NOTE: After more than 40 years working to make money and wealth for others (and occasionally myself) I have decided to delegate most of that side of my life and spend my time making a difference.
My latest project: Questions for Colleges (Q4Colleges.com) – What if faculty and staff at colleges answered the kinds of questions they ask applicants:
What is your mission? How did you come by your values? Discuss an ethical issue. Tell a story that changed how you think or feel. Or demonstrate critical thinking by asking a question your institution should be asking itself, and then answering it honestly.
We want to be a catalog of the people students go to college to meet.
Ongoing: No Shortage of Work (NoShortageOfWork.com) – Promoting the idea that even when you’re not doing something for pay, do something anyway.
Ongoing: Humogous Shortage of Work (HumongousShortageOfWork.com) – self-parody site promoting: “No learning without grades. No work without pay.”
Professional background:
- Manager – Head of the Quantitative Trading Group at Maple Securities, USA, Inc.
- Founder: Brooke Allen Information Systems, Inc., Bravo Alpha, Inc., MANE Fund Management, Inc.
- Co-Founder: Education Technology Center, Inc., APL PI, Inc.
- Author – Numerous short stories, two plays, and a book in progress.
- Interests – Computer Programming, Amateur Radio, Travel, Networking
- Family Man – Wife: Eve, Sons: Davis and Glen
KARMA – THE ONLY CURRENCY THE FED CAN’T DEVALUE, AND THE IRS CAN’T TAX
The InterContinental Hotel Group (NYSE Ticker: IHG) is the largest hotel group in the world with seven brands (Intercontinental Hotels, Crowne Plaza, Hotel Indigo, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Staybridge, and Candlewood Suites). They claim more than 645,000 rooms in over 100 countries.
If I take the time to join their “Priority Club Rewards” program, I get exclusive benefits like a free newspaper once a week. After I accumulate 20,000 points I get additional goodies such as Priority Check-In and a special phone number so I can wait less time on hold. Points are easy to accumulate because many of their rooms cost more for one night than I spent for an entire semester’s college tuition.
As a Club member, they would begin collecting information about me and my preferences so they can tailor an experience just for me. They promise not to release that information to anyone – not even me.
I never bothered joining. Unlike many, I can afford their rooms without going into debt to the credit card company. The issue is time, not money – my life is too short, and I don’t want to spend my time with them.
Instead, I belong to a different club, one with more space than InterContinental in more than twice as many countries. And my club is adding 14,000 members and 4,000 rooms a week.
And every one of those rooms is free.
My club is run by the Couch Surfing Collective. Although membership is free, four years ago I chose to donate about $20 and they verified that I was who I said I was, and I lived where I said I lived.
Couch Surfing members don’t have membership cards but rather online profiles that can be seen by all 1.8 million members. Other members write references, which can be positive, neutral, or negative – and all references appear on your profile, whether you like it or not.
Right now, I have over 70 positive references (and no neutral or negative ones), and therefore strangers all over the world will welcome me into their homes without any money changing hands. But if I stop Read more…
ALLEN FAMILY HOLIDAY GREETINGS CARD FOR 2008.
SUGGEST YOUR OWN CAPTIONS
“I would go back to the drawing board if it hadn’t been repossessed last week.”
“Given the economy, and now that you have written the proof that two can live as cheaply as one, I guess I will marry you.”
This cartoon was suggested by Brooke Allen, illustrated by Alicia Reeves, and published in the November 21, 2008 on-line edition of Science Careers Magazine in the story
Finance’s Quant(um) Mechanics
GREATEST GENERATION 2.0 - The New York Times publishes a letter.
Paul Krugman wrote a piece in the New York Times in which he wonders if Congress will vote on a stimulus package to head off the Great Depression II.
Some believe that it was World War 2 that got us out of the depression because it was the greatest stimulus spending package of all.
I disagree. I believe it was my father’s generation, the Greatest Generation that fought the War and that got us out of the Great Depression.
People got us our of our predicimanet, not policies.
The NY Times published my letter.
Recently, I reprinted the letter and illustrated it with stamps from my collection. The top contains U. S. stamps, and I notice they feature leaders and statesmen. The 3 cent stamp to the right commemorates the National Recovery Act of 1933, and it shows a woman, a businessman, a factory worker (whith a hammer over his shoulder), and a farmer with a sickle, all walking side by side. There was no inflation during the depression (in fact, there was deflation.)
By way of contrast, Germany had rampant inflation. All the German stamps in my collection are uncancelled. By the time a postage stamp made it to the post office it was worthless. The left-most stamp is for 10 marks, the rightmost 20 billion! Eventually it took a strong leader to get the economy under control… and we see who that was.
Catherine Lathwell writes: “Even though I’ve only known Brooke Allen for a short time, I feel confident in saying this is most probably a typical photo of the guy. He’s filled to the brim with stories and they flow like water. He’s right in the middle of a good one here, I can tell.” To see, Go here
Catherine Lathwell is producing a movie about APL, and she is the daughter of Dick Lathwell, one of the original developers of the APL product for IBM.
