Book Description
Modern technology is transforming our most basic ideas about the creation of wealth. This book reveals how a new way of economic thinking is essential for success in today's world.
Customer Reviews:
READ THIS TO LEARN MORE ABOUT ECONOMICS!.......2004-12-21
Paul Zane Pilser did a great job of explaining the theory of Alchemy and the application of it in Supply-side and Demand-side economics can produce an unlimited amount of resources and wealth for an economy. He also does a great job of discussing technology and how it is is extremely important to economic growth, how it can greatly conserve resources, it's infinite possiblities, and much more.
I learned a lot from this book!
a unified field theory for wealth.......2003-05-11
This book describes how to build wealth broadly enough so you can apply its principles to anything. its main principle is technology unleashes your ability to build wealth and by applying dormant but existing technology to resources will create enough value for you to achieve wealth. ie using the latest version software could dramatically improve your bottom line.
Probably the most inspiring principle for me is the statement: The faster you process information the faster you will achieve your goals. This makes total sense because if knowledge is power the most important knowledge is the knowledge that allows you to get more of it. I know alot of people who are determined to succeed but they learn so slowly that by the time they figure everything out it will be too late. With the rate of change today one of the skills you've got to have is the ability to learn rapidly!
A Real Eye Opener.......2003-05-09
I read this book many years ago and am still impressed by the clarity of the logic. It presents a wonderful view of the world as a place of abundance and wealth. This is a beautiful contrast to the belief many people have that the world has limited resources, so the only way to get anything is to take it from someone else. This book has forever changed my worldview.
Tim McMahon...
Mandatory reading.......2002-01-21
If you want to understand how the modern economy opperates and how you can take advantage of it, you need to read this book.
Dismantling the Classic Model.......2001-04-24
I first read Mr. Pilzer's book when it was published in 1990, then re-read it eleven years later. His words are as true today as they were when first printed. Through historical anaylsis, Pilzer deconstructs the economic views of our early education and skillfully builds a new model for our truly modern world. This is a must read for anyone interested in working with growth and change in their life and the world.
Book Description
New chapter by Soros on the secrets to his success along with a new Preface and Introduction.
New Foreword by renowned economist Paul Volcker
"An extraordinary . . . inside look into the decision-making process of the most successful money manager of our time. Fantastic." -The Wall Street Journal
George Soros is unquestionably one of the most powerful and profitable investors in the world today. Dubbed by BusinessWeek as "the Man who Moves Markets," Soros made a fortune competing with the British pound and remains active today in the global financial community. Now, in this special edition of the classic investment book, The Alchemy of Finance, Soros presents a theoretical and practical account of current financial trends and a new paradigm by which to understand the financial market today. This edition's expanded and revised Introduction details Soros's innovative investment practices along with his views of the world and world order. He also describes a new paradigm for the "theory of reflexivity" which underlies his unique investment strategies. Filled with expert advice and valuable business lessons, The Alchemy of Finance reveals the timeless principles of an investing legend.
This special edition will feature a new chapter by Soros on the secrets of his success and a new Foreword by the Honorable Paul Volcker, former Chairman of the Federal Reserve.
George Soros (New York, NY) is President of Soros Fund Management and Chief Investment Advisor to Quantum Fund N.V., a $12 billion international investment fund. Besides his numerous ventures in finance, Soros is also extremely active in the worlds of education, culture, and economic aid and development through his Open Society Fund and the Soros Foundation.
Customer Reviews:
Wizard of Finance.......2007-07-05
Soros explains here his key analytical principle of reflexivity - essentially a positive feedback loop - in the context of boom-bust cycles in financial markets and economies, and its applications in his extraordinarily successful "global macro" trading system during the 1970s, 80s, and early 90s.
He gives unique contrarian insights into our understanding of supposedly cut-and-dried economic and financial ideas, such as his trenchant denial of the efficient markets hypothesis and financial markets equilibria. He draws surprising links between economic phenomena which hitherto were supposed to be independent of each other, the best example being his emphasis on the propensity for bank lending to reflexively influence the collateral values of the financial assets which it finances in such a way as to lead to a boom-bust cycle.
That mainstream economists would quibble with Soros's ideas are to be expected, for economists are known for being unreasonably disputatious and uncommonly sensitive to outsiders' criticisms of their theoretical sacred cows. But in the analysis of market trends and dislocations, and trading opportunities, I know where I would put my money, given a choice between academic economists and Soros.
Success speaks for itself. Soros applied his theories so successfully that he became the most successful hedge fund manager ever, his flagship Quantum Fund generating an average annual return of 30%+ between 1969 and 1995.
One cannot but admire his tremendous courage, for example, in taking on the Bank of England and breaking its back, as it were, in his famous 10 billion dollar Sterling short trade in 1992 which netted him a cool billion, and made him a legend among traders and feared by central bankers worldwide. His honesty in admitting his missteps, and coolness with which he analysed his failures, is equally impressive, and sets an example for all professional investors.
George Soros is a not just a legend, but a genius with one of the finest analytical minds of his time. He elevated trading to a fine art, an alchemy of which he was an inimitable wizard.
Poor.......2007-04-11
I was looking for a good read about finance and invesments (being a Finance student) and George Soros' book seemed a bible to me. Not after I bought it though...
I had a scan and never read it! Useless. It is neither a good biography nor a good read. Boring, should I say?
Anyway, it contains an in depth case study about a portfolio and how it changed through different periods. Other than that there isn't much interesting. I don't even know to whom to recommend. As a matter of fact, I wouldn't recommend it to anybody, unless you are a big fan of George...
If you want a good read about finance and investments, buy anything but not "The Alchemy of Finance"...
not useful.......2006-12-28
if you're looking for soros' trading strategies, you will be disappointed. this book's theory has little practical application. it was written very poorly as well - incredibly verbose, unnecessarily complex in an attempt to wow you with it's 'brilliance.' similar to academic journals, which frequently explain simple concepts in a very complicated manner to try to make the author sound intelligent.
as a person, his political philosophy is at complete odds with his life. he's so far left into the socialist/communism realm that he's off the map.he's anti capitalist, anti free trade, pro welfare state, yet he made all his money through the free market - the purest form of capitalism there is, yet hardly recognizes how his trading has benefited society. it allowed him to be able to help others become financially free, made markets more efficiently priced, broke unfair control of the currency markets by governments (bank of england), let his family be set for life, allowed him to contribute billions to charities, etc. he acknowledges none of it.
i respect his success, but am not a fan of either his book nor him as a person.
The Alchemy of Finance.......2006-07-14
Was recommended to my by an international banker friend. A bit of a tough read , esp til you understabd what is "reflexivity". A well-written book that any one with a few dollars should read.
Great ideas, put them in practice, made...zero money!.......2006-02-21
Not Soros fault of course. More down to my trading. Great read though and some nice ideas about how market sentiment works or should work. Another Besife Tonwe recommendation to our book club.
Book Description
Critical Praise . . .
"The Alchemy joins Reminiscences of a Stock Operator as a timeless instructional guide of the marketplace." â Paul Tudor Jones from the Foreword
"An extraordinary . . . inside look into the decision-making process of the most successful money manager of our time. Fantastic."â The Wall Street Journal
"A breathtakingly brilliant book. Soros is one of the core of masters . . . who can actually begin to digest the astonishing complexity . . . of the game of finance in recent years."â Esquire
"A seminal investment book . . . it should be read, underlined, and thought about page-by-page, concept-by-idea. . . . He's the best pure investor ever . . . probably the finest analyst of the world in our time." â Barton M. Biggs, Morgan Stanley
George Soros is unquestionably the most powerful and profitable investor in the world today. Dubbed by BusinessWeek as "The Man Who Moves Markets," Soros has made a billion dollars going up against the British pound. Soros is not merely a man of finance, but a thinker to reckon with as well. Now, in The Alchemy of Finance, this extraordinary man reveals the investment strategies that have made him "a superstar among money managers" (The New York Times).
Customer Reviews:
A Journal of Competitive Excellence .......2006-05-17
Essential reading for the practitioner and even more critically required reading for the academically baked student of the markets. From living with frustrating ideas of Utopian equilibrium found in well-stocked university libraries this is a voyage of reading that changes lucidly the thought process into understanding the perpetuity of change in the markets.
It is critical to understand the significant role the size of markets play in the present day world as to how markets are driving the shape of events rather than focusing searching only the events that would drive markets.
Do not expect any recipes of magic that would turn stale ideas into profit machines here though. Instead be ready to be soaked in a process of thought that applies to not just markets but well in anticipating the outcomes of the human struggle for furthering competitive excellence.
Demonstrates Soros' Ledgerdemain .......2005-12-11
Soros is perhaps history's greatest manipulator of markets. His actual quantitative analysis does not stand up to any rigorous testing, nor have his trading techniques withstood anomalous shocks or the simple resistance of pure market forces.
Most, if not all of Soros' great trading coups seem to come from carefully constructed manipulations or runs on markets. Often, his genius has been the interpretation of the desires or intentions of major regulators (Treasury Secretary, Fed Chairman, other central bankers). One suspects this has not been accomplished without cooperation among fund managers and the regulators themselves.
Soros' political and financial pronouncements and policies all seem geared towards generating profits -- he is highly skilled at talking his positions. Lately, though, his dollar short, along with Buffet and others, has been a disaster, suggesting that, absent the unethical cooperation of a Robert Rubin, Soros' crystal ball begins to cloud over. Perhaps that was why he was so anxious to see a Democrat back in office.
His last book, "The Bubble of American Supremacy" was barely literate. He should stick to currency manipultions with his friends around the world, and leave politics and psychiatry to the pros. His theory of "reflexivity" is nothing more than the explanation of markets as subject to mass psychology -- work that others have done better, but perhaps not applied so larcenously.
It is enough to grind billions out of the markets through questionable methods. Why does Mr. Soros feel compelled to be accepted as a genius or some sort of genuine philantropist? His greed seems unlimited in every field. \
All that is solid melts into air.......2005-10-17
The only thing I'd like to add to this discussion is to highlight out tendency to assume that the status quo will continue. It's by exploiting this assumption that has allowed me to make some money in the equity markets. As an example of our tendency, I'd like to offer a quotation from one of the previous reviews of Soros' book (put up in 1999):
Indeed, it is almost embthrassing to read Soros' predictions - that the dollar will depreciate dramatically in the 90s, that Japan will surpass the US as economic leader, that the US economy will succomb to fiscal and trade deficits. Soros' predictions are not just wrong, they are the complete opposite of what actually has occurred.
For 1999 that analysis might have been valid. Now, here we are only 6 years later and the world economy is in much different shape (and closer in keeping with what Soros' predicted): The US economy is weighted down by fiscal and trade deficits that are at historic levels. The dollar is starting to tank and although the Japanese are not surpassing the United States anytime soon, they are recovering finally. What is problematic to me is the tendency to assume that the status quo will continue. Pointing out that it won't is one of the chief benefits of this book.
Had to take a second look.......2005-04-06
Several years ago, I read Soros' description of reflexivity hoping to understand what he thinks about markets. I thought he'd failed miserably, was too much like expecting a good hitter to explain how he connects with the baseball. Easier to do than explain. In finance, that is surely even more true, and is in line with von Neumann's naive definition of complexity: a simple system is easier to describe mathematically than to build: the solar system (even if chaotic), a rocket, and so on. A complex system is easier to build/produce than to explain mathematically: the genetic code, or an egg, e.g.
Having heard Sheri Markose (Uni Essex) talk recently in Galway about the Red Queen and the Liar Strategy (Cretan Liar, Gödel et al), I became much more curious and now expect that Soros might really have something to tell us but we have to figure out what it is. Two of his main ideas are easy to agree with: expect surprises (the essence of complexity), and we can create self-fullfilling prophecies. The interesting question is whether there's anything there about markets that can be mathematized (Sheri produced formalism, but we still need an example). In any case, the book of Soros to read is "The Crisis of Global Capitalism". Therein, he writes in more detail what he thinks. A third main point (about markets or any social phenomena), his big point: our perception of social reality is always wrong, time will show the flaws in any model, but there are good models (models that are locally correct) and bad ones. My work ("Dynamics of Markets") teaches that the good local models ("models") are empirically based: they describe what markets have been doing, but don't include the surprises, the future. Global predictions are always wrong. Dictatorially enforced models like communism, and extremist free market models like globalization via deregulation are good examples of self fullfilling prophecies. A fourth point, also Soros' main point: because our understanding is always imperfect, reality will always produce something (a surprise) that our model doesn't predict. With deregulation, the most recent surprise for American Christian Fundamentalists may be the systematic bankrupting of the US by the neo-con regime that they've elected and support without question.Why? Because they expect that both they and G.W. Bush will spend an eternity together in heaven. The Fundies will have first to become unemployed to see their mistake. With an island mentality, most Americans don't even know, e.g., that whereas gas prices in the US have more than doubled in three years, they've barely changed in Europe. They rise in gas prices in the US is due soley to the systematic devaluation of the dollar by Bush, a fact that both Soros and Buffet have profited from by betting against the dollar.
Written by a convicted criminal & inside trader.......2004-05-21
See Dec. 20th, 2002 on the BBC web site. George Soros was convicted of inside trading in the stock of Societe Generale.
Alchemy is pretty easy when you trade on inside information. Ivan Boesky made millions too by cheating.
Amazon.com
Why do some companies come and go while others endure? According to McKinsey & Company, Inc. consultants Mehrdad Baghai, Stephen Coley, and David White, the secret to a lasting enterprise is sustained growth. In The Alchemy of Growth, the authors offer a practical guide for jumpstarting expansion and keeping it going. "Growth is a noble pursuit. It creates new jobs for the community and wealth for shareholders. It can turn ordinary companies into stimulating environments where employees find a sense of purpose in their work," they write. "Growth's transformative power is akin to the alchemy of old."
The authors describe the approaches that have succeeded in helping their corporate clients around the world to step up the pace. For instance, companies must simultaneously focus on "three horizons" critical to growth. The first is the current bread-and-butter of the firm; the second, the fast-developing entrepreneurial ventures; and the third, the ideas that will germinate into tomorrow's profits. The best part of the book: the real-life examples of firms that have transformed themselves from laggards to supercharged growth companies. Take Disney, for example. After founder Walt Disney's death in 1966, the company stagnated, with its theme park and film business slipping. But after Michael Eisner took over in 1984, Disney boosted its average annual returns to 29 percent, on the strength of growth in such new avenues as Disney stores, ESPN, and resort development. The Alchemy of Growth is an instructive handbook for managers interested in spurring their companies to new heights. --Dan Ring
Book Description
From experts at McKinsey & Company's world-renowned growth practice comes a highly practical, field-tested approach to initiating and sustaining corporate growth
Growth unleashes benefits beyond the economic. It revitalizes organizations and invigorates the people in them, creating energy, a sense of purpose, and the glow of being on a winning team. Yet growth is often elusive, achieved at unacceptable costs, or managed in fits and starts. Based on over three years of research and application at high-performing companies around the world, The Alchemy of Growth is a comprehensive, practical approach to initiating, achieving, and sustaining profitable growth-today and tomorrow.
Customer Reviews:
Learn how to build growth into a business plan.......2006-02-28
Sustained growth is the motivation of any profit-making organization. As the authors point out, few organizations achieve sustained growth. Most have really good years, and those can be followed by really poor years. The authors see most firms faltering some point in their history unable to sustain growth.
By building growth into a business plan, the authors explain a method that will call for practical growth and help to build an enduring enterprise. Regardless of the size of a business, by following the authors' advice of managing across three "horizons" at once, the company will grow successfully and, most importantly, sustain that growth.
These three horizons reflect the company's present, short-term future, and long-term future. One must be able to manage these three horizons effectively by:
· defending and growing core businesses
· building up new core businesses for the future
· planting the seeds that may become potential businesses for the long term.
The authors point out that managing all three of these is no easy task. There will be areas where the priorities and requirements for these three horizons will conflict. This book will help leaders manage through these conflicts.
They will also learn how to:
· overcome a company's inertia
· build momentum for and through growth
· sustain growth
Exhilarating and Exhausting.......2005-05-01
This book provides a easy-to-understand mental model for thinking about organizational growth. However, the concept of growing and managing three "horizons" of growth at the same time exhilarates and exhausts. This book could be enhanced by incorporating sustainable principles like the Triple Bottom Line: People, Planet, and Prosperity.
A strategic stairway to business success.......2000-06-09
A perspective on corporate growth and change which works through the need to maintain a simultaneous focus on three 'horizons' - today's business, emerging businesses and longer term options and the implications for strategy, management and structures.
As you would expect of a book out of the McKinsey stable, this is on an issue of importance to business, is well researched and analysed and very readable and well presented. As you would also expect, it is focused on large corporates, and on strategies for their business success, as measured by exceptional growth and returns to stockholders.
It provides one important perspective on the issue of corporate growth and development, to be compared with other perspectives.
There are obvious comparisons with Collins & Porras: 'Built to Last' both in the concern with continuing exceptional performance over an extended period and in the care taken to explain the research base from which the findings are derived. However, whereas Collins & Porras are concerned primarily with values and culture, Baghai et al are primarily interested in strategies for the selection, development and management of a portfolio of businesses and the implications of those strategies for structuring, staffing and operations.
The fundamental thesis is simple and can be stated in a few propositions:
The companies that have been successful in maintaining high rates of growth with superior profitability are those that have learnt to manage well to three different time horizons at the same time - today's business, the next generation of emerging businesses, and the longer term options out of which the next generation of businesses will arise.
In order to develop longer term options into 'core profit engines', a series of measured steps (concerned with finding ways of profitably building core capabilities and markets) are required, which the authors call 'stairways'. In the nature of things, not all stairways will lead to future core businesses, so a variety of initiatives need to be carried forward together. Management of the 'stairways' should receive significant senior management attention.
The skills and temperaments required to manage current business, to develop new business and to search out viable future options are widely different one from the other. The key to maximising the profitability of today's business is excellence of execution. Emerging businesses require business builders - the typical entrepreneurial temperament, while the identification of future options requires lateral thinkers and visionaries.
In consequence, the style of organisation and internal culture most appropriate to each of these foci are also different. Large corporates tend to find difficulty in encompassing these very different cultures. The authors discuss in some depth the resulting issues of internal culture, recruitment, structuring and transition, and their strategic management.
The strength of the book is that the authors identify a key issue in business success - the development and maintenance of a vigorous portfolio of businesses over the longer term - and work through the implications with clarity and thoroughness.
The cost of that approach is that other equally significant issues are assumed or left in the background. It is necessary to balance the valuable perspective offered with others that are also important. It is also necessary to be aware of the underpinning tacit assumptions - for example, the underlying metaphor of organisation adopted by the authors appears to me to be much nearer that of the organisation as a (money) machine, than that of the organisation as an organism. There is a marked contrast with the emphasis in, for example de Geus: 'The Living Company'. This is not to say that either is wrong, only that neither is complete.
Very useful models and abstractions.......2000-06-05
It seems like a no-brainer that companies need to grow in order to survive or compete, and this book isn't interesting because it tells us what we already know. What's interesting about this book is that the authors do a wonderful job of taking substantial research, abstracting the trends, and rendering their findings into very clear and usable models and messages that can help most managers who are thinking about growth. It was particularly interesting for me, as I work as an ebusiness consultant for a large IT integrator and many of my customers are trying to start new staircases (as described in the book) via Internet channels and I can immediately see the applicability of Alchemy to what they're trying to do.
The book is a quick read (almost comically quick, given the price) and mercifully low on buzz words. Right now, I don't see the appendix as being particularly useful, but I may find it more so later. Annotating the bibliography would have added a lot of value.
Good book to think about the future of your company.......1999-10-09
An useful book ! Surviving in the future requests perspectives and actions. Companies have a life cicle and gaining right to survive for a long time is not simple. So entrepreuners, directors and managers should think and act carefully for ensuryng the future of their companies, because there's not certitude of existing for decades.
Amazon
Despite unnerving swings in individual stock valuations--or perhaps because of them--many knowledgeable observers still believe the 21st century will ultimately earn its stripes as the Age of Biotech. Cynthia Robbins-Roth, named by Forbes magazine as one of the industry's top insiders, certainly is among them. And in From Alchemy to IPO, she persuasively argues investors better take heed because they ain't seen nothin' yet. "Most of us think of biotech as medicine or genetically engineered crops," writes Robbins-Roth. But in the very near future, she continues, it also "may make it possible for humans to reach the stars and to change the environment on other planets." Think that's far-fetched? She says developments like this are already in early stages and, in a deliberately proselytizing manner, traces their roots to the current business nitty-gritty, finally focusing on the long-term moneymaking potential. "The biotech world will never be an easy place for investors," she cautions, but with hundreds of ongoing projects "poised to power into the marketplace," there will be plenty of "opportunities for investors and employees alike." Recommended for readers seeking an informed tutorial on this field of the future. --Howard Rothman
Book Description
A fascinating glimpse inside the life-and-death business of biotechnology.
"A tour-de-force for anyone who is interested in the biotech industry. I applaud the enormous achievement of Cynthia Robbins-Roth." -Frederick Frank, Senior Managing Director & Vice Chair, Lehman Brothers
"From Alchemy to IPO tells the dramatic story of this revolutionary industry as only an insider can." -George Rathmann, President and CEO, ICOS Corporation, Chairman Emeritus, Amgen
Written by a well-known industry insider, From Alchemy to IPO addresses the coming-of-age of biotech products and companies and traces the history of biotechnology from its early inception in the seventies to today's heyday of new solutions and breakthrough treatments. It describes the amazing entrepreneurial trail of product development, novel business models, and critical trials that eventually pave the way to market. This is the first book to accurately record the inner workings of an industry-biotechnology-that's on the verge of living up to its monumental promise to change the world as we know it.
Customer Reviews:
Good introductory text and overview of the industry.......2005-03-06
I read From Alchemy to IPO for an MBA course on entrepreneurialism in the pharmaceutical industry. Given my background (undergraduate business, financial analyst role, limited in-depth scientific knowledge), I found this book to be a very useful and balanced guide to both the business and technical aspects of biotechnology.
Robbins-Roth includes enough information on initial public offerings (IPOs) and merger activity among biotech firms to warm the hearts of the most resolute business student, but the drug discovery and development process is also covered in sufficient detail to give the lay reader an understanding for the operational challenges faced by firms in this sector.
Add to this the competent yet necessarily superficial descriptions of more esoteric terms such as monoclonal antibodies and combinatorial chemistry, and you have a solid text that covers the industry and its ongoing challenges very well.
Brilliant Overview.......2004-05-31
This is a great overview of the world of biotech. The author explains the science with clarity and enthusiasm and the introduction this book provides to the corporate side of biotech is also very interesting and well written.
bad writing.......2004-01-15
I read the first 20 pages of this book and quit. It was too painful to keep going. The author's wording in convoluted, tangential, and just plain annoying. She throws out dozens of names from the industry, so many you can't keep them straight. There is poor flow to the writing, so you cannot understand why she is telling you things from one line to the next. The topics of each paragraph jump from one subject to another with abrupt, confusing transitions. I returned the book!
Clear and non hyped intro into biotech.......2002-05-28
I'll be starting a biomedical engineering Ph.D. program in the fall and have read recently a few books on the biotech subject. This one gave the clearest picture of the biotech industries, the companies in them, how to manage and finance them, as well as how to recognize solid biotech companies for investing purposes. A quick and entertaining read for anyone interested in the business behind biotechnology.
WAY OVERRATED BOOK ON BIOTECH.......2001-08-25
to quote another user: "The author's expertise in science, finance, management strategy, and journalism..." the author can write decently and she may know about biotech (hard to judge for me not being a scientist)...BUT her knowledge about management strategy and finance is limited at best...that wouldn't be so bad if she were to stick to write about science...however, she thinks she knows about finance and strategy...who wants to read about strategy should stick with hamel, pralahad, porter etc., who wants to read about finance (valuation) should stick with copeland et al, and who wants to read about ipos should try articles by jay ritter.
Book Description
Spa and Salon Alchemy is a rare and practical tool that helps ensure success in the spa/salon business. Professionals new to the business, as well as those with long-established careers, will find valuable guidance in this template for designing, building and maintaining a well-run, highly profitable spa/salon. Readers will learn about leading-edge equipment, products, services and treatments to help them make their planning decisions. They'll also gain insight into ancient and innovative approaches to healing, longevity and youthfulness that they can bring to their clients, promoting satisfaction and retention. And, spas/salons will more easily attract and retain staff using the author's new approaches to educating, coaching and developing personnel.
Customer Reviews:
Not worth the money.......2006-03-17
I am considering opening my own spa and I bought this book based on the publisher's review that it has everything to "build and operate a profitable business". I have an MBA and 10 years of management consulting experience, so for me this book was a collection of the common sense business basics and generalities instead of the spa operations insights. It is definitely not worth its price ($69). For those who are in my shoes, I would suggest to buy one of the business publications available from the ISPA or learn industry trends from www.hfdspa.com and many SPA publications.
Average customer rating:
- Framework for financial success
- Lucid and insightful
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The Four Elements of Financial Alchemy: A New Formula for Personal Prosperity
Jacques F. Vallee
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ASIN: 1580082181 |
Customer Reviews:
Framework for financial success.......2001-06-06
"Comparing the bandwagon-joining, daytrading-frenzied investors of today to the medieval alchemists who searched for a secret substance rumored to transform base metals into gold, Silicon Valley venture capitalist Jacques Vallee structures a less magical (but presumably more effective) framework for financial success in this brief primer on investment strategy."
Lucid and insightful.......2001-03-21
The Four Elements of Financial Alchemy is a unique and comprehensive introduction to the field of personal financial planning. Lucid and insightful - it should be required reading for all first-time investors.
Book Description
Anyone can get the advantage in any situation with simple spells from a Wiccan high priestessusing ingredients people may already have in their home! Lexa Rosan explores the history of these spells, the lore surrounding the ingredients, and the easy instructions for putting them to work.
Customer Reviews:
The Everything Bagel Spell Alone Merits An Award.......2006-09-03
Lexa Rosean does it again with a tried and true volume of spells designed to give the user "the magical edge" - total brilliance! She unknowingly wooed and wowed me with her Everything Bagel Spell in particular - touched my heart and soul as only she can, with her unique and down-to-earth voice that resonates with any real witch. This volume is a great addition to any Wiccan library and for those just starting to get familiar with the Craft, there can be no better guide than this third degree High Priestess that has decades of experience and perhaps more than her share of talent in communication! A wonderful book that I will never part with.
Really like this book..........2004-08-22
I also wrote a review of Easy Enchantments by the same author and some of my comments in regard to that book are repeated here. I am not Wiccan and don't purport to be especially informed about Wiccan traditions and rituals. I can see how a practised Wiccan might find some of the author's spell recipes too simplistic, but, as a lover of kitchen and folk witchcraft, I think they're both evocative and, on the whole, effective.
The author is a superb writer able to coax a quality of tactile, enjoyably sensuous mystery from her descriptions and anecdotes. As far as I'm concerned, that in itself is magical. After reading the book I became much more aware of the esoteric properties inherent in all kinds of everyday foods and products, which caused me to feel more connected with the "magically vibrational" potential of my quotidian surroundings.
I tried the Preservation Spell when I was really depressed about my future and not sure where to focus my energies or whether to give up trying to be an artist. About an hour after doing the spell I went out for a walk and found a beautiful leather bookmark lying on the sidewalk printed with the words "Man cannot exist without dreams and dies if he gives them up". I know this may not sound like much but it definitely answered my question.
I've tried quite a few of the other spells. Not all of them have worked but most of them have in some form or another.
For lack of better words Hoakey.......2004-07-05
I read this book and found it to be just that; hoakey. I have even attempted some of the spells in it and well; they in no way shape or form worked. I have worked with many forms of magic & well this is just not it. It is good for a few laughs through her stories. I do believe that this is a good book to read, but for performing magic that will truly work, this is not the book.
Ehhhh, kinda...........2003-03-16
My main point of contention with this book is that more than a few of the spells are Santeria based, which tend to operate from a lower, darker platform . Sorry(not really) for not being PC, and respecting all traditions, but let's face it, Santeria deals with low-rent entities.
Also, there should be some sort of introductory text for those new to witchcraft. It should be explained that one's results will be much more effective (or just plain effective) if the herbs, foods, etal. are charged, and a circle is cast before taking part in these rituals. Eating an uncharged radish salad isn't going to put the world at your feet. I also think the author should have added something about burning appropriately colored candles while carrying out the spells.
As critical as I've just been, there are good pointers in this book that are certainly helpful, but your results will be much better if you're someone who understands the basics of witchcraft because you will have a book full of spells on which you can elaborate, and then you'll really be cooking.
Book Description
This book is both for beginning system designers and for trading professionals interested in a birds-eye view of trading system design and how to get started designing successful systems. The book included access to a powerful system design spreadsheet.
Customer Reviews:
the stepping stone to trader success.......2006-08-15
Many books claim to provide the necessary tools to trading success. I feel that this book actually provides some of the critical apparatus to succeed as a systems trader. Matt's book provides insider advice into dealing with the long, arduous process of system design. The book also covers critical aspects of investor psychology- can you let yourself trade a system or not? The book has definitely helped me out with developing my own trading strategies.
Average customer rating:
- Better than Mambo Chicken!
- Well Written and Researched Complexity and Santa Fe Hype
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The Info Mesa: Science, Business, and New Age Alchemy on the Santa Fe Plateau
Edward Regis , and
Ed Regis
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0393021238 |
Book Description
The explosive rise and shining future of Santa Fe's informatics industry, where scientists are converting abstract theory into real profit.
How did a small Southwest town transform itself into a hotbed of research science, advanced technology, and money? Tracking key figures in Santa Fe's emerging industries, Ed Regis explains how entrepreneurial scientists are using complexity theory and powerful, experimental computer programs to create practical—and profitable—applications. Their efforts to convert vast, diverse data, whether chemical or biological or computational, into useful information is leading to new drugs and medical therapies, ultimately revolutionizing our understanding of effective business strategies. With cutting-edge technology, companies are able to test chemicals, drugs, and interactions virtually before committing huge laboratory investments.
Profiling four firms at the forefront of this scientific and business revolution—including the BiosGroup, led by complexity theory pioneer Stuart Kauffman, and OpenEye Scientific Software, founded by Anthony Nicholls, the Steve Jobs of the Info Mesa—Regis offers behind-the-scenes experiences of the brilliant, often eccentric leaders in this heated competition for scientific innovation and commercial success.
Customer Reviews:
Better than Mambo Chicken!.......2004-05-18
Ed Regis is an exceptional writer.
This book is actually based on research, or least we anticipate a journalist's report of details. If you read his earlier book Mambo Chicken and the Transhuman Condition you might choke on a few missing details. Ever hear of a transhuman? Regis applied this title grabbing "transhuman" to a few people who didn't know what the word was, let alone meant.
Regis' use of "transhuman" was wide of the mark. His writing was marginalized when he neglected to point out the transhuman futurists in Los Angeles. Even one who coined the term, let along with a hundred others. At least they called themselves transhumans, unlike the Silicon Valley geeks. But then Wired magazine appealed to Silicon Valley and LA was Hollywierd. Sounds like Regis was noshing his editors at Wired.
At least Regis is moving in an interesting direction with alchemy, can't factualize that.
Roy Whitman
Well Written and Researched Complexity and Santa Fe Hype.......2003-07-06
This is a well researched, well written, interesting book about scientists in Santa Fe developing entrepreneurial start-ups based on complexity science. The science and business combination is fun and wide ranging. It belongs to a genre of books about the Santa Fe Institute, of which Michael Waldrop's Complexity is one of the earliest and best. Many of the characters are the same in both books. My criticism of the Info Mesa is that much of it reads like publicity hype. It overstates the scientific accomplishments of the Santa Fe Institute and the importance of complexity research. It overstates the health of the tech business climate in Santa Fe. It romanticizes the people who work at SFI. It romanticizes the town in which they work. The descriptions of Santa Fe are so over the top as to be laughable to those of us who live here. Not even our tourist brochures hype Santa Fe so well. So, in conclusion, the Info Mesa's story isn't really so. All of you should just stay home, and leave Santa Fe to those of us who got here before you. ;-)
Books:
- Vintage Neon (Schiffer Reference Book)
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- White Bicycles: Making Music in the 1960s
- Wise Women: A Celebration of Their Insights, Courage, and Beauty
- Worms Eat My Garbage: How to Set Up & Maintain a Worm Composting System
- A Game as Old as Empire: The Secret World of Economic Hit Men and the Web of Global Corruption (BK Currents)
- A New Brand World: Eight Principles for Achieving Brand Leadership in the Twenty-First Century
- Age of Propaganda: The Everyday Use and Abuse of Persuasion
Books Index
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