobile app
3. Business – Get paid by 20 people
4. Friends/Family – Stay closer to those important to me
5. Other – Figure out my life goals

How did I do?

1. Yes! And I actually enjoyed it enough to make a resolution to keep running.

2. Nope. I could try to stretch the truth here and say that “Oh, but I redesigned some of liquid for a mobile browser interface” or “Well I completed a couple tutorials that worked on HTML5 or the Android SDK” but I’m not going to do that. I didn’t create anything myself that I would qualify as a mobile application. But I do have a couple ideas, and I’m looking forward to working a couple out, especially now that I have a Mac and can develop for iOS.

3. Nope. The final count will be in the single digits. I believe it’s 5, but I could be forgetting 1. Getting a real job and turning the focus off of selling was a big hurdle to overcome. That and not trying to create something else that was easier to market to it’s target audience are what doomed me.

4. Yes! Except in situations where I have purposely avoided someone (which is an unfortunate but necessary part of building strong relationships with others, I only have so much extrovert to give) I was much better about staying in touch with people. Whether it’s the simple things like texting someone happy birthday, or writing a couple emails to catch up, I’ve made an effort and while I’m still not great at it, hopefully I kept some people closer.

5. Nope. Who knew that coming up with life goals would be such a daunting task? Almost every time I sat down to try and type some out I was overcome by a feeling of fear. What if I pick the wrong goals? What if I don’t accomplish them? Suddenly making life goals felt more like a trap than a way to inspire myself. While I think it would be a cop-out at this point to say I’m of the mindset that goals are pointless, I may be moving along that path.

1. Never go 3 days without running
If I run on a Monday, then I have to run again on Thursday at the absolute latest. I chose this rather than a mileage goal, or another distance goal like my half-marathon this year, because I’m more concerned about making it a habit than hitting any specific goal.

2. Cook one new dish every week
My Christmas gifts included a couple new knives, a dutch oven, and a cast-iron skillet. So now I need to use them. No limitations on what kind of food I have to cook, or where I have to find the recipes. Just that every week I have to cook something that I’ve never made before.

3. Do 3 things every day: Create, Laugh, Learn
Pretty simple stuff, but something I know I take for granted way too often. Each day is something special and I need to make sure I’m taking advantage of that by creating something (art, programming, whatever), enjoying myself enough to laugh, and learning something new. I think if I can do that, then I’ll end 2012 a much better person than I start it.

WP traffic

WP traffic with iPad

The inverse of these two pictures by days of week and hour of the day is awesome and incredibly pronounced. Evan talks about it a little more in his post, but anyone can get the gist of what’s going on here just by the graphics.

In the age of infographics, lots of people have been moving towards displaying pretty data versus displaying helpful data. Do the colors look cool? Can you use some funky icons on a bar graph? Are all the fonts absolutely perfect? Not that these things aren’t important, but too many infographics nowadays don’t actually TELL you anything.

I’m a big fan of Edward Tufte and his writings on how to best display data. This was the book that a former boss gave me to introduce Tufte’s concepts to me and I’ve been hooked ever since.

So be more like Evan and make nice graphics that actually tell you something. Don’t just try to make a good looking infographic.

Well, we can officially cross off one of my new year’s resolutions now! On Thursday (yes, Thanksgiving morning) I ran the Atlanta Half Marathon and as you can see above, finished!

My chip time was 2:10:37, putting me at right about a 9:58/mile pace. Considering I started training with the goal of 2:30 and was excited when my longest training run suggested that I may have a shot at 2:15 I was pretty damn happy with the result. I’ll be honest though, it was a little hard to watch myself slip away from possibly breaking 2:10 over the last couple miles as I slowed down. I knew I was running right around a 10  minute pace because every mile marker I passed the time ended in a ’7′ minute (27 at mile 2, 37 at mile 3, etc). By miles 6, 7 and 8 I was actually down in to the 6′s, and I think my earliest mile was around x:y6:40 so I was feeling great.

But then miles 11 through 13 showed up, and so did a lot of hills, and the shade disappeared, and suddenly I was just trying to keep moving saw those sixes slowly turn back in to sevens. I crossed mile 12 at 2:17:10 and thought I may have a shot, but it would require running my fastest mile of the race on my last 1.1 miles. Well, I ran my fastest mile, but it wasn’t fast enough. And so there I was, 37 seconds away.

The next few days were a bit of an adventure. Thursday night my knees really hurt which was a new, and quite unpleasant, feeling for me. Joint pain sucks I learned. They were mostly better by Friday although my hips were sore then. Yesterday I felt pretty much back to normal, and I’m actually going to run this evening to get back in the groove.

So there we go. 1 half marathon down, no idea how many more I’ll try or if I’ll try a marathon at some point, but it felt really good to finish that off before stuffing myself with Thanksgiving dinners for the next 3 days.

What’s going on here?!

As you can see on the sidebar to the right, I’m currently working my way through the Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson, Basketball on Paper, and The Waste Lands, which is the 3rd of 7 books in Stephen King’s Dark Tower series. After that I’ve got the remaining 4 Dark Tower books already lined up, which is about 2400 pages of adventure through a post-apocalyptic world.

Here are 10 more that I’ve decided I want to read as well. Any feedback on some of these or even a couple more recommendations would be awesome.

Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! – Richard Feynman
What Do You Care What Other People Think? – Richard Feynman
Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid – Douglas Hofstadter
Ishmael – Daniel Quinn
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance – Robert Pirsig
The Miracle of Mindfulness – Thich Naht Hanh
The Razor’s Edge – W. Somerset Maugham
The Fall – Albert Camus
Infinite Jest – David Foster Wallace
The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber – Ernest Hemingway

He was also kind enough to tweet out the names of a few companies he got to talk to and who he’ll be profiling in the coming days for The Atlantic’s website. For those of you who want a sneak peak, you can go straight to the companies’ websites and get a feel for what it is they offer.

We&Co
N4MD (pronounced informed)
Leading Spaces
TripLingo (if you’re in Atlanta, care about startups, and HAVEN’T heard of this company, you may want to re-evaluate how you’re going about following the scene)
Scholr.ly
RappidApp
Wynsum Arts

I don’t know people at all these companies, hell I probably don’t know people at MOST of them, but they’re helping propagate the Atlanta startup culture and for that I applaud them.

Happy exploring!

Every winner of the 100m since the inaugural event in 1983 has been black, as has every finalist from the last 10 championships with the solitary exception of Matic Osovnikar of Slovenia, who finished seventh in 2007.

Assuming that this success is driven by genes rather than environment, there is a rather obvious inference to make – black people are naturally better sprinters than white people. Indeed, it is an inference that seems obligatory, barring considerations of political correctness.

But here’s the thing. This inference is not merely false – it is logically flawed. And it has big implications not merely for athletics, but for the entire issue of race relations in the 21st Century.

…

The same analysis applies to the sprints, where success is focused on Jamaicans and African-Americans. Africa, as a continent, has almost no success at all. Not even West Africans win much.

The combined forces of Mauritania, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, the Republic of Guinea, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Togo, Niger, Benin, Mali, the Gambia, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Gabon, Senegal, Congo and Angola have not won a single sprinting medal at the Olympics or World Championships.

The fallacy, then, is simple. Just because some black people are good at something does not imply that black people in general will be good at it.

…

Imagine a similar argument using the Central African Bambuti, a black tribe more commonly known as Pygmies. With an average height of 4ft we could assert that the Bambuti are naturally better at walking under low doors. Would it be legitimate to extrapolate that black people in general have a natural advantage at walking under low doors?

Our tendency to generalise rests on a deeper fallacy – the idea that “black” refers to a genetic type. We put people of dark skin in a box labelled black and assume that a trait shared by some is shared by all.

Is it wrong to note 100m winners are always black?

I’ve been kinda busy working on other things, and mostly been less apt to write anything because I feel like I don’t have anything to say. But we can discuss my mental state some other time. Instead, check out this very cool and surprisingly funny TED talk on the topic of what two researchers learned from analyzing the words used in 5 million books.

G’lan
Almost… It’s like comparing “apples” to “mixed fruit cup”

Danny Meyer is the restauranteur behind a whole host of great NYC restaurants, including the beloved burger joint Shake Shack. I think I ate there for lunch every single time I worked from home while I was doing my internship summer.

The article is a great look at his story and how he slowly grew from one restaurant into a business that employs 2,200 people. You think there would be all sorts of options for a “favorite quote” from this x-thousand word article, but this one won going away.

Meyer, mouth full, declared, “It’s not cooked, but the beef is mighty good.”

Swinghamer: “I like the shiitake.”

Me: “Maybe I should tell them the meat’s not cooked.”

Meyer, solemnly: “If they asked, I would tell them. But as Napoleon said, ‘Part of brilliance is winning and part is leaving your opponent alone when he’s losing.’ ”

This American Life just did a great hour-long program on this called When Patents Attack! that covers the shady world of companies who horde patents for the sole purpose of bringing lawsuits. The main focus is Intellectual Ventures, likely the biggest patent troll out there and headed by former Microsoft exec Nathan Myhrvold, and their collection of hundreds of shell companies used to hide ownership and bring lawsuits.

You can get the program through the link above, through iTunes, or read a full transcript if audio isn’t your thing.

If you don’t think that the patent system has been perverted into a business killer, please take an hour to digest this report. It’s disgusting to think what has happened to a system that was initially created to promote innovation.

And you know that awesome new Spotify service everyone has been talking about since they launched in the US last month? Now they’re feeling the full brunt of the patent troll too.