...Mathematical Writing by Donald E. Knuth, Tracy Larrabee, and Paul M. Roberts This report is based on a course of the same name given at Stanford University during autumn quarter, 1987. Here’s the catalog description: CS 209. Mathematical Writing—Issues of technical writing and the effective presentation of mathematics and computer science. Preparation of theses, papers, books, and “literate” computer programs. A term paper on a topic of your choice; this paper may be used for credit in another course. The first three lectures were a “minicourse” that summarized the basics. About two hundred people attended those three sessions, which were devoted primarily to a discussion of the points in §1 of this report. An exercise (§2) and a suggested solution (§3) were also part of the minicourse. The remaining 28 lectures covered these and other issues in depth. We saw many examples of “before” and “after” from manuscripts in progress. We learned how to avoid excessive subscripts and superscripts. We discussed the documentation of algorithms, computer programs, and user manuals. We considered the process of refereeing and editing. We studied how to make effective diagrams and tables, and how to find appropriate quotations to spice up a text. Some of the material duplicated some of what would be discussed in writing classes offered by the English department, but the vast majority of the lectures were devoted to issues that are specific to mathematics and/or computer science. Guest lectures by...
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...at me Lately in a wreck of a Californian ship, one of the passengers fastened a belt about him with two hundred pounds of gold in it, with which he was found afterwards at the bottom. Now, as he was sinking-had he the gold? or the gold him? —John Ruskin, Unto This Last Preface I wrote this book because I fell in love with a story. The story concerned a small group of undervalued professional baseball players and executives, many of whom had been rejected as unfit for the big leagues, who had turned themselves into one of the most successful franchises in Major League Baseball. But the idea for the book came well before I had good reason to write it—before I had a story to fall in love with. It began, really, with an innocent question: how did one of the poorest teams in baseball, the Oakland Athletics, win so many games? For more than a decade the people who run professional baseball have argued that the game was ceasing to be an athletic competition and becoming a financial one. The gap between rich and poor in baseball was far greater than in any other professional sport, and widening rapidly. At the opening of the 2002 season, the richest team, the New York Yankees, had a payroll of $126 million while the two poorest teams, the Oakland A's and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, had payrolls of less than a third of that, about $40 million. A decade before, the highest payroll team, the New York Mets, had spent about $44 million on baseball players and the lowest payroll team, the...
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...The Uses and Abuses of Agency Theory in Business Ethics The spectacular corporate scandals and bankruptcies of the past decade have served as a powerful reminder of the risks that are involved in the ownership of enterprise. Unlike other patrons of the firm, owners are residual claimants on its earnings.1 As a result, they have no explicit contract to protect their interests, but rely instead upon formal control of the decision-making apparatus of the firm in order to ensure that their interests are properly respected by managers. In a standard business corporation, it is the shareholders who stand in this relationship to the firm. Yet as the recent wave of corporate scandals has demonstrated once again, it can be extraordinarily difficult for shareholders to exercise effective control of management, or more generally, for the firm to achieve the appropriate alignment of interests between managers and owners. After all, it is shareholders who were the ones most hurt by the scandals at Enron, Tyco, Worldcom, Parmalat, Hollinger, and elsewhere. For every employee at Enron who lost a job, shareholders lost at least US$4 million.2 Furthermore, employees escaped with their human capital largely intact. Creditors and suppliers continue to pick over the bones of the corporation (which still exists, under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and continues to liquidate assets in order to pay off its debts).3 But as far as shareholders are concerned, their investments have simply evaporated...
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...recognized full well by the late media philosopher Marshall McLuhan . In his Understanding Media, the first sentence of the section on advertising reads, "The continuous pressure is to create ads more and more in the image of audience motives and desires ." By giving form to people's deep-lying desires, and picturing states of being that individuals privately yearn for, advertisers have the best chance of arresting attention and affecting communication . And that is the immediate goal of advertising : to tug at our psychological shirt sleeves and slow us down long enough for a word or two about whatever is being sold . We glance at a picture of a solitary rancher at work, and "Marlboro" slips into our minds . Advertisers (I'm using the term as a shorthand for both the products' manufacturers, who bring the ambition and money to the process, and the advertising agencies, who supply the know-how) are ever more compelled to invoke consumers' drives and longings ; this is the "continuous pressure" McLuhan refers to . Over the past century, the American marketplace has grown increasingly congested as more and more products have entered into the frenzied competition after the public's dollars. The economies of other nations are quieter than ours since the volume of goods being hawked does not so greatly exceed demand . In some economies, consumer wares are scarce enough that no advertising at all is necessary. But in the United States, we go to the other extreme . In...
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...C H A P T E R T W O Communicating Strategically In the first chapter, we examined the changing environment for business over the last half century. In this chapter, we explore how these changes have affected corporate communication and why it has become imperative for modern companies to communicate strategically. Strategic communication can be defined as “communication aligned with the company’s overall strategy, [intended] to enhance its strategic positioning.”1 An effective strategy should encourage a company to send messages that are “clear and understandable, true and, communicated with passion, strategically repetitive and repeated, [and] consistent (across constituencies).” We begin this chapter with a summary of the basic theory behind all communication, whether individual or organizational in nature. We will also briefly discuss influential models in modern communication theory. Although many communication experts have adapted these theories to help leaders communicate in writing and speaking, few have looked at how these same basic theories apply in the corporate communication context—that is, the way organizations communicate with various groups of people. Communication, more than any other subject in business, has implications for everyone within an organization—from the newest administrative assistant to the CEO. Thanks in part to important strategy work by academics such as Michael Porter, Gary Hamel, and C. K. Prahalad, most managers have...
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...Communicating Strategically In the first chapter, we examined the changing environment for business over the last half century. In this chapter, we explore how these changes have affected corporate communication and why it has become imperative for modern companies to communicate strategically. Strategic communication can be defined as “communication aligned with the company’s overall strategy, [intended] to enhance its strategic positioning.”1 An effective strategy should encourage a company to send messages that are “clear and understandable, true and, communicated with passion, strategically repetitive and repeated, [and] consistent (across constituencies).” We begin this chapter with a summary of the basic theory behind all communication, whether individual or organizational in nature. We will also briefly discuss influential models in modern communication theory. Although many communication experts have adapted these theories to help leaders communicate in writing and speaking, few have looked at how these same basic theories apply in the corporate communication context—that is, the way organizations communicate with various groups of people. Communication, more than any other subject in business, has implications for everyone within an organization—from the newest administrative assistant to the CEO. Thanks in part to important strategy work by academics such as Michael Porter, Gary Hamel, and C. K. Prahalad, most managers have learned to think strategically...
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...ALSO BY MALCOLM GLADWELL The Tipping Point To my parents, Joyce and Graham Gladwell Introduction The Statue That Didn’t Look Right In September of 1983, an art dealer by the name of Gianfranco Becchina approached the J. Paul Getty Museum in California. He had in his possession, he said, a marble statue dating from the sixth century BC. It was what is known as a kouros—a sculpture of a nude male youth standing with his left leg forward and his arms at his sides. There are only about two hundred kouroi in existence, and most have been recovered badly damaged or in fragments from grave sites or archeological digs. But this one was almost perfectly preserved. It stood close to seven feet tall. It had a kind of light-colored glow that set it apart from other ancient works. It was an extraordinary find. Becchina’s asking price was just under $10 million. The Getty moved cautiously. It took the kouros on loan and began a thorough investigation. Was the statue consistent with other known kouroi? The answer appeared to be yes. The style of the sculpture seemed reminiscent of the Anavyssos kouros in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens, meaning that it seemed to fit with a particular time and place. Where and when had the statue been found? No one knew precisely, but Becchina gave the Getty’s legal department a sheaf of documents relating to its more recent history. The kouros, the records stated, had been in the private collection of a Swiss physician named Lauffenberger...
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...A C L A S S W I T H D R U C K E R This page intentionally left blank A Class with Drucker The Lost Lessons of the World’s Greatest Management Teacher BY WILLIAM A. COHEN, PhD A M E R I C A N NEW YORK I M A N A G E M E N T I A S S O C I A T I O N I AT L A N TA I I B R U S SE L S I CHICAGO I MEXICO CITY I SAN FRANCISCO D. C. S H A N G H A I T O K Y O T O R O N T O W A S H I N G T O N, Special discounts on bulk quantities of AMACOM books are available to corporations, professional associations, and other organizations. For details, contact Special Sales Department, AMACOM, a division of American Management Association, 1601 Broadway, New York, NY 10019. Tel: 212-903-8316. Fax: 212903-8083. E-mail: specialsls@amanet.org Website: www.amacombooks.org/go/specialsales To view all AMACOM titles go to: www.amacombooks.org This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional service. If legal advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Cohen, William A., 1937– A class with Drucker : the lost lessons of the world’s greatest management teacher by William A. Cohen. p. cm. Includes index. ISBN 978-0-8144-0919-0 1...
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...Rules for High Performance Organizations (graded) | This week our text discusses the definition of organizational behavior and in particular its applied focus, and our lecture focuses on high performance organizations (HPOs). Right at the intersection of those would be the “Ten Golden Rules of High Performance” listed below. What do you think should be added to the list? Is there anything on the list that you disagree with? Please support your opinion with evidence from our readings and also from your own work and life experience. Please also remember to respond to your classmates’ posts to stimulate further discussion. Ten Golden Rules of High Performance 1. Hire by committee – make sure recruits talk to their future colleagues. 2. Cater to every need – make it easy, not hard, for people to perform. 3. Pack them in – put people to work close to one another. 4. Make coordination easy – use technology to keep people talking together. 5. Eat your own dog food – make use of the company products. 6. Encourage creativity – allow freedom to come up with new ideas. 7. Strive for consensus – remember that “many are better than few.” 8. Don’t be evil – live tolerance and respect. 9. Data-driven decisions – do the analysis and stay on track. 10. Communicate effectively – hold many stay-in-touch meetings. Responses | | | Response | Author | Date/Time* | | | Ten Golden Rules of High Performance | Zachary Brechler | 9/2/2012 5:43:26 AM | | | I think...
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...OTHER BOOKS BY D. A. BENTON Lions Don’t Need to Roar How to Think Like a CEO The $100,000 Club Secrets of a CEO Coach HOW TO ACT LIKE A 10 Rules for Getting to the Top and Staying There CEO M C G R AW- H I L L SAN FRANCISCO LISBON WA S H I N G T O N , D. C . MADRID AU C K L A N D D. A. BENTON N E W YO R K B O G OT Á MILAN C A R AC A S LONDON NEW DELHI MEXICO CITY SINGAPORE MONTREAL S A N J UA N SYDNEY T O K YO TO RO N TO McGraw-Hill abc Copyright © 2001 by Debra A. Benton. All rights reserved. Manufactured in the United States of America. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher. 0-07-137459-0 The material in this eBook also appears in the print version of this title: 0-07-135998-2. All trademarks are trademarks of their respective owners. Rather than put a trademark symbol after every occurrence of a trademarked name, we use names in an editorial fashion only, and to the benefit of the trademark owner, with no intention of infringement of the trademark. Where such designations appear in this book, they have been printed with initial caps. McGraw-Hill eBooks are available at special quantity discounts to use as premiums and sales promotions, or for use in corporate training programs. For more information, please contact George Hoare, Special Sales...
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...Journal of Economic Perspectives—Volume 17, Number 3—Summer 2003—Pages 71–92 Executive Compensation as an Agency Problem Lucian Arye Bebchuk and Jesse M. Fried E xecutive compensation has long attracted a great deal of attention from financial economists. Indeed, the increase in academic papers on the subject of CEO compensation during the 1990s seems to have outpaced even the remarkable increase in CEO pay itself during this period (Murphy, 1999). Much research has focused on how executive compensation schemes can help alleviate the agency problem in publicly traded companies. To understand adequately the landscape of executive compensation, however, one must recognize that the design of compensation arrangements is also partly a product of this same agency problem. Alternative Approaches to Executive Compensation Our focus in this paper is on publicly traded companies without a controlling shareholder. When ownership and management are separated in this way, managers might have substantial power. This recognition goes back, of course, to Berle and Means (1932, p. 139) who observed that top corporate executives, “while in office, have almost complete discretion in management.” Since Jensen and Meckling (1976), the problem of managerial power and discretion has been analyzed in modern finance as an “agency problem.” Managers may use their discretion to benefit themselves personally in a variety y Lucian Arye Bebchuk is the William J. Friedman Professor...
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...THE ART OF DECEPTION Controlling the Human Element of Security KEVIN D. MITNICK & William L. Simon Foreword by Steve Wozniak Scanned by kineticstomp, revised and enlarged by swift For Reba Vartanian, Shelly Jaffe, Chickie Leventhal, and Mitchell Mitnick, and for the late Alan Mitnick, Adam Mitnick, and Jack Biello For Arynne, Victoria, and David, Sheldon,Vincent, and Elena. Social Engineering Social Engineering uses influence and persuasion to deceive people by convincing them that the social engineer is someone he is not, or by manipulation. As a result, the social engineer is able to take advantage of people to obtain information with or without the use of technology. Contents Foreword Preface Introduction Part 1 Behind the Scenes Chapter 1 Security's Weakest Link Part 2 The Art of the Attacker Chapter 2 When Innocuous Information Isn't Chapter 3 The Direct Attack: Just Asking for it Chapter 4 Building Trust Chapter 5 "Let Me Help You" Chapter 6 "Can You Help Me?" Chapter 7 Phony Sites and Dangerous Attachments Chapter 8 Using Sympathy, Guilt and Intimidation Chapter 9 The Reverse Sting Part 3 Intruder Alert Chapter 10 Entering the Premises Chapter 11 Combining Technology and Social Engineering Chapter 12 Attacks on the Entry-Level Employee Chapter 13 Clever Cons Chapter 14 Industrial Espionage Part 4 Raising the Bar Chapter 15 Information Security Awareness and Training Chapter 16 Recommended Corporate Information Security Policies Security at a Glance Sources...
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...the origins of this book are clarified. vii PREFACE TO THE REVISED AND EXPANDED EDITION xi 1 INTRODUCTION: The Hidden Side of Everything In which the book’s central idea is set forth: namely, if morality represents how people would like the world to work, then economics shows how it actually does work. Why the conventional wisdom is so often wrong . . . How “experts”— from criminologists to real-estate agents to political scientists—bend the facts . . . Why knowing what to measure, and how to measure it, is the key to understanding modern life . . . What is “freakonomics,” anyway? 1. What Do Schoolteachers and Sumo Wrestlers Have in Common? 15 In which we explore the beauty of incentives, as well as their dark side—cheating. Contents Who cheats? Just about everyone . . . How cheaters cheat, and how to catch them . . . Stories from an Israeli day-care center . . . The sudden disappearance of seven million American children . . . Cheating schoolteachers in Chicago . . . Why cheating to lose is worse than cheating to win . . . Could sumo wrestling, the national sport of Japan, be corrupt? . . . What the Bagel Man saw: mankind may be more honest than we think. 2. How Is the Ku Klux Klan Like a Group of Real-Estate Agents? 49 In which it is argued that nothing is more powerful than information, especially when its power is abused. Spilling the Ku Klux Klan’s secrets . . . Why experts of every kind are in the perfect position to exploit you . . . The antidote to information abuse:...
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...1 . For Nassim Nicholas Taleb, black swans underlie almost everything about our world, from the rise of religions to events in our own personal lives. A BLACK SWAN Why do we not acknowledge the phenomenon of black swans until after they occur? Part of the answer, according to Taleb, is that humans are hardwired to learn specifics when they should be focused on generalities. We concentrate on things we already know and time and time again fail to take into consideration what we don't know. We are, therefore, unable to truly estimate oppor tunities, too vulnerable to the impulse to simplify, narrate, and categorize, and not open enough to rewarding those who can imagine the "impossible." For years, Taleb has studied how we fool our selves into thinking we know more than we actually do. We restrict our thinking to the irrelevant and inconsequential, while large events continue to surprise us and shape our world. Now, in this reve latory book, Taleb explains everything we know about what we don't know. He offers surprisingly simple tricks for dealing with black swans and ben efiting from them. Elegant, startling, and universal in its applica tions, The Black Swan will change the way you look at the world. Taleb is a vastly entertaining writer, with wit, irreverence, and unusual stories to tell. He has a polymathic command of subjects ranging from cognitive science to business to...
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...Stock Investing FOR DUMmIES 2ND by Paul Mladjenovic ‰ EDITION Stock Investing FOR DUMmIES 2ND ‰ EDITION Stock Investing FOR DUMmIES 2ND by Paul Mladjenovic ‰ EDITION Stock Investing For Dummies® 2nd Edition , Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc. 111 River St. Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774 www.wiley.com Copyright © 2006 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published simultaneously in Canada No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400, fax 978-646-8600. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Legal Department, Wiley Publishing, Inc., 10475 Crosspoint Blvd., Indianapolis, IN 46256, 317-572-3447, fax 317-572-4355, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions. Trademarks: Wiley, the Wiley Publishing logo, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, A Reference for the Rest of Us!, The Dummies Way, Dummies Daily, The Fun and Easy Way, Dummies.com and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the...
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