Showing posts with label Atul Gawande. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Atul Gawande. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 13, 2020

Links

Amid the Coronavirus Crisis, a Regimen for Reëntry - by Atul Gawande (LINK)

Scanning for answers to a pandemic - by Bill Gates (LINK)

David Tepper says this is the second-most overvalued stock market he’s ever seen, behind only ’99 (LINK)

Druckenmiller Says Risk-Reward in Stocks Is Worst He’s Seen (LINK)

Daniel Yergin at The Economic Club of New York (video) (LINK)
Related book (September release): The New Map: Energy, Climate, and the Clash of Nations
BIS paper: US dollar funding markets during the Covid-19 crisis - the money market fund turmoil (LINK)

BIS paper: US dollar funding markets during the Covid-19 crisis - the international dimension (LINK)

Dithering and Open Versus Free - by Ben Thompson (LINK)

Steven Kiel interviews Harris Kupperman as well as Calvin Froedge about the opportunity in tankers.

Steve Vafier with the investment case for Stitch Fix (video) (LINK)

Invest Like the Best Podcast: Tobi Lutke – Building a Modern Business (LINK)

Acquired Podcast: Adapting Episode 3: Intel (LINK)

TC's Chartcast Podcast: #25: Josh Wolfe (LINK)

Against the Rules with Michael Lewis (podcast): Don’t Be Good – Be Great (LINK)

Hope, Through History Podcast: 4 | The Cuban Missile Crisis (LINK)

Eat Rat, Make New Body: Easy Stuff for Pythons - by Carl Zimmer (LINK)


Monday, May 11, 2020

Links

"Security analysis does not seek to determine exactly what is the intrinsic value of a given security. It needs only to establish either that the value is adequate—e.g., to protect a bond or to justify a stock purchase—or else that the value is considerably higher or considerably lower than the market price. For such purposes an indefinite and approximate measure of the intrinsic value may be sufficient. To use a homely simile, it is quite possible to decide by inspection that a woman is old enough to vote without knowing her age or that a man is heavier than he should be without knowing his exact weight." --Benjamin Graham and David Dodd (Security Analysis)

The Tim Ferriss Show (podcast): #431: Howard Marks on the US Dollar, Three Ways to Add Defense, and Good Questions (LINK)

Amazon, Berkshire, JPMorgan Health-Care Venture Looking for New CEO [H/T Linc] ($) (LINK)
Atul Gawande is in advanced discussions to step down as chief executive and take on a less operational role as chairman of Haven, the health-care venture backed by Amazon.com Inc., Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., according to people with knowledge of the matter. 
Dr. Gawande, a prominent surgeon and professor at Harvard University, wants to move away from day-to-day management of Haven and focus more on policy and advocacy work, particularly related to the current coronavirus pandemic, the people said.
Oil Crash Busted Broker’s Computers and Inflicted Big Losses (LINK)

Value Hive Podcast: 24: More Than Shipping Stocks w/ Harris Kupperman, Praetorian Capital (LINK)

What's Next for Oil? MacroVoices #218 Postgame (video/podcast) (LINK)

Peter Zeihan Explains The Geopolitical Landscape (video/podcast) (LINK)

Odd Lots Podcast: Richard Koo Explains Why The Recovery Will Be So Difficult (LINK)

We know everything – and nothing – about Covid - by Matt Ridley (LINK)

Wednesday, March 25, 2020

Links

Bill Gates speaks with TED's Chris Anderson about COVID-19 (video) (LINK)

How Will the Coronavirus End? - by Ed Yong (LINK)

Atul Gawande on PBS NewsHour (video) (LINK)
Related article: "Keeping the Coronavirus from Infecting Health-Care Workers"
Against the Rules with Michael Lewis (podcast): Bonus Against the Rules: Help in a Crisis (LINK)

Masters of Scale with Reid Hoffman (podcast): Special: Danny Meyer on the wrenching decision to do layoffs (LINK)

David Remnick speaks to the historian John M. Barry, the author of “The Great Influenza,” about parallels between the Spanish-flu outbreak of 1918 and the current coronavirus crisis. (video) (LINK)

Marc Andreessen’s Blog Archives (LINK)

Sunday, March 22, 2020

Links

Keeping the Coronavirus from Infecting Health-Care Workers - by Atul Gawande (LINK)

Why the Coronavirus Has Been So Successful - by Ed Yong (LINK) [Yong also wrote a long-form article in 2018 that is worth reviewing, "The Next Plague Is Coming. Is America Ready?," in which he quotes Anthony Fauci, who is now a household name given his current role and efforts, as saying: “It’s like a chain—one weak link and the whole thing falls apart. You need no weak links.”]

How the Coronavirus Became an American Catastrophe (LINK)

This Is Your Brain on a Crashing Stock Market - by Jason Zweig ($) (LINK)

Anatomy of Fear and Greed - by Frank Martin (LINK)

Data Update 6 for 2020: Profitability, Returns and the value of Growth - by Aswath Damodaran (LINK)

Data Update 7 for 2020: Debt Delusions and Reality - by Aswath Damodaran (LINK)

Invest Like the Best Podcast: Brent Beshore – Update on Small Business and Private Equity (LINK)

Carolina Stories with Steve Vafier (podcast): 1: Josh Glover – Brilliance in the Basics (LINK)

Acquired Podcast: Adapting Episode 1: Canlis (LINK)

Stock Market Valuations - by Meb Faber (LINK)

The Meb Faber Show: #206 - Meb’s take on Investment Plans, Building and Maintaining Wealth, How Meb Invests, and Investing in the time of Corona (LINK)

Crude Contango… - by Harris Kupperman (LINK)

Harris Kupperman on Intelligent Investing in Crisis Mode | MOI Global (audio) (LINK)

The Peter Attia Drive (podcast): #99 - Peter Hotez, M.D., Ph.D.: Continuing the conversation on COVID-19 (LINK)

A vaccine for coronavirus isn't going to ride rapidly to our rescue - by Matt Ridley (LINK)

Five Good Questions Podcast: Matt Ridley - How Innovation Works (LINK)

Matt Ridley Discusses Health, Innovation, and Risk (podcast) (LINK)

Wednesday, March 18, 2020

Links

I've been a bit behind on other reading as I've been trying to both take advantage of current volatility as well as make sure clients at Sorfis Investments have portfolios that I think will be well situated for the next 5-10 years. There is plenty of uncertainty and risk right now—both as it relates to one's physical and financial health—but there are also undervalued businesses out there with good balance sheets that will be more valuable 5, 10, and 20 years from now. 

Note: This is my opinion and not a recommendation to buy or sell a security. Please do your own research before making an investment decision.

*****

"It was psychologically painful in 1999 to give up making money on the way up and to expose yourself to the career risk that comes with looking like an old fuddy duddy. Similarly today, it is both painful and career risky to part with your increasingly beloved cash, particularly since cash has been so hard to raise in this market of unprecedented illiquidity. As this crisis climaxes, formerly reasonable people will start to predict the end of the world, armed with plenty of terrifying and accurate data that will serve to reinforce the wisdom of your caution. Every decline will enhance the beauty of cash until, as some of us experienced in 1974, ‘terminal paralysis’ sets in. Those who were over invested will be catatonic and just sit and pray. Those few who look brilliant, oozing cash, will not want to easily give up their brilliance. So almost everyone is watching and waiting with their inertia beginning to set like concrete. Typically, those with a lot of cash will miss a very large chunk of the market recovery. There is only one cure for terminal paralysis: you absolutely must have a battle plan for reinvestment and stick to it." --Jeremy Grantham, March 2009 ("Reinvesting When Terrified")

Two Things We Know With High Confidence - by Morgan Housel (LINK)

A Viral Market Meltdown III: Pricing or Value? Trading or Investing? - by Aswath Damodaran (LINK)

Why Are Markets So Volatile? It’s Not Just the Coronavirus. ($) (LINK)

Howard Marks says the market is ‘pricing in a bad scenario’ and there is value for investors (video) (LINK)

FPA Crescent Fund: First Quarter Preliminary Update (LINK)

Lux Capital memo on the Coronavirus (LINK)

How small businesses can cut expenses (LINK)

Bernanke and Yellen: the Federal Reserve must reduce long-term damage from coronavirus ($) (LINK)

The Surreal Weekend (LINK)

America’s Restaurants Will Need a Miracle - by Derek Thompson (LINK)

Amazon Prioritizes Medical Supplies, Household Staples From Merchants Amid Coronavirus ($) (LINK)

Detroit Car Makers to Temporarily Close U.S. Plants Over Virus Concerns ($) (LINK)

Costco Buys Logistics Firm From Sears Owner for $1 Billion ($) (LINK)

The U.K.’s Coronavirus ‘Herd Immunity’ Debacle - by Ed Yong (LINK)

The Patients Who Can’t Have Surgery Because of the Coronavirus - by Sarah Zhang (LINK)

Defining Information - by Ben Thompson (LINK)

Invest Like the Best Podcast: Dan Rasmussen – Investing Through a Crisis (LINK)

The Acquirers Podcast: Steady Hands: How the leaders of four SME businesses are weathering the Coronavirus storm (LINK)

a16z Podcast: Labs for Diagnostics: Then, Now, and Next (LINK)

Acquired Podcast: The Top 10 Acquisitions of All-Time (LINK)

The James Altucher Show (podcast): 560 - Critical Coronavirus Update: The BEST and The WORST Case Scenarios with Johns Hopkins Dr. Marty Makary (LINK)

Why Americans Are Dying from Despair - by Atul Gawande (LINK)

Thursday, November 8, 2018

Links

I Can’t See Berkshire’s Bottom Line - by Donald E. Graham ($) (LINK)
A new accounting rule makes it difficult for investors to make sense of annual reports.
Buffett’s Underrated Investment Attribute - by John Huber (LINK)

Making Sense Of Multiples: Mauboussin On EV/EBITDA (LINK)

Once an Optimist on U.S.-China Relations, Henry Paulson Delivers a Sobering Message ($) (LINK)
The former Treasury secretary warns that Chinese behavior and U.S. miscalculation could bring down an ‘economic Iron Curtain’ between the two global superpowers
On Physician Burnout and the Plight of the Modern Knowledge Worker - by Cal Newport (LINK)

Eric Schmidt chats with Tyler Cowen (podcast) (LINK)

Hard Words: Why aren't kids being taught to read? (LINK)
Scientific research has shown how children learn to read and how they should be taught. But many educators don't know the science and, in some cases, actively resist it. As a result, millions of kids are being set up to fail.
Book of the day (was released this week): Merger Masters: Tales of Arbitrage - by Kate Welling and Mario Gabelli

Monday, November 5, 2018

Links

"Controlling risk is the mark of a professional. Anybody can make money when the market goes up. And most of the time the market goes up. And anybody who takes above-average risk can do above average when the market rises. So achieving returns is not a point of distinction in good times. In my opinion, the distinction of a superior investor is achieving returns in good times with the risk under control, because you never know when the environment is going to shift from favorable to unfavorable. And the question is: are you prepared?" --Howard Marks

Why Doctors Hate Their Computers - by Atul Gawande (LINK)

Cycles with Howard Marks, Julio Herrera, Jordon Kruse and Robert O'Leary (video) (LINK)

Greenhaven Road Capital Q3 2018 Letter [with an overview of new holding Box, Inc.] (LINK)

Apple’s Social Network - by Ben Thompson (LINK)

Sometimes, It’s Bonds For the Long Run - by Jason Zweig ($) (LINK)

How Tesla Made a Record Profit - by Charley Grant ($) (LINK)

Avenue’s Marc Lasry Sees Reckoning for Investment-Grade Company Bonds [H/T @ShaiDardashti] (LINK)

Book review: “The Myth of Capitalism” by Jonathan Tepper (LINK)

What’s Staying the Same (LINK)

5 Tactics Used By Passive-Aggressive Arguers (And The Best Forms of Defense) - by Robert Greene (LINK)

The Most Misread Poem in America [H/T @kevin2kelly] (LINK)

Why the Long Face, Extinct Dolphin? - by Ed Yong (LINK)

Bill Gates talks toilets (video) (LINK)

Tuesday, October 2, 2018

Links

As most readers of this blog will know, Howard Marks' new book, Mastering the Market Cycle, was released today.

Winning It Back - by Ian Cassel (LINK)

Data Factories - by Ben Thompson (LINK)

Buyer beware? - by Seth Godin (LINK)

Atul Gawande talks with Shane Parrish on The Knowledge Project Podcast (LINK)
The world-renowned surgeon, writer, and researcher Atul Gawande shares powerful lessons about creating a culture of safe learning, the critical difference between a coach and a mentor, and how to ensure constant improvement in key areas of your personal and professional life.
Fritjof Capra on the MetaLearn Podcast (LINK)
Related book: The Systems View of Life: A Unifying Vision
Yuval Noah Harari In Conversation with Christine Lagarde (video) (LINK)
Related book: 21 Lessons for the 21st Century
Ryan Holiday on Merging Creativity and Business (podcast) (LINK)

A newly discovered extremely distant icy world points to Planet 9 - by Phil Plait (LINK)

What a Beetle’s Genital Worms Reveals About the Concept of Individuality - by Ed Yong (LINK)

Tuesday, June 26, 2018

Links

"When the rules of the game change, the process with which you make decisions, the process with which you act, the value of information, the value of inputs, must change with it." --Tony Deden

"The first principle I operate from is the idea of exclusion. I exclude whole swaths of things from my universe of things. I think that, in the whole world, there are probably 150, 200 listed companies that I would even consider owning a piece of. It's a completely different way of looking at the world.... I think that when you start examining what it is you own—what happens if you're on a ship and it's going down, and you're in your cabin and you have five minutes to get out, to get up to the deck. You look at your possessions that are sitting in your cabinet and you say, what's worth taking with me? Not very many things, is it? And this is what I did, in essence." --Tony Deden

"Earlier, I talked to you about the idea of like-mindedness, for example. And so I'm serious about this in a sense that I want to own a participation—I don't call it a stock or equity—I want to own a business participation in a business that is run by owners whose motivation is the same as mine, who are responsible to their family and to their community and to the capital that they employ, as much as I would have been if I owned the same enterprise." --Tony Deden

How Atul Gawande landed perhaps the most extraordinary (or impossible) job in health care [H/T Linc] (LINK)

Atul Gawande at the Aspen Ideas Festival: Is Health Care a Human Right? (video -- starts at 2:23) (LINK)

Eric Topol chats with John Ioannidis (video and transcript) (LINK)

Memorizing these three statistics will help you understand the world (LINK)

Wells Fargo Brokers Loved Structured Notes (LINK)

Invest Like the Best Podcast: The Past, Present & Future of ETFs with Eric Balchunas (LINK)

The Male Echo Chamber of Political Twitter - by Ed Yong (LINK)

An asteroid impact triggered an avalanche on Mars! -  by Phil Plait (LINK)

Books of the day:

Frenemies: The Epic Disruption of the Ad Business (and Everything Else)

A Word from Our Sponsor: Admen, Advertising, and the Golden Age of Radio


***

I'm also pleased to announce that, if you have been planning to sign up for Real Vision and haven't yet done so, you can now support this blog by signing up for Real Vision using THIS LINK. As I mentioned before, I signed up for the free trial when they lowered the price, and ended up keeping my subscription. So I was happy to jump at the chance when they recently started offering a referral program for subscribers. My favorite interview so far is the one with Tony Deden (see quotes above for a sample), which you actually don't need a subscription to view, but there is plenty of other good content on there as well, for investment philosophies of all types. The referral link will also be posted on the right side of the blog's home page, under the Support section.

Wednesday, June 20, 2018

Links

"When I was a lawyer, I used to say, 'The best business getter any lawyer has is the work that's already on his desk.'...it's a very old-fashioned idea. You just do well with what you already have and more of the same comes in." --Charlie Munger (2001)

Buffett, Bezos, Dimon appoint Dr. Atul Gawande as CEO of their newly formed health-care company (LINK)

Tom Peters on the Recode Decode Podcast (LINK)

How To Stop Worrying: 7 Powerful Secrets From Mindfulness (LINK)

Parasites Can Mind-Control Animals Without Infecting Them - by Ed Yong (LINK)

Sunday, June 3, 2018

Links

“Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless, and add what is specifically your own.” --Bruce Lee [H/T Latticework]

Jeff Bezos: ‘We will have to leave this planet … and it’s going to make this planet better’ [H/T @MarceloPLima] (LINK)

Atul Gawande's commencement address at U.C.L.A. Medical School: Curiosity and What Equality Really Means (LINK)

Saving As Many Lives As Penicillin - Dr. Atul Gawande & Malcolm Gladwell (video) [From October of last year, but not sure I had previously seen this one.] (LINK)

Mohnish Pabrai's latest appearance on ET Now (video) (LINK)

The Psychology of Money - by Morgan Housel (LINK)

“Proprietary Product Distribution” is Better than Sliced Bread - by Tren Griffin (LINK)

De Beers to Sell Diamonds Made in a Lab (LINK)

Your Next Glass of Wine Might Be a Fake—and You'll Love It (LINK)

Worried About Big Tech? Chinese Giants Make America’s Look Tame (LINK)

In Conversation: Netflix' Ted Sarandos and Marc Andreessen (video) (LINK)

Why Your Brain Hates Other People (And how to make it think differently.) (LINK)

The Myth of 'Learning Styles' [H/T @AdamMGrant, who summarizes in his Tweet: "Your learning style is about how you like to learn, not how you learn best. Although you might enjoy listening, reading, or doing, there's no evidence that you learn better that way. We all learn through a combo of auditory, visual, and kinesthetic modes."] (LINK)

Friday, January 26, 2018

Links

More Davos videos of note: 1) A New Era for Global Health (Bill Gates, Atul Gawande, et al.); 2) The End of Easy Money (Ray Dalio, et al.); 3) Secrets to a Long and Happy Life (Dan Buettner, who enters around the 7:55 mark).

Nurturing the Intelligent Fanatic in our Children - by Ian Cassel (LINK)

The Thin Line Between Bold and Reckless - by Morgan Housel (LINK)

Why Goldman and Pritzker Sank Millions Into a Startup Before Suing It for Fraud [H/T @jasonzweigwsj] (LINK)

Four Parenting Tips I Learned Hanging Out with the World’s Best Leaders - by Daniel Coyle (LINK)

11 Billion Pieces of Plastic Are Riddling Corals With Disease - by Ed Yong (LINK)

A Jawbone Is the Oldest Modern-Human Fossil Outside of Africa - by Ed Yong (LINK)

The Lovely Tale of an Adorable Squid and Its Glowing Partner - by Ed Yong (LINK)

Why Is the Naked Mole Rat So Weird? - by Ed Yong (video) (LINK)

For Kindle readers.... As regular readers of this blog are aware, and the above links show, I'm a big fan of Ed Yong's science writing and reporting, and his book is currently on sale for $2.99 on Kindle: I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life - by Ed Yong

Thursday, January 25, 2018

Links

For more videos from Davos, visit the World Economic Forum on YouTube. [Some that may be of interest: Sundar Pichai, Jack Ma Q&AeCommerce panelRogue Technology panelAtul GawandeThe Belt and Road ImpactTrade Tremors, The Remaking of Global Finance.]

BAUPOST’S KLARMAN WARNS: ‘The world has tilted off its axis, and we believe owners of capital should be increasingly worried’ (LINK) [I haven't seen a copy of Klarman's letter yet, so if anyone happens to have a copy that they'd be willing to share (valueinvestingworld@gmail.com), I'd be much appreciative. Thanks.]

The World’s Priciest Stock Market - by Robert J. Shiller (LINK)

Seth Godin chats with Brian Koppelman (podcast) [H/T @svafier] (LINK)

Freakonomics Radio (podcast): How to Become a C.E.O. - Part 2 (LINK)

Jerzy Gregorek: "Keys to Youthful Living: The Power of Enough" | Talks at Google (LINK)
Related book: The Happy Body
Investing book of the day: Private Equity Laid Bare

Sunday, December 17, 2017

Links

Mohnish Pabrai's latest talk at Boston College (video) (LINK)

The 15-Stock 'Free Lunch' Portfolio - by Mohnish Pabrai and Fahad Missmar (LINK)

Bill Nygren: "Value Investing Principles and Approach" | Talks at Google (LINK)

Transcript of Jim Chanos' appearance on CNBC [H/T Linc] (LINK)

Lessons from Norman Augustine About Innovation and his Famous Laws - by Tren Griffin (LINK)
Related book: Augustine's Laws
Tim Ferriss talks with Mike Maples, Jr. (podcast) (LINK)

How Southeast Asia’s ride-hailing apps are outmaneuvering Uber. (LINK)

a16z video: Challenges in Healthcare Innovation (LINK)

TED Talk -- How China is changing the future of shopping | Angela Wang (LINK)

Scott Kelly: "Endurance" | Talks at Google (LINK)

Boyd Varty: "Cathedral of the Wild" | Talks at Google (LINK)

Slow and steady (LINK)

TED Talk -- Want to get great at something? Get a coach | Atul Gawande (LINK)

Thursday, November 2, 2017

Links

"Examine the record of history, recollect what has happened within the circle of your own experience, consider with attention what has been the conduct of almost all the great unfortunate, either in private or public life, whom you may have either read of, or heard of, or remember; and you will find that the misfortunes of by far the greater part of them have arisen from their not knowing when they were well, when it was proper for them to sit still and be contented." - Adam Smith [H/T "Manias, Panics, and Crashes"]

As Credit Booms, Citi Says Synthetic CDOs May Reach $100 Billion [H/T Matt] (LINK)

Richard Bookstaber discussing his book The End of Theory (video) (LINK)

A Closer Look at Ray Dalio’s 1937 Scenario (LINK)

The Knowledge Project Podcast: Susan Cain: Leading the “Quiet Revolution” (LINK)
Related book: Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking
The First Rule of Leadership - by Ben Horowitz (LINK)

Walmart’s late-mover advantage (LINK)

Alex Rubalcava talks to Meb Faber (podcast): “If You’re Going to Be an Angel Investor… You Have to Be Devoting Significant Time to It” (LINK)

Atul Gawande talks with Krista Tippett (LINK)
Related book: Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End 
Related links: 1) Atul Gawande: "Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End" | Talks at Google; 2) Dr Atul Gawande: The Future of Medicine (The Reith Lectures 2014)
The Reith Lectures: Michael Sandel on Bertrand Russell (podcast) (LINK)

The Reith Lectures: Brian Cox on Robert Oppenheimer (podcast) (LINK)

The Randomness of Language Evolution - by Ed Yong (LINK)

Forest Animals Are Living on the Edge - by Ed Yong (LINK)

Scientists Identify a Third Orangutan Species - by Ed Yong (LINK)

Sunday, October 15, 2017

Links

"The struggle ends when gratitude begins." -Neale Donald Walsch [H/T Ferriss]

"For me, Benjamin Franklin and Leonardo da Vinci have the same life lesson, which is: be interested in everything.... If you can be interested in everything, if you can be cross-disciplinary, then you can see the patterns of our cosmos, and how we connect to them. And that's the magic of Ben Franklin, but even of Steve Jobs...and of course the ultimate of that is Leonardo da Vinci, who was the greatest creative genius in history because he spanned disciplines." -Walter Isaacson [In his answer to the first question in podcast below.]

Walter Isaacson talks with Tim Ferriss (podcast) (LINK)
Related book: Leonardo da Vinci
The Case Against Bridgewater Isn't Proven - by Matt Levine (LINK)

Mohnish Pabrai with a brief interview on ET NOW last week (video) (LINK)

How China’s first ‘silk road’ slowly came to life – on the water [H/T Claire Barnes] (LINK)

What Killed Post-Break Up AT&T? What Lessons can be Learned from this Titanic Modern Failure? - by Tren Griffin (LINK)

Waymo Safety Report  (an overview of how their cars work) [H/T Recode] (LINK)

Scott Galloway's Ask Me Anything on Reddit (LINK)
Related book: The Four
The scale of tech winners - by Benedict Evans (LINK)

a16z Podcast: Platforming the Future (LINK)
Related book: WTF?: What's the Future and Why It's Up to Us
Exponent Podcast: Episode 127 — The Worst-Case Scenario (LINK)

FT Alphachat Podcast: Richard Florida on geographic inequality (LINK)
Related book: The New Urban Crisis
Adventures in Finance Podcast: 37 - Hours from Oblivion: Inside the White House During The Cuban Missile Crisis (LINK)

Atul Gawande: "Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End" | Talks at Google (LINK)

Jimmy Soni & Rob Goodman: "A Mind at Play: How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age" | Talks at Google (LINK)

Darwin's Backyard: "How Small Experiments Led to a Big Theory" | Talks at Google (LINK)

Octopus-Inspired Material Can Change Its Texture - by Ed Yong (LINK)

How a Quarter of Cow DNA Came From Reptiles - by Ed Yong (LINK)

The Ancient Origins of Both Light and Dark Skin - by Ed Yong (LINK)

Wednesday, October 4, 2017

Links

“The young man knows the rules, but the old man knows the exceptions.” - Oliver Wendell Holmes 

Baupost Group owns nearly $1 billion worth of Puerto Rico's bonds (LINK)

Satya Nadella, chief executive officer of Microsoft, on Charlie Rose discussing his new book, Hit Refresh: The Quest to Rediscover Microsoft's Soul and Imagine a Better Future for Everyone (video) (LINK)

Solar Grew Faster Than All Other Forms of Power for the First Time [H/T Linc] (LINK)

Shopify Tumbles After Citron Calls the Company a ‘Get-Rich-Quick Scheme’ (LINK)

Atul Gawande on the Tell Me What To Say podcast (audio) (LINK)

May 2016 presentation by Niall Ferguson: "Five Ingredients for a Populist Backlash" (video) (LINK)

Sample chapter of Tim Ferriss' upcoming book, Tribe of Mentors (LINK)

Books of the day:

The Great Leader and the Fighter Pilot: The True Story of the Tyrant Who Created North Korea and the Young Lieutenant Who Stole His Way to Freedom [H/T Evan Osnos]

King of Spies: The Dark Reign of America's Spymaster in Korea

“Lead the ideas of your time and they will accompany and support you; fall behind them and they drag you along with them; oppose them and they will overwhelm you.” - Napoleon [H/T Lewis]

Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Links

'Regular dude': Personal details set 'Becoming Warren Buffett' apart in HBO documentary [H/T Linc] (LINK)

Warren Buffett Just Quietly Bought Up Another German Company [H/T Linc and Will] (LINK)

NPR Planet Money podcast -- Episode 749: Professor Blackjack (audio and transcript) (LINK)
Related book: A Man for All Markets: From Las Vegas to Wall Street, How I Beat the Dealer and the Market
Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Makes Its First Acquisition, Meta [H/T Matt] (LINK)

Speed Reading is Bullshit - by Shane Parrish (LINK)

The Heroism of Incremental Care - by Atul Gawande [H/T Ben Carlson] (LINK)

Davos 2017 - A Conversation on the Future of Medicine (video) (LINK)
Join Atul Gawande, renowned surgeon and author of Being Mortal, and Francis Collins, celebrated geneticist and science policy leader, on the future of healthcare leadership and biomedical research.
Curiosity Finds An(other) Alien Visitor on Mars (LINK)

Book of the day: The Agony and the Ecstasy: A Biographical Novel of Michelangelo - by Irving Stone

Sunday, June 12, 2016

Links

The video of Atul Gawande's recent commencement speech is HERE. And the video of Nassim Taleb's recent commencement speech is HERE

Comedian Billy Crystal delivers funny and touching eulogy for Muhammad Ali (video) [H/T The Big Picture] (LINK)

The Definitive Oral History of Online Travel [A big thanks to the friend that passed this along.](LINK)

Berkshire Energy Units Barred From Selling Power at Market Rates [H/T Will] (LINK)

A top psychologist says there's only one way to become the best in your field — but not everyone agrees [H/T Linc] (LINK)
Related book: Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise
An Ivy League professor explains how a 1980s game theory experiment suggests how morality could have evolved [H/T Linc] (LINK)

Motivate People by Encouraging Them to Make Choices [H/T @RobertCialdini] (LINK)
It sounds a little naive and pie in the sky. But weeks later, people were more satisfied in their jobs through this tiny intervention and their managers said they performed better...Kids need choice. There’s this really awesome theory of human motivation — that human beings all want three things. One is to be competent, one is to belong, and one is [to] be free, as in to have choice, to not be told what to do but to choose what to do. Kids will never fully develop a passion for something unless at some point and in some way they feel they have chosen what they’re doing as opposed to having it chosen for them. 
..... 
Related books: 


Saturday, June 11, 2016

Links

Atul Gawande's California Institute of Technology commencement address: THE MISTRUST OF SCIENCE (LINK)

Philip Plait recommends the best books on the Wonders of the Universe (LINK)
The books: 1) Bang!by Brian May, Patrick Moore, and Chris Lintott; 2) How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Comingby Mike Brown; 3) A Man on the Moonby Andrew Chaikin; 4) Why Does E=mc2?by Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw; 5) The Demon-Haunted Worldby Carl Sagan.
‘Hobbit’ relatives found after ten-year hunt (LINK

AI, Deep Learning, and Machine Learning: A Primer (LINK)

Mystery Bid of $3,456,789 Wins Lunch With Warren Buffett (LINK)

Shareholders Are Disappearing Before Our Eyes - by Jason Zweig (LINK)

Tesla: Just Another Car Company - by Charley Grant (LINK)

Addendum to Howard Marks's recent memo, Economic Reality (LINK)
Addendum, June 13:  There’s been a lot of response since the memo that follows was originally published on May 26.  In the discussions that have ensued, I realized that I should have led with something like this:
Ultimately, economics is the study of choice.  Because choices range over every imaginable aspect of human experience, so does economics. . . .  
How do individuals make choices:  Would you like better grades?  More time to relax?  More time watching movies?  Getting better grades probably requires more time studying, and perhaps less relaxation and entertainment.  Not only must we make choices as individuals, we must make choices as a society.  Do we want a cleaner environment?  Faster economic growth?  Both may be desirable, but efforts to clean up the environment may conflict with faster economic growth.  Society must make choices. . . .  
We would always like more and better housing, more and better education – more and better of practically everything.  
If our resources were . . . unlimited, we could say yes to each of our wants – and there would be no economics.  Because our resources are limited, we cannot say yes to everything.  To say yes to one thing requires that we say no to another.  Whether we like it or not, we must make choices.  
Our unlimited wants are continually colliding with the limits of our resources, forcing us to pick some activities and to reject others.  Scarcity is the condition of having to choose among alternatives.  (Macroeconomics Principles, Libby Rittenberg and Tim Tregarthen.  Emphasis added)
Because of the above, we make economic choices every day.  Everyone knows choices like these are inescapable.   
Everyone, that is, except for politicians.  The politician promises better grades and more leisure time.  A cleaner environment and faster economic growth.  That’s what caused me to write the memo: in politics and government – unlike the real world – the word “or” often goes out the window, replaced by “and.”  No choices are necessary.   
A few months ago I saw a cartoon featuring caricatures of two primary opponents.  Under one it said “bulls**t” and under the other it said “free s**t.”  There’s bound to be a lot of the former in any election season, but economics tells us the latter is unrealistic.  I wrote this memo to help readers understand why.