economic risks
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Estrin explains how it is difficult to reach critical mass in a tough economic environment, which prevents startups from growing enough to compete. She gives a personal example of Precept attempting to enter the market, but not reaching critical mass by the time Microsoft entered the market as well.
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Jeff Raikes, group vice president of Productivity and Business Services (PBS) at Microsoft Corporation, explains his own background and how being open to opportunities helped him become the only undergraduate from the Engineering Economic Systems department at Stanford.  Plans change as opportunities arise, he says. He also recommends entrepreneurs look for a job they love.
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Bronfman argues that the problem with America is that while values of integrity, hard-work, the rule of law and meritocracy are exported, the advancement of opportunities is not. This is why Endeavor is such a powerful role model; it provides economic opportunities in countries where democracy cannot flourish. With the growing availability of opportunities he says, cultures change, countries evolve, and the world becomes a better and more ...more
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Our understanding of the economy will be more tangible and vivid if we can in principle explain all the economic decisions of every agent in the economy. This lecture demonstrates, with two examples, how the theory lets us calculate equilibrium prices and allocations in a simple economy, either by hand or using a computer. In future lectures we shall extend this method so as to compute equilibrium in financial economies with stocks and bon...more
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Martin Eberhard talks about his first lesson - Do Something Meaningful. Martin believed that he would be successful only he worked on something that he really cared about. He believed that providing a solution to oil consumption was an issue that needed attention. He talks about how he began his journey by building a solution to this immensely important world economic problem.
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England's economic success peaked in 1300 amidst a riot of architectural excess and was followed by a series of disasters which lasted much of the fourteenth century. Yet against a catastrophic background English architectural individualism flourished and out of radically changed social structures an architectural consensus emerged.
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After bringing together the best team, raising money in tough environments, and establishing and living by core values, says Worthington, Fluidigm focused on launching the product. The product development went much faster than anyone could have hoped and soon they had a product with many important features, including an immediate economic benefit to the customers, he notes.
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Data shows, consistently, that poor people have more children than rich people; economically speaking, children are an inferior good. Children are production goods because they do work, consumption goods because they are enjoyable, and investment goods because they support parents in old age. Jobs in the modern sector require education and health. To pay for this, parents have to focus their resources on fewer children.
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There are several ways to examine the behaviors of organisms when they forage or hunt for food or mates. These behaviors become more complex in higher organisms, such as primates and whales, which can hunt in groups. Foragers and hunters have been shown to examine the marginal cost and marginal benefit of continuing an action and then adjust their behaviors accordingly. They are also able to handle risk by hoarding resources.
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One can look at biodiversity from several perspectives. An ecological point of view tries to determine how necessary diversity is for an ecosystem to function. An economic point of view tries to capture the value of the "services" nature provides for mankind. An evolutionary point of view shows how artificial the human "right" to dominance is. Finally, a personal point of view captures the emotional basis for the values that humans place o...more
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The economic concept of game theory can be readily applied to evolution and behavior. By analyzing encounters between organisms as a mathematical "game," important information such as fitness payoffs and the proportions of "strategies" played by each group within a population can be inferred. While oftentimes these games are too simplified to apply directly to actual examples in nature, they are still useful models that help convey importa...more
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Roizen talks about her experience in taking venture capital. She learned that if one can use venture funds judiciously to raise the inflection point, then it makes sense to do it. For her, it was an economic decision. Other reasons to take VC money involve credibility issues. Customers want to see that you have partners and money in the bank to prove that you will be around, she says.

