Thursday, October 29, 2015

Links

Today's Audible Daily Deal looks like a good one for those seeking worldly wisdom ($4.95): Periodic Tales: A Cultural History of the Elements, From Arsenic to Zinc [I'm also nearly finished with a similar book, Stuff Matters, which was a Bill Gates recommendation and is a worthwhile read or listen. And one more similar one in my listening queue is The Disappearing Spoon.]

Jason Zweig on the Fireside Markets podcast (LINK)
Related book: The Devil's Financial Dictionary
1994 article from Jason Zweig on Phil Carret: Buy ‘em Cheap and Hold ‘em (LINK)
Related book: A Money Mind at 90
The new Hardcore History episode is available (LINK)
Often relegated to the role of slavish cannon fodder for Sparta’s spears, the Achaemenid Persian empire had a glorious heritage. Under a single king they created the greatest empire the world had ever seen.
Metaphors and Mental Models: The Key to Understanding (LINK)

Heuermann Lecture: Howard G. Buffett and Howard W. Buffett (video) [H/T ValueWalk] (LINK)
Related book: 40 Chances
Back to the Future: A 100x Perspective - by Chris Mayer (LINK)
Related book: 100 Baggers
Ian Morris' lecture at the LSE (audio) (LINK)
In the last 50 years, knowledge of archaeology, anthropology, history, evolution, genetics and linguistics has exploded. A new synthesis of history is emerging, suggesting that people are all much the same and the societies we create all develop in much the same ways. What varies is the places in which societies develop. Biology and geography have driven a 150,000-year story of cooperation and competition. By projecting forward the patterns of the past and the forces that disrupt them, we can begin to see where the 21st century might take us. 
Steven Johnson lays out the coming arms race in superintelligence (LINK)
Related book: Superintelligence
The Invention of Pad Thai (LINK)

A Genomics Revolution: Evolution by Natural Selection to Evolution by Intelligent Direction (LINK)

Book of the day: Evolving Ourselves: How Unnatural Selection and Nonrandom Mutation are Changing Life on Earth