Author: Phil Garland

Creating Accounting Nirvana

Posted on by Phil Garland

I’ve written before about the possibility of a blockchain-centered accounting system that would automatically pinpoint assets, liabilities, revenues and expenses. This system, utilizing a financial code called XBRL (or something similar), would be able to tag every transaction that occurs in the world and match it to the correct company’s books. Not only would this automate the mundane tasks of bookkeeping but it would also provide valuable anonymized datasets to set benchmarking for good or bad companies.

Today, I read an article on TechCrunch about a bookkeeping company called Pilot that just raised $15 million in their Series B. Pilot is run by three MIT graduates and thrh seem to have figured out a way to integrate the many data points from banks to accounting systems to credit cards and combine them into an accounting system. It seems like accounting nirvana.  

I wish it were true. As much as I want to hope they’ve found a viable solution, it’s nearly impossible to do. We live in an ever-changing world with APIs that fall apart without consistent upkeep. Even Xero, probably the best accounting system I’ve seen for bank feeds, has its limitations based on API plugins and pulling data from banks. On top of that, you have to be constantly monitoring changes companies make to their UI. It’s an extremely complicated task to create the accounting nirvana today with our current systems. 

Additionally, I’ve never seen a company with perfect books. There will always be an error that has tossed the books into chaos and getting down to zero reconciliation is nearly impossible. There are ways of correcting the books but simply adding data on top of bad data won’t fix everything at once. 

I believe the solution is to re-think our systems from the ground up. Everything needs to be built with a systematic approach where everyone’s accounting system is in communication with one another. Integrating a bunch of datasets may seem like a solid idea in the short term but it isn’t sustainable in the long term. There are too many moving parts.

Accounting isn’t a sexy field. There probably aren’t many people who care about what I’m writing. But it’s these things that I see on a daily basis that will need to be solved to make our monetary system more efficient. There’s opportunity here, hopefully we find a way to seize it.

The Overblown Belief in Technology

Posted on by Phil Garland

I feel like everyday I see ten articles exclaiming “the end of human jobs” or “robots are taking over”. Although robotic improvements are happening at an exponential rate, robots are nowhere close to being able to take control of human production. The major missing link is an understanding of prices. Robots don’t operate under scarcity or supply and demand and they don’t have millions of thoughts racing through their neurons every single day. Robots are as good as we program them to be and anyone who has ever tried programming knows how hard it is to get right.

The leaps from artificial intelligence and machine learning should make our programming far more efficient as robots can learn faster. But that doesn’t mean humans will be without work. Just because technology advances doesn’t make manpower obsolete. We’re on the edge of a new wave, the technology era so-to-speak, and that can lead to a lot of fearmongering. We’re not being replaced by machines. If anything, we’re going to start growing exponentially smarter alongside the machines.

Ludwig von Mises, in Human Action, has a great quote on the inability of machines to replicate the human mind.

Technology operates with countable and measurable quantities of external things and effects; it knows causal relations between them, but it is foreign to their relevance to human wants and desires…Technology tells how a given end could be attained by the employment of various means which can be used together in various combinations, or how various available means could be employed for certain purposes. But it is at a loss to tell man which procedures he should choose out of the infinite variety of imaginable and possible modes of production.

A machine is not a human mind. It doesn’t have wants and desires. A machine doesn’t have to choose between millions of different ways to spend it’s time. Machines are fundamentally different than humans. (Note: Brain emulation, when possible, is something that might make human production near obsolete). Although people will continually debate the merits of artificial intelligence and technological progress, the human workforce isn’t going anywhere. Most likely we’ll become even more efficient with our technology counterparts.

My Thoughts on Eating Meat

Posted on by Phil Garland

Today, I listened to a podcast on the ethics of eating meat. The interviewee came from a stance that eating animals was inhumane and against society’s moral codes. He stated that eating factory-farmed chicken, pigs and cows was unjust to their well-being and thus a negative on society. Although I agreed with some of his points, he seemed to have a subjective (biased) opinion. When the host, Steve Patterson, mentioned the problems of harvesting grains, like killing organisms that live in and on the crops, the guest quickly adjusted his stance to a monetary theory of moral code.

When it comes to morality, money isn’t part of the equation (in my opinion). Nobody would forgive Kevin Spacey because the ends resulted in a lot of money. He did immoral deeds and was punished for it. Same for the immorality of plowing rabbits, rats, mice and other animals living in fields of grain.

As someone who has been a vegetarian and tried veganism for half a year, and is now Paleo, I feel I have a stance on this subject. My main motive for not eating meat was for everything the interviewee described. It was to feel better about the environment and feel better for the animals that I wasn’t killing. The only problem was that the vegetarian and even more so the vegan diets affected my mood and ability to live the life I wanted. It also made me eat far too many grains that my body rejected.

The one thing that the interview re-enforced was the terrible conditions our livestock is faced with in meat factories. Moving forward, I will try my hardest to get my meat from local, free-range sources. Although this means a bigger hit on my wallet, it makes me feel better for the lives of the animals I’m about to eat. Additionally, by signaling my preference for an organic piece of meat, I’m showing potential organic farmers a chance for profits. My attempts to eat healthier may promote entrepreneurship into the space going forward, limiting the powers of meat factories.

Personal Progress is Incremental

Posted on by Phil Garland

Last weekend I had a lot of fun and hung out with some really good friends and some new friends. It was great spending social time outside with people from throughout our friend group, however, it was a break from my typical good habits.

This weekend I had a lot of fun but didn’t veer too far away from my habits. I feel refreshed for Monday and don’t feel like I sacrificed my mind or health to have fun. Although it might seem like an obvious skill, being responsible on the weekend creates personal progress.  

My past two weekends have been opposites in being responsible (last weekend not so responsible, this weekend fun but more responsible) and each taught me a lesson. I learned I don’t want to repeat my irresponsible weekends very often. I also learned I can have fun without being irresponsible. Personal progress isn’t always a giant leap forward but a small (incremental) step in the right direction. 

Standardized Time is a Capitalist Concept

Posted on by Phil Garland

It’s that time of year, time to spring forward. Twice a year, once when we set our clocks back and when we set our clocks forward (or back to normal time?), I’m reminded about the awesomeness of capitalism. (I’m often reminded of the awesomeness of capitalism but a lot of times capitalism gets jumbled without a definitive outcome, standardized time is as precise of an example as it gets).

Lawrence W. Reed has the best explanation of standardized time in his article It Wasn’t Government that Fixed Your Clock. Basically, there was no such thing as standardized time until trains needed to be on time. This meant scheduling on a standardized time scale instead of the hyper-localized time zones that earlier existed.

Because of an innovative group of capitalist, we were left with the time zones we have today.  As Reed puts it “What time is it? Thanks not to pretentious central planners but to creative entrepreneurs, no matter where you live, there’s been a uniform answer to that question for about a century.”

Questions for the Crypto Movement

Posted on by Phil Garland

“How many malnourished Asian kids you fed today?” – KOOL A.D.

Are we making the world a better place?

“How much censorship-resistant commerce for the common people have we enabled?

How many unbanked people have we banked?” – Vitalik Buterin

If we’re taking power from the centralized power, why are we fighting within the decentralized sect?

Why can’t we all move forward and improve humanity?

If we can’t agree over Twitter, how the fuck are we to agree on blockchain contracts?

Power will always be pushed for but it takes a select few to surrender power for the greater good. 

Analyzing on the Margin

Posted on by Phil Garland

I found this in my “random thoughts” note pad on my phone and thought I’d expand upon it.

There’s something I’ve learned from analyzing life and people. A lot of people don’t analyze. And very few people analyze on the margin.

I’m an analyzer. Most of the time I spend thinking about the world around me and how I fit into everyone else’s piece of the puzzle. A lot of times, that leads me to be an over-analyzer (which is definitely not good). However, much of my analysis of others leads me to believe a lot of other people don’t analyze situations as much as I do.

Sometimes I don’t say anything in a situation because I don’t want to offend someone who’s listening in. When I’m in a group of people there are times where someone chimes in with a witty remark only to come across as offensive to someone else. I’ve made plenty of witty remarks, and have probably offended people, but I try to analyze the people around me and look for cues that I was offensive.

The other side to my statement is analyzing on the margin. This goes back to Carl Menger the “founder” of marginal utility. Basically, marginial utility is the amount of utils (pleasure, happiness) one gains from each increasing consumption. Imagine eating a piece of cake. The first piece is delicious but slowly your utils (desire to devour) slows down as you become bloated with sugars. 

Anyway, analyzing on the margin is similar. Your analysis doesn’t occur within a vacuum but instead in between the utils. If you determine you made a mistake within a given situation, how likely are you to repeat that mistake? Do you keep digging yourself a hole during that conversation? Do you repeat the same mistake a day later?

When I analyze, I also read into the reaction of the person I’m discussing with. I try to find out if they find value in my words. If they don’t, I’ve learned two lessons. One, I probably shouldn’t keep going down this path of discussion. And two, this may not be a discussion worth having with others, I might not want to repeat myself in the future.

I think analyzing people is a really interesting trait. It definitely makes me overly aware of emotions around me but it also gives me a chance to better myself. Analyzing on the margin builds my self awareness and gives me a chance to grow into someone better than my previous self.

Creation Breeds More Creation 

Posted on by Phil Garland

I can already feel the cogs in my head waking from a dormant slumber. The cobwebs are slowly breaking from there nesting spot on my inner gears. Like clockwork, my brain is refocusing on grander ideas and a more creative self. 

Instead of sitting at home, desiring to be mindless, I’ve started thinking of things that I can accomplish if I put my mind to them. I’ve also started seeing the world through the lens of my reading. I’ve been applying concepts from Human Action (a book I’ve slowly been getting through about the basis of economics by Ludwig von Mises).

I’ve also seen the creative value in expression from a science fiction book I’ve been reading and the music that I listen to. Writing, to me, is a creative outlet that breeds more creativity and gives life to the creativity of others.

After today, I won’t be posting “fluff” pieces about getting back in action. Today, was about getting my brain back in motion and letting creativity create some more.

Why I’m Back to Writing

Posted on by Phil Garland

I could spend all day, week or month circling through ideas in my head. Without writing them down, they get lost in the constant banter going through my brain. Although they may seem scary to put down, and a lot of times my ideas change from putting them into writing and reflecting on those words, it’s a necessary hurdle to achieve further knowledge.

The only way to learn what my thoughts truly mean is by putting pen to pencil (or finger to keyboard) and penning ideas into being. Without this habit, I lose my path into thinking through possible ideas.

Without using writing as a habit, I wrap ideas into tighter circles never to explore their possible meaning. That’s why I’m back to writing. I need to jot my thoughts down and figure out what my brain is saying. It’s the easiest way I’ve found to keep exploring new ideas and keeping myself from circling through the same thoughts.

 

Some Childish Inspiration

Posted on by Phil Garland

“Man nobody out here’s got it figured out” – v.3005, Childish Gambino 

We live in an imperfect world, with imperfect signals and humans are imperfect beings. Yet, we try to tell others the best way to live each other’s lives. Nobody’s got it figured out. All we can do is try to be the best version of ourselves, whatever that version may be, and keep on keeping on.