Friday, April 29, 2016

Links

Warren Buffett one-on-one (video) (LINK)

Elon Musk Supports His Business Empire With Unusual Financial Moves (LINK)

Exponent Podcast: EPISODE 077 — PHYSICAL GOODS (LINK)

The Bill Simmons Podcast — Ep. 95: Billionaire Investor Chris Sacca (LINK)

Edge #466: A Characteristic Difference - A Conversation Between Joshua Knobe and Daniel Kahneman (LINK)

Seneca: on tranquillity of mind (LINK)

Charlie Munger quotes on not predicting the direction of the current...

"We try and predict what individual investments will swim well in relation to the tide. And then we tend to accept the effects of the tide as those effects fall." -Charlie Munger (Wesco 2001 Annual Meeting, via Charlie Munger: The Complete Investor)

"We're emphasizing the knowable by predicting how certain people and companies will swim against the current. We're not predicting the fluctuation in the current." -Charlie Munger

Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Links

Innovation Ecosystem Podcast: IE011 Larry Cunningham – Of Berkshire, Moats and Culture (LINK)
Related books:  
The Buffett Essays Symposium: A 20th Anniversary Annotated Transcript
Berkshire Beyond Buffett
Could You Work at a Place Where Everyone Gets to See Everything and People Always Tell You What They Really Think? Ray Dalio Believes You Should (LINK)

The road to confetti - by James Grant (LINK)

Bill Miller Nabs Valeant Shares, Spying Opportunity Where Others See Chaos - by Jason Zweig (LINK)

Chobani CEO Announces Plans to Give All of His Employees a Stake in the Company (LINK)

Antitrust and Aggregation - by Ben Thompson (LINK)

Inside “Emojigeddon”: The Fight Over The Future Of The Unicode Consortium [H/T @benthompson] (LINK)

James Altucher Podcast: Ep. 164 – Steve Case: The Third Wave is coming (LINK)
Related book: The Third Wave: An Entrepreneur's Vision of the Future
FT Alphachat Podcat discusses what happened when Argentina defaulted on $80bn of its bonds in 2001 [And touches on the most recent issues as well.] (LINK)
Related book: And the Money Kept Rolling In (and Out) Wall Street, the IMF, and the Bankrupting of Argentina
A Leak Wounded This Company. Fighting the Feds Finished It Off (LINK)

Origin Stories Podcast - Episode 08: Being Human with Robert Sapolsky (audio) (LINK)
Related previous post:  Robert Sapolsky interview with Nautilus
Related books: 
A Primate's Memoir: A Neuroscientist's Unconventional Life Among the Baboons 
Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers
Chimpanzee fig selection sheds light on primate motor skills evolution (LINK)

The young chimpanzees that play with dolls (video) (LINK)

John Wooden: Values, Victory and Peace of Mind (video) [H/T David] (LINK)

Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Kate Welling talks with Chris Bloomstran

Given all of the feedback I've gotten about the Semper Augustus 2015 Annual Letter, many of you are going to really enjoy the conversation between Kate Welling and Chris Bloomstran linked to below. And given that the Semper Augustus letter was written before Mr. Buffett's annual letter, this interview (which took place after the Buffett letter) is a great compliment to the previous missive; especially with the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting coming up this weekend. 

Kate's interviews are always great, and I agree with Chris when he says: "Kate Welling’s interviews are terrific and have been the best on Wall Street since her days at Barron’s. They are absolutely worth a subscription. Visit www.WellingonWallst.com for information."


Links

Two great additions to the value investor's library were just released:
Concentrated Investing: Strategies of the World's Greatest Concentrated Value Investors 
Warren Buffett's Ground Rules: Words of Wisdom from the Partnership Letters of the World's Greatest Investor
Latticework has posted an excerpt from the Boyles Q1 letter, where we discussed our largest new purchase during the quarter (LINK)

Stop Crashing Planes: Charlie Munger’s Six-Element System (LINK)

Warren Buffett recalls the craziest question ever asked at Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting (video) (LINK)

An article about Bruce Greenwald's comments at the Minsky Conference [H/T ValueWalk] (LINK)

Raghuram Rajan’s Frank Careers Advice for Graduating Students [H/T @jasonzweigwsj] (LINK)

Constellation Software's elusive CEO (2014 article) [H/T @LockStockBarrl] (LINK)

How To Use Fear Before It Uses You (LINK)

Seneca: on the firmness of the wise person (LINK)

Monday, April 25, 2016

Links

If you want to be like Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, adopt their voracious reading habits [H/T @jasonzweigwsj] (LINK)

Bruce Greenwald: The Death of Manufacturing (video) [H/T ValueWalk] (LINK) [The full video of that session at the 2016 Minsky Conference is available HERE. And more videos from the conference are avalaible HERE.]

Jim Chanos and the art of short-selling (27-page transcript PDF) [H/T @BarbarianCap] (LINK) [Or you can also listen to the audio of this Alphachatterbox podcast HERE.]

The Most Important Question We Never Ask: And then what? (LINK)

Less is more: what does mindfulness mean for economics? (LINK)

Hussman Weekly Market Comment: Lessons From The Iron Law of Equilibrium (LINK)
It’s largely forgotten that during the 2000 top formation, the S&P 500 lost 12% from July-October 1999, recovered to fresh highs, retreated by nearly 10% from December 1999 to February 2000, recovered to fresh highs, experienced another 10% correction into May, recovered to a new high in total return (though not in price) on September 1, 2000, retreated 17% by December, and by January 2001 had recovered within 10% from its all-time high, and was unchanged from its level of June 1999. 
Likewise, during the 2007 top formation, the S&P 500 corrected nearly 10% from July to August, recovered to a fresh high in October, corrected over 10% into November, recovered nearly all of it by December, followed with a 16% loss, and by May 2008 had recovered within 9% of its all-time high, and was unchanged from its level of October 2006. 
In 1954, John Kenneth Galbraith offered a similar narrative of the top-formation leading up to the 1929 crash: “The temporary breaks in the market which preceded the crash were a serious trial for those who had declined fantasy. Early in 1928, in June, in December, and in February and March of 1929 it seemed that the end had come. On various of these occasions the Times happily reported the return to reality. And then the market took flight again. Only a durable sense of doom could survive such discouragement. The time was coming when the optimists would reap a rich harvest of discredit. But it has long since been forgotten that for many months those who resisted reassurance were similarly, if less permanently, discredited.” 
I continue to have little doubt that the current market cycle will be completed by a 40-55% market collapse, with near-zero total returns for the S&P 500 on a 10-12 year horizon. Meanwhile, however, we have to accept that central banks have wreaked havoc on the ability of the financial markets to usefully allocate capital toward productive ends. Relevant warning signs that would normally prevent misallocation and malinvestment have been repeatedly disabled in the advancing half-cycle since 2009.

Sunday, April 24, 2016

Links

Peter Bevelin's new book, which will be sold at the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting, is now available for pre-order online: All I Want To Know Is Where I'm Going To Die So I'll Never Go There.
This book is about the fictitious Seeker, who has known a lot of misery, and his visit to the “Library of Wisdom” where he meets another fictitious character – the Librarian- along with Warren Buffett and Charles Munger. The Seeker learns how to make better decisions to help his children avoid doing the dumb things he has done. For instance, he learns from Buffett and Munger the best way to prevent trouble is to avoid it altogether by learning what works and what does not. They do so in the spirit of the anonymous man who said: “All I want to know is where I’m going to die so I’ll never go there.” 
Additionally, the book provides examples of pure folly and some lessons on how to make fewer dumb mistakes than other people. And then how to fix mistakes faster, should you make them. The major lesson is “ignorance removal” and the notion that decision-making is not aobut making brilliant decision, but avoiding terrible ones. 
This is not a book for those who like complexities or advanced math – rather it’s for those who love efficiency, simplicity and common sense or judgment – hallmarks of Buffett and Munger. Like Einstein, both have a remarkable ability to eliminate folly and superficiality and get directly to the heart of things. 
As with Poor Charlie’s Almanack, Seeking Wisdom and The Most Important Thing, net proceeds from sales of A Few Lessons for Investors and Managers will be donated to charitable, non-profit organizations.
This is also the time of year that I like to go back and re-read the 2007 and 2009 interviews with Peter Bevelin. In the 2009 interview, he briefly mentioned ideas for the book above. So given that he's been compiling this work for some time, I'm especially excited to read the new book. Here's the 2009 excerpt: 
I have been reading a lot about the ancients and their wisdom lately. On and off I write on a memo for my children and myself. I call it “THE WISDOM SEEKER: Uncommon Sense from the Ancients to Munger.” It is about a man who wants to become wiser and visits a place I call “The Library of Wisdom.” In the library he meets and learns from wise people like Cicero, Newton, Einstein, Munger, etc. Reading ancient history has reinforced the notion that people’s behavior stays the same. As the saying goes - "Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose" or the more things change, the more they stay the same - just different actors.
A Dozen Things learned from Steve Anderson About Business and Investing (LINK)

Warren Buffett’s Former Heir-Apparent Resurfaces as Activist Investor [H/T Linc] (LINK)

Michael Lewis: ‘Moneyball’ Prequel Arrives December 2016 [H/T Linc] (LINK)

David Hume, the Skeptical Stoic (LINK)

Friday, April 22, 2016

Links

Horizon Kinetics: 1st Quarter Commentary [H/T @chriswmayer] (LINK)

Latticework of Mental Models: Active Reading (LINK)

Staying one step ahead at Pixar: An interview with Ed Catmull [H/T @Kevin_Holloway] (LINK)
Related book: Creativity, Inc.
50% Returns Coming For Commodities And Emerging Markets? - by Meb Faber (LINK)

Junk downgrades already outpace 2015 (LINK)
The debt doghouse is filling up fast. More companies were downgraded to junk status by Moody’s in the first three months of the year than in the whole of 2015. 
In total, 51 companies were pushed into junk territory, up from eight in the fourth quarter and 45 in 2015.
Warren Buffett’s Risky Final Bet [H/T Linc] (LINK)

Dhandho Junoon ETF Launches (LINK)
Dhandho Funds LLC (“Dhandho”), led by Founder and Chief Executive Officer Mohnish Pabrai, is pleased to announce the launch of the Dhandho Junoon ETF (the “Fund”) on the New York Stock Exchange Arca (NYSE Arca: JUNE).
FT Alphachat podcast: Underrated moments in economic history, and a stagnationist's outlook on the future (LINK)
Related book: The Age of Stagnation
Talks at Google: Dr. Anne Yoder, Director of the Duke Lemur Center in Durham, NC, presents a talk on Madagascar’s mouse lemurs (LINK)

Baby titanosaur was parents’ Mini-Me (LINK)

Thursday, April 21, 2016

Links

The Earnings, My Friend, Are Blowin’ in the Wind - by Jason Zweig (LINK)

David Sokol's PowerPoint slides from his presentation at The Ben Graham Centre for Value Investing (LINK)

Don’t Kick The Can Down The Road - by Fred Wilson (LINK)

Why the Unicorn Financing Market Just Became Dangerous…For All Involved - by Bill Gurley (LINK)

Remember Your Micro to Avoid Investing Mistakes - By Lewis Johnson (LINK)

Hugh Hendry on Japanese Equities, Interest Rates, Top Picks (video) [H/T ValueWalk] (LINK)

Anders Ericsson on the James Altucher podcast (LINK)
Related book: Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise
Fighting Climate Change With Innovation [H/T @BillGates] (LINK)

TED Talk - Juan Enriquez: We can reprogram life. How to do it wisely (LINK)
Related book: Evolving Ourselves: How Unnatural Selection and Nonrandom Mutation are Changing Life on Earth
Monkey teeth tell tale of ancient migration (LINK)

Warren Buffett on Diversification (1998)

This was from his 1998 lecture at the University of Florida, and was brought back to my attention through Jeremy Miller's excellent new book, Warren Buffett's Ground Rules: Words of Wisdom from the Partnership Letters of the World's Greatest Investor:
"If you can identify six wonderful businesses, that is all the diversification you need. And you will make a lot of money. And I can guarantee that going into the seventh one instead of putting more money into your first one is [going to] be a terrible mistake. Very few people have gotten rich on their seventh best idea. So I would say for anyone working with normal capital who really knows the businesses they have gone into, six is plenty, and I [would] probably have half of [it in] what I like best."
....................

Related previous post: A quick diversification thought...

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Links

America’s secret weapon - By Bill Gates [H/T The Big Picture] (LINK) [The follow-up video and discussion on innovation is HERE.]

Ten Lessons from One of the World’s Most Legendary Investors (LINK)
Related book: Templeton's Way with Money: Strategies and Philosophy of a Legendary Investor
Apollo Asia Fund's Q1 report: Kafka's costs (LINK)
Lessons from the Fall of SunEdison (LINK)

Ben Thompson on how the media business is changing (The Ezra Klein Show Podcast) (LINK)

Edge #465: Power Over Nature - A Conversation with Frank Wilczek (LINK)

Hans Rosling’s Important Truths about Population Growth and the Developing World (LINK)

Do Animals Have Culture? (LINK)

Postscript: Bill Campbell, 1940-2016 (LINK)
In the brief history of modern Silicon Valley, Bill Campbell, who died yesterday, at the age of seventy-five, is a giant. His various titles—Columbia football coach, Apple executive, co-founder of Go Corp., Intuit C.E.O., chairman of Apple, chairman of the Columbia University board—do not convey his influence. In the world capital of engineering, where per-capita income can seem inversely related to social skills, Campbell was the man who taught founders to look up from their computer screens. He was known throughout the Valley as “the Coach,” the experienced executive who added a touch of humanity as he quietly instructed Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Marc Andreessen, Ben Horowitz, the founders of Twitter, Sheryl Sandberg, and countless other entrepreneurs on the human dimensions of management, on the importance of listening to employees and customers, of partnering with others. His obituary was not featured on the front of most newspapers, or at the top of most technology news sites, but it should have been.

Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Links

Li Lu reflects on turning 50 [scroll down to number 3 in the link] (LINK)
If I have anything to do with that journey, it is simply that I took it. Woody Allen is right, 90% of success is to show up. At various stages in my life, I could have stopped, or took the long rest. For some reason, my heart told me otherwise. I just kept going. Half of the time, I wasn’t sure where I was heading. The other half I was probably taking the wrong turns. No matter. 
But I was on high alert to correct mistakes along the way. I was careful not to be influenced by emotions that I know are poisonous and counter-productive to the journey I want to take; things like envy, resentment, hatred, jealousy, greed and self-pity. I certainly wasn’t born with immunity to this side of human nature. In fact, my early life experiences may require me to work even harder than others to guard against these human vulnerabilities. And when I did fall for their prey, or when I took a wrong turn, I was fortunate to be able to correct them quickly. Socrates was right, unexamined life is not worth living, certainly not living well. Every once in a while, I would sit down alone to figure out where I might be wrong. Sometimes, what is wrong today is what was right in the past. As circumstances change, so should we. In my experience, every five to ten years or so, I had to change so much of myself that at times it felt like almost a reinvention. I’ve been blessed with the faculties of rationality that help me to form the habit of self-examination. And when I fail in self-examination, I’m even more blessed to have some strong friends who can point out my blind spots. I would have been lost in life’s various mazes if I had not gotten that help.
Conversation With First Eagle’s Jean-Marie Eveillard And Matt McLennan (video) (LINK)

Volatility: In the Eye of the Beholder (LINK)

Apple's Organizational Crossroads - by Ben Thompson (LINK)

a16z Podcast (3/25/2016): Investing in (Business and Career) Change (LINK)
Most investors try to invest in things that don’t change and last forever — Warren Buffett for example loves Heinz ketchup! But VC is about investing in things that do change… a lot. How does this basic mindset challenge much of what people learn in business school or classic leadership training?  Do software-led businesses require different mindsets? What are some of the most common things first-time vs. serial entrepreneurs do? 
This Q&A — with Marc Andreessen interviewed by Don Faul (former U.S. Marine platoon commander and head of operations at Google, Facebook, Pinterest, and now COO at Athos) — covers these topics, as well as what to consider when working for a big- v. small- (and especially intermediate-) -sized company, what it takes to make a career transition, and how to “go back to kindergarten”.

Monday, April 18, 2016

Links

How politicians poisoned statistics - by Tim Harford (LINK)

EconTalk: Gary Belsky on the Origins of Sports (LINK)
Related book: On the Origins of Sports: The Early History and Original Rules of Everybody's Favorite Games
Sorry, You Can’t Speed Read (LINK)
Related Q&A exchange at the 2011 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting
Question: Make world better place – continuous learning. You read a lot. What advice to children who want to read faster? 
Warren Buffett: I read lots of papers and 10-Ks and 10-Qs. I’m not as fast as I used to be. I don’t know how effective various speed‐reading classes can be. I wish I could read faster. It is a huge advantage to read fast. But it is like the old Woody Allen joke, “I read War and Peace last night in 20 minutes ‐ it’s about Russia.” I don’t know the effectiveness of speed reading. 
Charlie Munger: Speed is overestimated. I could do problems faster than my roommate in college could, but he never made a mistake. Don’t be discouraged to go slower.

Sunday, April 17, 2016

The Past, Present, and Future of Value Investing: A discussion with Professor Bruce Greenwald

Link to video: The Past, Present, and Future of Value Investing: A discussion with Professor Bruce Greenwald
Columbia Business School was the birthplace of value investing. To celebrate the School’s storied history over the past 100 years, Professors Bruce Greenwald and Tano Santos sat down on February 8th to discuss the investing philosophy. 
Santos, the David L. and Elsie M. Dodd Professor of Finance and co-director of the Heilbrunn Center for Graham & Dodd Investing, interviewed Greenwald on value investing’s past, present, and future. Professor Bruce Greenwald, is the Robert Heilbrunn Professor of Finance and Asset Management and the co-director of the School’s Heilbrunn Center for Graham & Dodd Investing. Described by the New York Times as “a guru to Wall Street’s gurus,” Professor Greenwald is a leading authority on value investing and a celebrated Columbia faculty member who has received the School’s Presidential Teaching Award for educational excellence.

[H/T Lukas]

Links

Book Authored By The American College President Lands On Coveted Buffett List [H/T Linc] (LINK)
Related book: Strategic Value Investing: Practical Techniques of Leading Value Investors
A Dozen Things Learned from Mary Meeker about Investing (LINK)

Kyle Bass video clips from the latest "Wall Street Week":
Kyle Bass: Hillary Clinton is the best candidate for Wall Street 
Kyle Bass: I did not want Bear Stearns' to go down
Hoisington Quarterly Review and Outlook, First Quarter 2016 (LINK)

James Grant's Time article: The United States of Insolvency (LINK)

Negative Rates Around the World: How One Danish Couple Gets Paid Interest on Their Mortgage [H/T Will] (LINK)

Sean Parker, Silicon Valley’s bad boy genius, wants to kick the *!$% out of cancer (LINK)

Great monarch butterfly migration mystery solved (LINK)

Why Is Ancient Philosophy Still Relevant? - by Massimo Pigliucci (LINK)

Friday, April 15, 2016

Links

Introducing the Mental Models Podcast (LINK)

Latticework of Mental Models: Checklist (LINK)

Why Wait Three Days to Get Your Cash After You Trade? - by Jason Zweig (LINK)

Why Luck Matters More Than You Might Think [H/T @jasonzweigwsj] (LINK)

Grant's Spring Conference Notes 2016 (LINK)

Why crude oil prices keep taking us by surprise (LINK)

2 Oil-Drilling Stocks That Offer Value - by Robert Robotti [H/T @GrahamAndDoddsville] (LINK) [For more on Atwood and Subsea 7, see THIS (both) and THIS (Subsea 7).]

Will you be obsolete in a tech-filled future? (LINK)

Exponent Podcast: Episode 075 — BABY PICTURE BOTS (LINK)

Octopus slips out of aquarium tank, crawls across floor, escapes down pipe to ocean (LINK)

Thursday, April 14, 2016

Links

Performance vs. Outcomes (LINK)

Alec Ross: "The Industries of the Future" | Talks at Google (LINK)
Related book: The Industries of the Future
Peter Thiel on China, Tech, Education, and Diversity (video) [H/T Will] (LINK)

Bill Gates on CNBC (article and videos) (LINK)

Reimagine Retail: A Conversation with Kathleen McLaughlin and Walter Isaacson (video) (LINK)

Documents Undercut U.S. Case for Taking Mortgage Giant Fannie Mae’s Profits [H/T Linc] (LINK)

Facebook, Phones, and Phonebooks - by Ben Thompson (LINK)

Regulators propose banning Theranos founder for at least two years [H/T Matt] (LINK)

Chip, Implanted in Brain, Helps Paralyzed Man Regain Control of Hand (LINK)

Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Links

The Munger Operating System: How to Live a Life That Really Works (LINK)
Related previous post: Charlie Munger - USC Law School Commencement - May 13, 2007 [The full speech was then added to the Third Edition of Poor Charlie's Almanack.]
William Green: "Lessons From the Great Minds of Investing" | Talks at Google (video) (LINK)
Related book: The Great Minds of Investing
Ajit Jain, Seen as Possible Buffett Successor, Gets Bigger Role (LINK)

Jeff Bezos: What the commercial space industry can learn from the Internet revolution (LINK)

Kyle Bass: No Lehman Moment On China (LINK)

Hugh Hendry's 2016 macro outlook (video from earlier this year) (LINK)

The Anomaly of Barbarism - By John Gray [H/T The Browser] (LINK)

Stephen Hawking wants to send tiny space probes to the stars [H/T Will] (LINK)

Birds on Islands Are Losing the Ability to Fly (LINK)

Book of the day (released yesterday): Quench Your Own Thirst: Business Lessons Learned Over a Beer or Two - by Jim Koch (and with Audible's current sale, just $10.49 for the audio version as well, HERE.)

Monday, April 11, 2016

Links

Transcript of Charlie Munger's comments at the 2016 Daily Journal Annual Meeting (LINK) [From Whitney Tilson, and about half the length as Shane Parrish's (HERE), but a nice addition overall.]

Oh, Those Weapons of Mass Distraction! - by Sanjay Bakshi (LINK)

100 to 1 by Thomas Phelps, in 95 points [H/T @BigNitin] (LINK)
Related book: 100 to 1 in the Stock Market
A Dozen Things Learned from Jessica Livingston About Business and Investing (LINK)

Sam Hinkie's resignation letter (LINK)

Clients Pull Cash From Valeant Investor, Get Stock Instead (LINK)
When Tom Bentley tried to pull his money from a mutual fund troubled by its large stake in Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc., he instead received shares in a Springfield, Mo. auto-parts retailer. 
Sequoia Fund Inc. sent the retired computer hardware engineer about 5% of his money in cash and the rest was stock in one company–O’Reilly Automotive Inc. Mr. Bentley said he sold the shares as soon as they appeared in his account on April 7, but they had already dropped in value.
India's thirst for oil is overtaking China's [H/T Matt] (LINK)

The Brooklyn Investor blog on the JPM annual report (LINK)

You’re Smarter Than You Think (LINK)

Steve Case talks to Steven Levy (LINK)
Related book: The Third Wave
TED Talk - Linus Torvalds: The mind behind Linux (LINK)

Elizabeth Gilbert on the Longform podcast [H/T The Waiter's Pad] (LINK)

Charles Duhigg on the James Altucher podcast (LINK)
Related book: Smarter Faster Better: The Secrets of Being Productive in Life and Business
What I Learned From Tickling Apes - by  FRANS de WAAL (LINK)

The sugar conspiracy [H/T Tamas] (LINK)

For audiobook listeners, Audible is having its Spring Cleaning Sale, where almost all books are half-off. Here are some of the ones I'm thinking about (some of which I have the physical book and am considering the audio version as well) where the sale price is either around or below the price of an Audible credit (which is about $10-15, depending on the plan one is on):

Warren Buffett's Ground Rules: Words of Wisdom from the Partnership Letters of the World's Greatest Investor

Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance

How to Lie with Statistics

How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking

The Third Wave: An Entrepreneur's Vision of the Future

The Disruption Dilemma

No Ordinary Disruption: The Four Global Forces Breaking All the Trends

The Industries of the Future

Leap First: Creating Work That Matters

The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing

Behind the Cloud: The Untold Story of How Salesforce.com Went from Idea to Billion-Dollar Company and Revolutionized an Industry

Beam, Straight Up: The Bold Story of the First Family of Bourbon

When Money Dies: The Nightmare of Deficit Spending, Devaluation, and Hyperinflation in Weimar, Germany

Tap Dancing to Work: Warren Buffett on Practically Everything, 1966–2012: A Fortune Magazine Book

What I Learned Before I Sold to Warren Buffett: An Entrepreneurs Guide to Developing a Highly Successful Company

How Chuck Feeney Made and Gave Away a Fortune: The Billionaire Who Wasn't

John Neff on Investing

Where Keynes Went Wrong: And Why World Governments Keep Creating Inflation, Bubbles, and Busts

The Panic of 1907: Lessons Learned from the Market's Perfect Storm

Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds

Zen in the Art of Archery

E=mc2: A Biography of the World's Most Famous Equation

Quantum Man: Richard Feynman’s Life in Science

Friday, April 8, 2016

Links

Jamie Dimon's 2015 letter to shareholders (LINK)

Bernard Arnault interview at Oxford University (video) [H/T Tamas, who was also kind enough to point out the great excerpt between the 38-45 minute marks] (LINK)

Company Profile: Expeditors International (LINK)

Latticework of Mental Models: Arbitrage (LINK)

More Than 40% of Student Borrowers Aren’t Making Payments (LINK)

The Hidden Brain Podcast: The Power And Problem Of Grit (LINK)
Related book: Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance
FT Alphachat podcast: The only path to expertise, and what now for Disney's succession plan (LINK) [The Anders Ericsson segment starts at 8:19]
Psychologist Anders Ericsson, author of Peak: Secrets from the new science of expertise, joins hosts Cardiff Garcia and Shannon Bond to discuss his career's findings in the way people become experts in their fields. Then, the FT's Matt Garrahan discusses who could become the next leader of Disney, where the question of who would succeed Bob Iger as CEO has been thrown wide open by this week's exit of chief operating officer Tom Staggs.
Alexander Hamilton’s Deep Work Habits (LINK)
Related book: Alexander Hamilton
TED Talk - Danielle Feinberg: The magic ingredient that brings Pixar movies to life (LINK)

A Hundred Billion Galaxies (LINK)

The story of Pseudo-Seneca (LINK)

Wednesday, April 6, 2016

Semper Augustus Investments Group: 2015 Annual Letter

For all fans and followers of Berkshire Hathaway, this is a must-read. I've known and have been friends with Chris Bloomstran for several years and on February 1st of this year, he released his annual letter to clients, which is now available on the Semper Augustus website. It's a colossal 70-page effort, of which the majority is the best deep-dive into Berkshire Hathaway and its valuation that I've seen. He views some things differently from what often gets reported (such as the Gen Re and Burlington Northern acquisitions), and I really appreciate the effort he put into this. And if any readers happen to know the journalists asking questions at the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting this year, please try and get this in their hands!


Chris and Chad are still adding things to their new website, but so far they've also posted a number of their previous letters, which you can find HERE. And if you subscribe to Welling On Wall Street, Chris also recently spoke to Kate Welling in an issue released last week.

Links

Jeff Bezos' annual letter to shareholders (LINK)

How To Legally Own Another Person - by Nassim Nicholas Taleb (LINK)

And speaking of Nassim Taleb, he also just gave a 5-star review on Amazon (his review also appears to be the blurb he gave for the book) to the novel The Secret of Fatima.

General Thoughts on Portfolio Management and Diversification - by John Huber (LINK)
Related previous post: A quick diversification thought...
The latest Ben Graham Centre videos with Marty Whitman and Guy Spier [H/T Darko] (LINK)

Delusions of objectivity - by Tim Harford (LINK)

Radical uncertainty: The importance of the things we do not know we do not know - by John Kay (LINK)

Depth of field - by Seth Godin (LINK)
We have a choice about where to aim the lens of our attention. We can relive past injustices, settle old grudges and nurse festering sores. We can imagine failure, build up its potential for destruction, calculate its odds. Or, we can imagine the generous outcomes we're working on, feel gratitude for those that got us here and revel in the possibilities of what's next.
Tony Robbins now has a business podcast (LINK)

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella talks with Business Insider (LINK)

It's a Tesla - by Ben Thompson (LINK)

From 1998: Lee Kuan Yew, Senior Minister for the Republic of Singapore, discusses the origin of the current economic crisis in Asia (video) (LINK)
Related book: From Third World to First: The Singapore Story - 1965-2000
Secret Tut Chamber? Egypt Calls Experts To Examine Evidence (LINK)
Related 2002 documentary: World of Mysteries - Tutankhamun 
The 2016 Isaac Asimov Memorial Debate was yesterday. I missed the live stream, but it should be posted HERE at some point, where the previous years' videos are posted and which may also be of interest. It looks like there are also some interesting science videos on the AMNH site HERE.

Two articles I've seen recently on success (HERE and HERE) remind me of what I think is an important lesson I've learned from Peter Bevelin: Always ask oneself: Compared to what? Did many people who failed not contain similar qualities? The articles make plenty of good points, but I think it's important to keep these questions in mind when trying to look for simple explanations to things. There's a little more on this idea in THIS post from a couple of years ago. 

Monday, April 4, 2016

Links

New book offers detailed analysis of Buffett’s investments [H/T Linc] (LINK)
Related book: Inside the Investments of Warren Buffett: Twenty Cases [I'm also excited to read Jeremy Miller's book, Warren Buffett's Ground Rules, which will be released in a few weeks.]
Value Investor Interview: Samit Vartak (LINK)

Tuna and Gunships: How $850 Million in Bonds Went Bad in Mozambique (LINK)

Benedict Evans' updated Mobile Is Eating the World presentation (LINK)

Tour of a single-stream recycling facility (video) [H/T @sapinker] (LINK)

Book of the day: The History of the Ancient World: From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome

Sunday, April 3, 2016

Links

It’s Time for Investors to Re-Learn the Lost Art of Reading (LINK)

A Dozen Things Learned from Chamath Palihapitiya About Investing and Business (LINK)

Buffett Energy Unit Sees Tax Benefits Double to $1.8 Billion [H/T Linc] (LINK)

McLane Co. executive advises students on success in business [H/T Linc] (LINK)

Mutual Fund Observer, April 2016 (LINK)

TED Talk - Adam Grant: The surprising habits of original thinkers (LINK)
Related book: Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World
PBS FRONTLINE: "Saudi Arabia Uncovered" (LINK)

What Happened to Tiger Woods? It's the Most Vexing Question in Sports [H/T Abnormal Returns] (LINK)

The Yellowstone We Don't See: A Struggle of Life and Death (LINK)

Friday, April 1, 2016

Links

Pipelines, Platforms, and the New Rules of Strategy [H/T @GnDsville] (LINK)
Related book: Platform Revolution: How Networked Markets Are Transforming the Economy--And How to Make Them Work for You
Five Good Questions for Jason Zweig about his book The Devil’s Financial Dictionary (LINK)

Saudi Arabia Plans $2 Trillion Megafund for Post-Oil Era (video also plays) (LINK)

Latticework of Mental Models: Theory of Constraints (LINK)

The Absolute Return Letter - April 2016 (LINK)

The Economist talks to Yanis Varoufakis (LINK)

Chat bots, conversation and AI as an interface - by Benedict Evans (LINK)

FT Alphachat podcast: The future of wearables and the downfall of two healthcare companies (LINK)

TED Talk: Two reasons companies fail — and how to avoid them (LINK)

Richard Feynman Creates a Simple Method for Telling Science From Pseudoscience (1966) (LINK)

The 5 Best Animal Videos You May Have Missed This Month (LINK)

Book of the day (Warren Buffett gave a blurb for the book): The Third Wave: An Entrepreneur's Vision of the Future