Monday, May 21, 2007

Matthew Okunevich: Coach Extraordinaire!

Victorious Keystone Montessori Chess Club with their coach Matthew Okunevich


Matthew Okunevich, or Coach Matt, is a familiar figure in Phoenix scholastic chess. He works as a coach with Chess Emporium. He also coaches the students at Keystone Montessori school, in addition to many others. Under his able tutelage, Keystone kids have come to dominate chess tournaments in Arizona like no other.

Matt grew up in Illinois. He used to watch his father and grandfather play chess when he was still a first grader. He learnt to play chess then and started borrowing books on chess instruction from his elementary school library. His dedication and interest paid off handsomely when he started playing in tournaments. He started winning almost immediately and his interest grew so much that by the time he was in high school, he started reducing other activities, so that he could participate in chess tournaments, near and far.

Matt went on to study at Northern Illinois University and founded the chess club there. He was elected the president of the club and kept a busy schedule there as well. And then he was asked to coach school children and the coaching bug bit him for good. He continued his studies, while coaching children at the Jefferson elementary school. After his graduation, Chess Emporium in Phoenix offered him a full time coach’s job and he accepted it. Illinois’ loss was Arizona’s gain!

Ever since Coach Matt has taken Keystone kids under his wings, they have blossomed and grown in strength by leaps and bounds. Now there are so many strong players that, even if one or two of the top players are missing, they still win the top team trophy in almost every tournament they participate. His energy and enthusiasm shines clearly in his interaction with the kids, and they never miss a single opportunity to learn from him. He is always there in every weekend tournament, even when he doesn’t have to be. His dedication is such that, he has spent entire weekends during tournaments, encouraging the kids to do their best and doing post game analyses. Here are a couple of quotes from Keystone parents:

"Matt is simply awesome as the coach of the Keystone chess club. He has taken the club from it's inception in 2005 and has nourished, guided and coached with energy and passion, so that now the club stands 35 members strong, with many of the kids competing seriously. His commitment to the kids is astounding. He has voluntarily given up entire weekends to be there to cheer the kids on and to analyze their games when they have competed in USCF tournaments, which are unrelated to Chess Emporium's tournaments. Matt has an uncanny ability to keep the kids grounded but also competitive. There is a wonderful aura of camaraderie amongst the all the kids and all the parents. It has truly been an amazingly positive experience for the kids and Matt has made this happen."

... Frances Chandran

“Coach Matt is one of the best chess coaches I have ever seen. His enthusiasm and volunteerism in teaching and promoting chess in our school community have won many parents' respect. I especially admire his philosophy that "does whatever he can to help kids learn chess." His tireless effort in educating the children not only in chess but also understanding team spirit and sportsmanship really deserves a reputable recognition.”

... Hung-Nan Chen

Some of the recent tournament performances of the Keystone Montessori Chess Club:

1st Place at Best of Phoenix (Nov 2006)
1st Place at State Grades Scholastic, Gilbert AZ (Jan 2007)
2nd Place at State Scholastic Championships, Tucson AZ (Mar 2007)
1st Place at Governor's Cup, Peoria AZ (April 2007)
4th Place at USCF National Scholastic Blitz, Nashville TN (May 2007)
10th Place at USCF National Scholastics, Nashville TN (May 2007)

Matt will be off to Chicago Open soon and Keystone parents and children wish him all the best!

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Advice to Gates and Buffett

Dear Mr. Bill Gates and Mr. Warren Buffett,

I have been an entrepreneur, a philanthropist and a philosopher. I am no longer an entrepreneur, and my philanthropy budget (lifetime, not yearly) does not possibly exceed three digits. My only philosophical contribution to humanity has been to write a few online articles, which were rarely read or appreciated. So I naturally felt empowered and entitled to advise you both gentlemen on certain matters.

Our society is not interested in root causes. We are merely interested in applying bandages and patches to problems to suppress them at one place, which later reappear with a malignant vengeance elsewhere. I will just take two examples from the myriad ones available to illustrate the point.

Education

Education starts in the womb. However, most parents become parents because they happened to conceive children. It is auto pilot parenting, mostly running without conscious control or guidance. Very few actually take any pains to learn more about the art of education, and most people just wing it. The untold billions that are spent on education, mostly go to sustain the bureaucracy and the testing mechanism. While it is no body's case that our children's teachers ought not to be paid more money, in reality, a teacher can only do so much. Most children do not come with adequate preparation to learn, and there are at least 20-30 children per class in the best of the schools in the US. When the basic skills, such as, concentration, attention to details, ability to verbalize and comprehend, fine and gross motor skills are poorly developed, their health is seriously compromised due to junk food and bad nutrition, when their mind is distracted with all the disturbing images of TV and video games, how can any child learn? It is amazing that so many of those children still survive and do well in life. The credit goes to the coping mechanism that is inbuilt in humans, not to our education system. The root causes of our education ills lie at home and in our environment.

Health care

People have mostly abdicated their responsibility for their personal health and well being and handed it over to the likes of FDA, large pharma and AMA (American Medical Association). Then we have the spectre of doctors over prescribing antibiotics and other noxious chemicals, drug companies falsifying clinical trial data, and the incestuous relationship between the doctors and the pharma companies. Our food is poisoned in a variety of ways so as to ensure that our children grow up obese and unhealthy. Our lifestyles do not encourage physical activity and we do not eat enough natural, healthy food. All in all, you will agree with me, the picture is not pretty. So the root causes are pretty obvious I would think. As they say, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and yet, we put all our billions in researching new-and-improved molecules, only to discover a generation later, that those molecules are not as benign as they first appeared. If even a fraction of that research money is available for studying healthy lifestyles, healthy diets and exercise programs and natural home remedies, we will have a much healthier population.

If we fix the root causes of our ills, we will have a much better return on investment. I happen to believe that both education and health care are basic human rights, not privileges. No big companies are ever going to pour money into research, that will eventually spell their doom, such as a diabetes cure. No governmental agency is ever going to find optimal solutions either, because they are too beholden to the industrial behemoths. The only way it can be done is with private philanthropy. Therefore I urge you gentlemen, to invest more money in fundamental research that will address the root causes of these issues. Let me make a small wish list for your consideration.

1. Education - better parenting skills, prerequisites for optimal learning

2. Health care - better diets, home remedies, healthy lifestyles

3. Energy - energy efficiency, renewable and alternative sources

4. Environment - reduction of pollution, elimination of toxins, reversal of global warming

5. Poverty - micro credit, taking responsibility for the self and family, education

I hope you will divert at least some of your generosity towards these issues addressing the root causes. I strongly believe that addressing these root causes will go a long way towards bolstering your respective legacies as people who truly changed the course of human history.

Sincerely,

Ravi Kulkarni

Wednesday, May 2, 2007

Mortgage Scams

To understand the scam that is perpetrated by the mortgage specialists one doesn't have to go far. Just today I was talking to a mortgage agent regarding the mortgage on my home. I have a mortgage that is 5/1 ARM, in other words, after five years it will change to a floating interest rate which could lead to higher interest I pay on the loan.

At first she wanted to know if I want to take out additional money from the value of the home. I explained to her that my intention is to reduce my risk exposure, I don't need any additional money at this time. After collecting some of my personal details, she came back with, what she thought of as a very attractive package. She said, she will reduce my monthly payment by 40%! She said I can choose one of the four options: 30 year fixed, 15 year fixed, Interest Only and Minimum. She was offering me the "minimum" and I asked her what she meant. She said, instead of making me pay all the interest upfront, they backload the loan so that I only pay the minimum. So I asked her, what happens to all the interest and the principal I have not paid if I were to close the loan, say in two years after sellign my house. She skirted the topic. Then I asked her to send me the details. She did, then it became clear to me. Here is how it works:

Let's say I owe the bank, 1000 dollars.

30 years fixed: I pay a fixed amount every month, say 5 dollars, out of which 4 dollars will go towards the interest and the remaining towards paying off my debt. Because at the end of the month 1, I have paid off $1, my debt now stands at 999 and not 1000, so my interest next month will be slightly lower and debt repayment slightly higher. This will I keep reducing my debt and in 30 years, it will be fully paid.

15 years fixed: Same as 30 years fixed, except I will pay more per month, say 7 dollars, so that my debt is paid off more quickly. Also note that I am paying much less interest overall, because I have paid off the debt faster, even though I am paying more money per month.

Interest only: I only pay 4 dollars, which is the interest I owe on the loan, keeping the 1 dollar to myself. In this fashion, the debt is not being repaid at all and hence end up paying more interest overall. In other words I am not saving anything for the future.

Minimum interest: This is probably the worst case scenario. Here I am only paying 3 dollars, instead of 5, thereby adding more to the debt. Why? Because the actual interest is 4 dollars, and because I am not paying all of it, 1 dollar gets added to my debt at the end of the first month making it 1001, and increasing it even more at the end of second month and so on. In other words, I am borrowing even more, and what is worse, the interest rate is not fixed. It can fluctuate, increasing my risk even more.

I am a conservative investor and spender. So, I said "no, thanks" to her and asked to provide the best 30 year fixed rate.

Regards,

Ravi

Friday, March 23, 2007

Consumption v/s jobs

As an amateur economist, I can't resist but think of world's problems such as poverty and uneven distribution of wealth. While we were chatting on IM, as we often do, my friend Iggy made this observation:

: i also have a theory
: it is a mistake to say that by not consuming luxury goods people will lose their jobs
: it is just a question of where we spend our time
: e.g. if we wanted to spend our time in making the planet green again then that's where the jobs would get created
: if we wanted to spend our time educating our children right then that's where the jobs would get created
: but if we want to bully the world then the jobs will get created in bomb making factories

I thought that was a brilliant observation. Capitalists often make a case for conspicuous consumption. I do believe that rich people need to spend money and often so that the rest of us can have gainful employment. The secret of American success has been the domestic market. Americans like to spend money and acquire goods. It is precisely for this reason that one gets the best value for money for almost any product in the United States. Europe is way too expensive, not just because of high taxation., but I am digressing....

However, the gap between the rich and the poor in the United States, has only widened in the recent decades. In terms of global distribution of wealth, there is certainly a welcome development in the last couple of decades. More Asian countries have seen certain economic success, the latest being China and India. But for the rest of the underdeveloped world, the picture is not rosy. Africa and the Middle East have taken especially a severe beating. By spending more money, Americans have certainly helped a lot of people in the world. For example, when they buy clothes, they are helping the poor chinese find gainful employment. When they consume IT products, they are helping aspiring engineers from India, Israel and Ireland. Their apetite has created the biggest market ever seen on the face of the earth, and there is no doubt in my mind that without the current globalization, the people in many parts of the world, would continue to languish in the same hopeless existence.

And yet, all consumption is not made equal. For example, the mass weapons consumed by the American juggernaut couldn't possibly do any good. No doubt the military industrial complex provides jobs to millions of people worldwide, but to what end? Similarly one could argue that the jobs provided by tobacco industry, illicit drugs and many others are undesirable and not in the best interest of the humanity as a whole. Less obvious are the industries such as automobiles, oil companies and other industries which contribute tremendous damage to the world ecology and perhaps increase poverty and ill health.

So how do we increase wealth distribution while ensuring that the resultant consumption is of the "right" kind? How to make sure that my consumption of a good or a service doesn't harm a poor soul in the Amazon forests or my great grand children? So we need a guidence to tell us what is the impact of our consumption. When I buy an item, I could like to know, what went to making that product. Under what conditions was it produced? How many miles has it traversed, and how many unnecessary calories has it consumed? I would like to call it an index of humanity. This index will tell us if it is a positive or the negative for the world. Manufacturers are not obliged to provide this metric along with their products, but conscientious consumers will pay a premium to buy products that have this label, just as they do for organic products today. In the long run, one hopes that this will result in a consumption pattern that results in the greater good.

Thanks to Iggy for the stimulus.

Ravi