Life at Frontier Minus One

Sanity prevails…

…at frontier minus one.

Rat race is within the underlying’s…

control.

Virtual / quasi / substantial / semi debt-free-ness…

exists.

Free cash-flow generation on the balance sheet is…

…common.

At frontier minus one, the narrative is …

…under control…

…as proven by self-determination of speed of change…

…and by exhibition of substantial growth.

Not at breakneck speeds.

Not by borrowing to the hilt.

Not by greedy behaviour.

Not by indigestible trajectory.

Not by a reckless ‘not giving a damn too bad if you’re not so fast’ attitude.

Life at frontier minus one…

…is somewhat balanced, with a flow.

Innovation at frontier minus one is achieved much faster

…than at frontier minus two, but much slower than at…

…frontier zero zero.

No tech company that wishes to thrive well into the future is currently functioning at…

…frontier minus two.

Either the transition to minus one has been made, or, it’s in the process.

Why not go for the jugular? Straight to zero zero.

Everyone has their role in this puzzle.

Imagine an older civilization going into battle.

There was a front line, paving the way, at immense cost.

There was a reserve support line, with artillery, first-aid, communication, and what have you.

There was a third line with supply, reinforcements, semi-trainees doing other stuff normally, etc.

There was aerial support, naval support, intelligence, research and analysis staff etc.

All combined to create an ensemble of actions.

Cut to now.

Warfare has changed.

Immense cost is still there, but immense cost to the front line, as in cost of life, has been reduced greatly, speak drone and missile warfare, supported by AI backed intelligence and analysis.

Point is, innovation, a different way of thinking, disruption and all their cousins will find a way to make things affordable, implementable.

That’s the way civilizations move forward.

Not for you or me to change. It’s the way of the world.

And that is what frontier minus one banks upon.

Meaning, to keep functioning at sustainable levels, slowly, painstakingly, in the process, simultaneously, finding a way, a connect, to frontier zero zero.

The connect can be of co-work. Amicable. Win-Win. You earn, we earn.

At frontier minus one, the world view is not to annihilate, but to…

…accommodate.

To win…

…together…

…in…

symbiosis.

Symbiosis

Imagine…

…the most value you can imagine.

That’s what this word is worth.

Especially now.

What’s the truth?

Existential question.

First we had everyone and their aunties proclaim the death of core Tech companies.

Hmmm.

Core Tech companies, and their chief protagonists, thought otherwise.

Number of believers kept waning though.

Until recently.

Something started to reverse in belief systems.

AI was behaving fantastically utilitarian with a human holding the reins.

Meaning, there needed to be a human there, for practical purposes.

Frontier AI deployed engineers to be the human face. Or so one was told.

Came the trust issue.

Do we double up on our trust in this no track record magician who just showed up out of nowhere?

Do we entrust privileged client data to the unknown?

Do we strip ourselves naked, TWICE?

NO.

Everyone and their uncles have answered with an emphatic NO.

Who is the human handler – the go-between – the trusted face – the rein holder?

Someone with a track record.

Proven.

Tried, and…

trusted.

Self-propelling.

With no liabilities. Spell ZERO DEBT.

With copious FREE CASH FLOW to INNOVATE FREELY…

…to navigate the reins successfully and as per the requirements of an enterprise.

Who is this entity?

None other than…

…our own very well known…

CORE TECH.

Leaner.

Hungry to prove its point.

To have its raison d’être acknowledged, and paid for.

To earn and compound steadily.

Forget about dying. Let’s talk about long term thriving.

Then, we had the captains of frontier AI admitting, that yes, ‘we do need core tech handholding to be implemented successfully’.

Gone was the initial hubris, that ‘we had come to wipe out old thought patterns, and all old systems’.

Reality had dawned, and these captains at least had the decency to admit it.

Actually, they had realized that their existence now depended upon how much their infrastructure would seep through. And…

…that no one was trusting them enough to hand over the job of seeping through to them, but much rather, to trusted old compatriots, to Core Tech.

So they came forward to shake hands.

Good.

Symbiosis.

We want to move forward on the back of this symbiosis.

There will be gigantic and fast development on the back of this symbiosis.

We are looking at space travel, space colonization, disease control, climate change, cheap solar, cheap desalination, perhaps even alien integration and partnership – unimaginable perhaps a few months ago, but possibly conceivable on the back of this symbiosis.

There’s new talk which has recently emerged, from the other extreme, and needs to be discarded, like its mirror image on the opposite side of the bell curve. This is the talk of frontier AI dying out because of becoming unaffordable.

Well, in whatever shape it exists currently, frontier AI does have tremendous capacity to solve problems.

Let it do just that on the back of this symbiosis, and earnings will start to flow.

Core Tech won’t let it wither, frontier AI has now become their raison d’être too.

Don’t you see it?

Two universes are converging, each needing the other to survive.

In the end, they become one universe.

Companies will merge. Synergies will multiply. Mega projects will be achieved, faster, more bombastically.

Earnings will flow.

Where do you want to be?

Remaining a doomsdayer will not help you.

Get into the flow.

Invest into debt-free, free cash-flow generating core tech as value deepens.

Look for debt-free, frontier minus one, free cash-flow generating semi AI companies, research these thoroughly for any red flags, and if those found are manageable, put in some funds.

If you find a frontier tech with manageable debt and a reasonable balance sheet, with a PEG ratio (price to earnings ratio divided by earnings per share growth percentage for the fiscal) somewhat under control. ok, put in some money there too.

Get out of the doomsday mindset.

Put your money to work, and then lock it in for another twenty years. Leave the compounded proceeds to your children.

Now.

Let the crashes come. There will be compounding post crashes too. Just look at the monthly chart of an IT index from 1995 to today. Dot-com peak looks miniscule and low compared to the levels of the monthly chart today.

Enough talking. Do the recce and then let’s talk.

Mantra

Hey.

Writing became a breeze.

Posting a blog from inside Claude, keeping the originality of the post, whilst assigning to AI all mechanical tasks like feeding in categories and tags – I’ll admit, this does make life a lot easier, and blogging a lot more enjoyable.

Which keeps the admissions coming in continuation, perhaps repeatedly.

From being the leading AI skeptic, towards gravitating to some kind of a chief protagonist – people who know me would probably say, “There he goes again.”

So what’s this going to do?

The number of blog posts is going to increase. Hopefully, the quality too. Primarily, the enjoyment while blogging.

Beneficial. We thereby move towards the realm of Planet 2.0.

Wunderkind AI needs to benefit mankind to the max.

What about the risk?

Opening up to the Wunderkind, allowances, permissions, sometimes an odd password shared.

Does the AI take these towards Planet 3.0?

Yeah, that’s the one on which mankind is harmed.

Skeptics are still on 1.0, exactly where I was 11 days ago.

Idea is to make a conscious effort to gravitate towards 2.0, every time there’s a drift towards 3.0.

Remember, we will tend to drift.

Drifting got us here in the first place. One can use fancy words for it, like disruption.

There’s a quick trick which makes us aware from where we are functioning, 2.0 or 3.0?

Greed. Hubris. Exuberance. Ego burgeons. 3.0 functionality.

Feeling of benevolence while functioning, well-being and / or goodness emerging – 2.0 domain.

Natural human drift towards 3.0.

Bring back consciously towards 2.0.

That’s the Mantra, going forward.

Check

Hey.

Facing some basic issues on the other side.

Life has changed.

Race became more intense.

There’s greed in the equation, the desire to achieve as much as possible in as little time as possible.

Everything’s moving…

…faster.

As if…

…from one day to the next…

one just…

…shifted.

It’s clear to me that we don’t shift till we are ready.

Was a hard nut to crack.

Had to be literally goaded into the AI trajectory, several coaxings required. Hard skepticism took its time to be broken down.

Not happy about the greed.

Speed of coasting is also very high.

Need attunement.

Unable to slow down easily.

Need to be careful about a ‘now I’ve got this and to hell with you attitude’. Can develop unchecked.

Addiction. Need to stay de-addicted.

All non-electronic activities in the day go up immensely in value.

Reading – books. Check.

Chanting. Check.

Basic verbal conversations. Check.

Human interactions. Check.

Helping someone. Charity. Check.

Non-distracted eating. Check.

Bringing down multi-tasking levels. Check.

Whole detox days. Day travel. StayCation. AutoCut the system. Check.

Evening chanting session. Lengthen. It’s not electronic. Check.

Anything not connected to a device and creates value. Check.

Not going to fall sick in this hyperactive space.

Check.

Incorporating before proceeding further.

Check.

Waking Up On The Other Side

Hey,

First up, humbled. To the nth.

Was an AI skeptic till, like, yesterday.

Well, skeptic tried, and died, the skeptic did.

What woke up was armed 25x and on steroids.

That’s me now, after 9 days of intense work on Claude.

Encouraged to try by friends and compatriots, initiated into entry, took the plunge.

There’s a chronic buzz in this dimension. This is an electronic world. Just got more…

…robotic. It’s just that the robot is invisible.

It’s like fighting a matrix war from inside a digital maniacal super-intelligent tool who knows…

…everything.

Who can connect dots…

…exponentially and asymptotically, both simultaneously.

Red flag list is at an all time high.

Sleep’s off.

Mind races all the time.

There’s some exuberance that’s come to the fore.

Don’t want to speak much.

Need solitude.

Basic life disturbs.

Withdrawal symptoms away from screen.

Welcome to the planet 3.0.

What happened to 2.0 ?

Wasn’t that supposed to be the shifted one, towards doing good for mankind?

Want it back.

Need to get to 2.0.

What is 2.0?

A controlled version of 3.0, using its tools only, not being ruled by it. Doing good for mankind.

Need to create a 2.0 out of 3.0.

Fast.

Constants

Hey.

We play the game…

…with numbers.

Numbers are…

…our thing.

The thing with numbers is…

…that once we create a constant for ourselves…

…a pivot…

…something like a compass…

…AI doesn’t have access to it.

It’s our number.

It’s in our mind.

By the time AI gains direct access to our mind, we’ll be gone.

For example, we establish a low buying average, over many buys, in something we consider to hold value.

Each individual establishes their own, meaning…

…it’s each person’s own low buying average.

It decides the multiple.

It’s the centre-half. The libero. It creates the play. It’s unique to a person. No AI access. The whole game has been taken away from AI. It remains a human game. It’s not what the masses are doing. It’s contrarian. It’s going to make money.

Volatility is a constant.

Disruption is a constant.

Fear is a constant.

Greed is a constant.

Mass-behaviour is a constant.

Pigs getting slaughtered is a constant.

We play it by constants.

We’ve even started using unique mass-logic defying indicators, that only we have defined, that no one else knows about or can dream of, and we’re using them successfully, with no access to AI.

We’re functioning from within a matrix where we control the game, AI doesn’t.

Beauty is, outside of our protective matrix, we have access to all of AI’s capabilities, should we choose to use them.

Not yet though. Specifically after the 160+ girls murder rumoured to be caused by intel provided by AI, correct me if I’m wrong. AI as it currently is doesn’t seem ready for seamless implementation. All those foolishly believing so at this moment are the pigs referred to above. Pigs get what? Slaughtered. I didn’t say this first. It’s a common market saying. Markets are a – constant. We trust constants.

There will be many more blow-ups before seamlessness is achieved.

Think of banking systems causing and compounding massive errors because of blind reliability on AI.

This of AI suggested war strategy backfiring because of lack of understanding of human psyche.

Think of investment strategy imploding, left with eyes wide shut to AI, owing to lack of proper understating of human behaviour and its unpredictability. Anyways, on the plus side…

…think of any level of positive upheaval that AI will cause.

Think maximum.

Thought?

Since we play it by constants, we’ll continue to thrive, maximum disruption and beyond.

Such is the power of constants, that we successfully harness.

MainStreaming

When the trickle…

…becomes a flow…

…becomes a water-fall, …

…you’ve just gone main-stream.

Life main-stream is not different as such, …

…except for more zeros behind a one.

One more thing is very prominent, though.

NOISE.

Yeah, noise just got that much louder.

Why?

Because…

…there’s your main-stream, …

…and ever other professional concept or suggestion, …

…is noise, …

…for you.

If that’s not your reality, you’re going to bungle up your main-stream.

At this stage, mistakes are costly.

Going back to a drawing-board is going to cost precious time.

By the time you’ve gotten to your main-stream, time is not a luxury.

Make your scaling up worth it by believing in your main-stream.

Keep fine-tuning it to make it work for you, to its logical conclusion.

That would be the legacy stage.

Once you’re passing on your legacy, all else becomes noise, since closing a positive loop with deep satisfaction is what we ultimately strive for.

Shareware – When Everyone has Access

Hmmmm…

…what is…

…and what isn’t?

Is technical analysis 1.0.1 still valid?

Why has this question arisen?

What is it about shareware?

Basics never go away.

One always falls back to basics.

Having said that, basics can be made to appear a certain way.

Why?

So that a newbie recognizes a pattern and acts.

Does that render the shareware useless?

NO.

One learns how to use shareware.

Combining a basic candlestick pattern with volume and open interest, for example…

…renders the shareware back as useful.

However, we are now moving in the sphere of technical analysis 1.0.2+ .

Moral of the story?

Don’t believe what basic shareware is telling you as is.

Back up your observation with multiple factors.

Aligning combinations?

Sector behaviour?

Broader market?

Market rhythm?

Cycle?

Domestic sentiment?

International what have we-s?

Psychology at play?

Get a feel for the goings-on.

It’s ok to pay for market software and set it up with multiple edges, rather than use plain vanilla free- or shareware.

Why?

Edges…

…translate into money.

Even an alert is an edge.

20 alerts are 20 edges.

Freeware not allowing any alerts?

Well, rethink, Mr. Scrooge.

Spend on quality, to make multiples later.

Let’s get out of the freebie mentality…

…since we wish to strike it big with the markets.

Wishing all lucrative market play!

🙂

Technically speaking, how are you doing?

Hey,

How’re your technicals going?

The whole world looks at the same or similar technicals, you know.

For example, if there’s support, everyone knows there’s support.

If a Fibonacci level has been reached, it’s the identical story.

When a trendline is broken, yes, you guessed it, the story hasn’t changed.

Yeah, we’ve got a problem.

What do we do here?

We don’t have an option but to think a couple of steps ahead.

As in, when a support is reached, we’re still talking about support at minus let’s say 3%, ok? Decide whatever number you wish to for yourself here, but till support minus that number is not breached, in your book, support still hasn’t been broken.

Thinking around, that’s what we are doing here.

Why?

We don’t wish to be pushed into market behaviour till something is happening.

We wish to forgo noise.

When we act, we wish to do so in a more sure-shot fashion.

A thinking-around approach thus becomes inevitable.

Similary, it’s not a Fibonacci bounce-off till let’s say (Fib62 + x) has been surpassed. Decide what your x is.

Or, a trendline is not broken till the close says so, or till there are two simultaneous closes below or above it.

You get the drift.

Make your own bye-rules.

That way, for all you know, you could still end up using a potentially defunct technical machinery, which, because of your thinking-around exercise, has suddenly become a powerful and potent tool.

🙂

Trigger-Happiness triggering your happiness?

Action?

All the time?

Do you crave it?

And, are you in the markets?

Boy, do you have your work cut out for you, or do you have your work cut out for you?

Ideally, your long-term investment should not give you action.

When it does, it should push you to act.

What backfires is when you act to push it.

Unless you’re convinced by a stock, you don’t buy it.

Unless there’s margin of safety, you don’t buy it.

Unless there’s more margin of safety, you don’t re-buy it.

Unless you’re fed up with the stock or the antics of its management, you don’t sell it.

The whole long-term game is biased towards inaction.

Those who master the art of inaction are good long-term investors.

Bridging gaps is paramount.

What do you do with the vast amounts of time at your disposal?

Do twenty other things.

Create value in many walks of life.

Let the areas not overlap with any of the markets you are tapping.

Capture the attention of your mind.

What happens if you don’t?

Boredom, inaction or the need for action will propel you towards making a mistake.

Mistakes in the market cost money.

That’s how they’re defined.

Do yourself a huge favour.

Approach the markets after having embraced inaction.

Wealth-Generators know how to Sit

Most humans don’t know how to sit. 

Most humans are not wealthy. 

If you are a wealth-generator, you’ve probably already made the connection, knowingly or unknowingly. 

You sit. 

You are focused.

You know what you are doing. 

You are confident about what you are doing. 

You don’t keep looking over your shoulder. 

You are not jumpy. 

You don’t require a daily quote. 

In fact, you’re quite happy with a monthly quote. 

You know the value of your underlying. The world cannot tell you otherwise. 

You seal one wealth-generating opportunity, and move on to the other. 

That helps you to sit on the former, while you focus on the latter…

…till you seal the latter, which is when you move on to the next one, and so on and so forth. 

Soon, you are at the pivot of many, many wealth generating ideas. 

You are surrounded by multiples. 

Some have fully matured. 

You bring them to their logical conclusion. If this is a cash-out, well it’s a cash-out. 

You move the funds resulting appropriately…

…perhaps to a new avenue…

…or perhaps to finance something big…

…be it a lifetime-requirement…

…or what have you. 

You recognise the fact that one of the main purposes of wealth is also to fulfil lifetime-requirements. 

Mere income is not able to fulfil these. 

Generated wealth is. 

You recognise that. 

You are a wealth-generator. 

You know how to sit. 

Dealing from a Position of Strength 

Next move… 

… should make you stronger. 

If it’s not, you’re wasting your position of strength. 

And, if it’s not, it’s not going to be your next move. 

Think up a different one. 

You had the acumen to gravitate to a position of strength. 

What makes you think that you don’t have the acumen to become even stronger? 

Take your time. 

In a position of strength, time becomes your friend. 

Here, you possess the means to double, treble or what have you your time. You hire quality people, to listen to their sound advice. You don’t have to follow them. However, it’s good to look at quality behaviour while finalizing the next move. Specialists provide you with that service. The specialist you want to listen to first wants to make you some money and then thinks about his or her commission. There are some such ones out there. Find them. 

Reject a hundred specialists. Then choose one that fits your specs. You’re in a position to do so. You’re in a position of strength. 

When time becomes your friend, consolidation comes as a matter of course to you. You consolidate before every next move. Consolidation makes your strength potent. 

You might want to consider some charity. Increase the good vibes around you. Make it a better world. Those in a position of weakness can’t afford to do so. You can. Come on. You’ll feel good about it. Yeah, help someone in a position of weakness. You’ll remain grounded. 

Take time off. Leisure will bring you back with all cylinders firing towards your next move. 

Pursue secondary, even tertiary lines. Disconnect from primary at will. Connect back, again at will. 

You see? 

Position of strength opens up a whole new world for you. 

That’s where you want to be… 

… in a position of strength. 

Work towards it. 

The Department of no-frills 

Markets can be played in holes. 

No disrespect to the “hole”. 

Let’s put it this way. 

I trade the markets from a “bucket shop”. It’s actually a small brokerage. Parallels a bucket-shop, and all legit. 

There’s twenty odd people. 

Basic desktops. One gets to use them even with medium-sized accounts. A large account holder can walk into the manager’s office and get the manager to trade his or her strategy for him or her for the day. A three minute daily discussion is all it takes. This discussion can even happen on Whatsapp. 

If required, food comes from the street-vendors below, in newspapers and plastic cups. 

Welcome to the department of no-frills. 

No business-class travel or fancy-schmanzy wining-dining is required here. It’s sheer trading with no BS. 

Why? 

No overheads. 

No headaches. 

No constant terminal monitoring. Someone’s doing it for you.

Safety? Yes. Trust. Long-term relationship. Email and sms security measures. No nonsense. 

One doesn’t talk to the twenty odd people. 

One just trades. 

Trading for you isn’t really about building a consensus. You just trade. If then the market builds a consensus, that’s a different thing. You then trade the consensus. For or against is your call. 

This is as raw as it gets. 

You ask a question. 

You put your money where your mouth is. 

If your inquiry is in the correct direction, you get rewarded. If not, you lose a part of your money. 

Goes without saying, that overall, you try to win more than you lose. 

Department of no-frills cuts to the chase without useless paraphernalia. 

Did You Hear About the Last Mile?

Yawn.

So you did, huh?

In investing?

No?

Yeah, I just thought about it.

Sharing it with you.

Churning, churning, churning…

… inside.

As you do your due diligence, information churns inside of you.

What is it that says yes, I’m investing?

Where does that go-ahead moment happen?

In the last mile.

Inside of you.

This is not to take away anything from your due diligence.

DD is central.

Very important.

However, last mile is important too.

One needs to respect it.

First, one needs to know about it.

Knowing about it will stop you from pushing an investment.

Don’t push… …in the markets.

Just be.

Take the shape of the container. Your container is your system.

Wait for your last mile to respond. Learn to understand its style of expression.

It’s a feeling…

… of well-being, …

… or something suffocating, nausea-like.

Embrace the former. Dump what’s causing the latter.

It’s as simple as that.

The most meaningful things in life are…

… exactly…

… SIMPLE.

How Will I Know?

What?

How will I know what?

Well, what do you think?

How will I know if I’m on the right track…? !!

I’m sure you have asked this question…many times. 

If not, you need to.

Why?

You’ve realised that you’re your most reliable source.

You know you.

Therefore, you need to ask this question… to yourself.

This is the marketplace, not some low-stakes video-game parlour.

Lives and futures hang on your decisions.

Make these the right decisions.

How will you know you are on the right track?

It’s quite simple, really. 

Once you’ve heard the answer, you’ll probably go in denial. 

You’ll probably say, naehhhh, this can’t be it.

Believe me please, it is. What’s totally simple need not be worthless. In fact, the best ideas in the world are…simple. 

You’ll know. 

You’ll feel right. 

There’ll be a sense of satisfaction. You’ll feel comfortable. 

Your mind will be sorted. It will make the body feel at ease with an endorphin burst. 

That’s how you’ll know. 

It’s that simple. 

Take the wrong decision, and the opposite things will be happening. Try it out. Trust your reflexes. 

Learn to rely on yourself. 

This is the marketplace we’re talking about…

…where…

…you’re on your own. 

Less is More

Fill your plate.

Work.

Go all out.

Nobody’s asking you to work less.

Research.

Hit it with your best shot.

Do quality work.

Work with the best tools.

Enjoy your work…

…so much so, that time ceases to exist.

Yeah, that means you’ve found your calling.

However, connect less to live Mrs. Market.

Here, less is more.

Keep her away as much as possible when she’s live.

Only connect live when you really, really have to.

What are you achieving?

Minimal bogging down live market forces.

You’re away from the pandemonium, the confusion.

You’ve set your self up brilliantly, to think clearly.

Now, gather your thoughts, gather your research.

You get into the Zone.

You have a purpose.

It can be anything. A market instruction. An instrument alteration. A structural change. A query. A test. A probe. A check. Something small. Something big.

With your purpose right before your eyes, connect live.

Solve your purpose.

Disconnect.

Relax.

Let remnant market forces leave you, yeah, let them dissipate.

Do some other stuff for a while.

Then, when you’re ready, get back to your research.

If you’re not ready after a while, call it a day.

Go for a swim. Or something.

Breathing Time

Ideas…

… make the world spin.

At the core of any genius achievement is at first… an idea.

Ideas don’t come for free.

A certain degree of evolution translates into a corresponding idea.

Evolution costs.

Pain is a precursor to evolution.

Not every good idea is lucrative. Lots of bad ideas emerge too.

We’re concerned about sifting through the noise.

A potential candidate emerges, let’s say.

You feel you’ve got something.

What’s the next course of action?

Sit.

Don’t jump.

Let it breathe.

It will either continue to breathe, becoming stronger day by day, until it is so strong, that it coerces you into expression. Or, if it’s weak, it’ll die. It might even transform… … into something stronger.

Let the idea make you want to jump. Yeah, let it become that strong, inside of you. You’ve been sitting, remember?

Why?

Why this whole rigmarole?

You want a high success translation percentage.

Why not? It’s human nature.

And that’s why.

Strongly evolved ideas translate more easily into systems of success.

Even if you don’t remember me, remember this line just above.

Thanks.