Outliers: The Story of Success

Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers: The Story of Success is a thoroughly enjoyable read. It is rare that I read a book from cover to cover in less than a week, but in this case I was totally engrossed, putting off any of my other reading in order to finish it. In a nutshell, through ten different stories, Malcolm presents a theory that extreme examples of success are almost always the results of both hard work and sheer luck at being in the right place at the right time.

Well worth the read. 9/10.

Hiking the South Downs Way

South Downs Way - 54
Originally uploaded by adrianhind

Over the weekend, I hiked a 38km segment of the South Downs Way, one of the classic UK National Trails.

Day 1: train from London Victoria to Lewes Station; walk from Lewes to Alfriston across farming fields, through cute little country towns, and a grueling 10km segment across the top of the downs, 20km walking in total

Overnight in a hostel on the outskirts of Alfriston, amusing full of 18 and 19 year olds on a University of Brighton freshman orientation group hug weekend of some form

Day 2: walk through more farming fields, Westdean Forest, then along the gorgeous rolling chalk cliffs from Cuckmere Haven, Birling Gap (pictured), Beachy Head, and into the coastal town of Eastbourne for dinner, before train/bus/train back to London, 18km walking in total

The Invention of Lying

Amusing, but forgettable, movie set in a rather drab alternative reality where there is no concept of lying. Great cameo by Phillip Seymour Hoffman. Ricky Gervais' motion picture directing debut.

7/10

The Consumerization of Corporate IT

Great article on The Consumerization of Corporate IT on strategy+business. The world of Enterprise and Solution Architecture is changing as we speak.

"The only way that organizations can get out of this vicious circle — of more bespoke IT driving higher costs with little productivity return and employees driving the technology agenda under the radar of IT departments — is to forge a completely new way of looking at how technology is delivered within organizations. Such a change would mean elevating the chief information officer to the role of company technology strategist and leveraging the innovation, pace, and scale of the consumer market. Many blueprints for turning flaccid IT departments into models of efficiency have been created — and then shelved. They failed primarily because they were driven from the top with little consideration for the preferences of employees using the machines. Consumerization of technology offers another chance to finally wrestle down a problem that began, it could be said, decades ago in a Silicon Valley garage."

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Royal Mail national strike looms for Christmas

[The Times] "Royal Mail was on last night reported to have lost a £25 million contract with Amazon, its second largest customer, as a national strike looms over the crucial Christmas period."

I've been experiencing mail delays of around 1 - 2 weeks over the past month. The unions have been putting a stranglehold on the company, with workers repeatedly going to strike all over the UK, and now Royal Mail is starting to lose some of its big commercial contracts. Sort it out, get over it, you should all consider yourselves lucky to have a job in this tough economic environment.

Glastonbury Festival 2010 sells out in less than a day

The Glastonbury Festival turns 40 next year, and the line-up is predicted to be absolutely awesome. Tickets went on sale at 9:00am on Sunday and were sold out before the end of the day.

Anthony & Lisa: many thanks for booking my ticket while I was on the phone back to Australia.

Watching the World Series of Poker Europe

The high-stakes poker world is centered on London at the moment, with most of the top name players in town for some big buy-in multi-day tournaments. I've been down to the Casino at the Empire Leicester Square a few times this week to watch the World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) Main Event, a £10000 buy-in no-limit holdem tournament with a star-studded field of 334 players.

The Casino at the Empire normally has a small poker room of half a dozen tables in a side room to the main casino, hosting £1/£2 cash games and £25 crapshoot afternoon tourneys, but for two weeks in Sept/Oct the entire casino is transformed into a high-stakes tourney poker venue, complete with ESPN TV crews and media a plenty.

Main Event tournaments are structured to allow the skill factor to really shine through. Deep stacks (30,000 starting chips). Long levels (90 minutes) with small increments in blinds. Determined players can play small pot poker and gradually chip up over the five days without having to take big gambles for their entire stack.

I went along for a few hours on Day 1b, Day 4, and to see the final four play down to a winner on Day 5. On the days where I wasn't able to get to Leicester Square I followed the progress of the tournament on the live blog at pokernews.com and by checking the regularly updated twitter posts of some of the big name players like 2007 WSOPE winner Annette Obrestad, Kid Poker Daniel Negreanu, Barry Greenstein, Joe Sebok, and Brandon Cantu.

Phil Ivey and Tom Dwan busted early on Day 1. They both have a habit of taking gambles early in tournaments in an attempt to build up a big stack or bust and return to the nose-bleed cash games online. Daniel Negreanu and Annette Obrestad played solid small-pot poker on the TV feature table, building up their stacks to 82450 and 51950 respectively by the end of the day.

On Day 2 and 3, internet MTT sensation Yevgeniy Timoshenko and PLO tournament star Jason Mercier built up massive stacks playing super aggressive poker. Yevgeniy Timoshenko had won over $1.5 million in the World Championship of Online Poker Main Event barely a week ago, and $2.1 million in the $25000 WPT Championship Event in April. Amazing results for a 21 year old!

Day 3 concluded with the burst of the money bubble, the honour going to 2007 runner-up John Tabatabai holding pocket Aces against Peter Goulds pocket sevens. All-in before the flop. Seven on the flop. Ouch!

36 players came back on Day 4 to play down to the final nine, amongst them California long-time pro Men Nguyen, CardPlayer magazine owner Barry Shulman, November Niners James Akenhead and Antoine Saout, Daniel Negreanu, UK poker identities Dave 'DevilFish' Ulliott and Ram Vaswani, online $2000/$4000 limit holdem phenom Matt Hawrilenko, Jason Mercier, Yevgeniy Timoshenko, and the legendary Doyle Brunson.

Nursing a short stack overnight, DevilFish was out in the first few minutes of the day. Yevgeniy Timoshenko floundered on a very very aggressive table (I saw one player re-raise all-in with Q6cc on a rag board only to get called by trip threes). Jason Mercier continued to build a massive massive stack. Daniel Negreanu slowly but surely chipped up, boosted at one point when he got Men Nguyen to commit all his chips with two pair against Daniel's trips. Doyle busted in 17th place. Eric Liu was the final table bubble boy. Just after midnight, the final nine had been decided. Twelve hour rest and they would be back at noon to play it out for the title.

In 2008 John Juanda won the title in an epic final table that ran for 22 hours. 2009's final table table was looking to match that with no player busting for the first five hours. The difference between 9th place prize money and 1st place prize money was £735,000, so the play was initially very cautious. Then in Level 27 as three short stacks were approaching ten to fifteen big blinds, the all-ins started to get called, and five players were knocked out in quick succession, four of them at the hands of Daniel Negreanu.

I arrived at the Casino at the Empire at about 9:00pm on Day Five, just after the dinner break. The remaining players Daniel Negreanu, Jason Mercier, Praz Bansi, and Barry Shulman were all deep stacked, with Praz Bansi holding a very slight chip lead over Daniel Negreanu.

Jason Mercier made a big re-raise pre-flop and Daniel called for more than 50% of his stack with 99. Jason's 77 didn't hold up, and we were down to three.

Daniel and Praz were chipping away at Barry Shulman, and he eventually pushed with JT on the button for about 14 big blinds, only to get called by Daniel Negreanu with AQ. Ten on the flop. Ten on the turn. Jack on the river. Jeez.

Praz Bansi then made a big re-raise on a Kigh high flop with K8. Barry Shulman called with KJ, which held up, leaving Bansi crippled. He was knocked by Daniel a few hands later when he pushed with Q2 and was called by AQ which held up.

12:30am and we're down to heads up with Daniel Negreanu hold a 60/40 chip lead against Barry Shulman. Negreanu's guaranteed second place put him on the top of the all-time poker tournament earnings list, a position that while well earned, is very likely to be superseded by Phil Ivey next month at the final table of the WSOP Main Event.

An hour and a half into heads up play, Negreanu raised on the button, Shulman called. On a King high flop with two hearts, Shulman bet out, and Negreanu announced All-in. Shulman called instantly with an Ace high flush draw. Negreanu had pocket Aces and was a 65% favourite to win the tournament. Alas a heart came on the turn and Barry took a commanding chip lead.

Daniel clawed back over a couple of hours, re-raising all-in numerous times, forcing Barry to fold, and eventually regaining the chip lead.

Then, 17 hours into the final table, on a flop of 58J with two diamonds, Shulman bet out, Daniel raised, the Barry announced all-in. Daniel was amused and chatted with the rail, trying to figure out whether to call. He eventually called with QJ suspecting Barry might be on a flush draw again. Alas, Barry had pocket Aces this time. Daniel had five outs, plus a back-door flush draw. Turn .... Jack!! The crowd roared. Daniel was now 95% to take down the tournament. River .... Ace!! Wow! Barry spikes a two-outer and takes a monster chip lead.

A few hands later, all the money goes in pre-flop. Daniel's pocket Fours is no much for Barry's pocket Tens. Barry Shulman wins the World Series of Poker Europe Main Event, and a dejected Daniel Negreanu almost cries during the post tournament interview.

It's 5:30am, and time to go home.