There is a line attributed to Ernest Hemingway — that the first draft of everything is shit — which, of all the beautiful things Hemingway has written, applies most powerfully to the ending of A Farewell to Arms. There are no fewer than 47 alternate endings to the book. Each one is a window into how much…
In recent years, a grassroots movement of physicians have begun prescribing time outdoors as the best possible treatment for a growing list of ailments, from anxiety and obesity to attention-deficit disorder and high blood pressure. Meanwhile, research institutes for nature and health are opening at major medical centers and a couple bold insurance companies are…
Financial markets are rife with stupid homilies and if we look at the strict definition of the word homily we get – a religious discourse which is intended primarily for spiritual edification rather than doctrinal instruction. That is something designed to make you feel good rather than teach you anything. If you are in trading…
I came across a piece titled The Best Ten Years Ever and being a student of market history I took more than a cursory glance. The article is filled with some very interesting charts based around the S&P500 and a series of metrics measuring performance. Things like this appeal to me because they offer a…
Can you guess what that subject is? A study that involved 4,500 couples, came up with some fascinating results. Co-author, Dr Sonya Britt-Lutter said: “Arguments about money are the top predictor of divorce. It’s not children, in-laws or anything else. It’s money – for both men and women.” The study controlled for income, debt and…
The smugness of our critics is rarely warranted by their achievements. Only ordinary income comes from ordinary behaviour.
ACCORDING TO THE Harvard Business Review, more people under the age of 45 (43%) say they’re ‘constantly exhausted at work’, instead of over the age of 45 (35%). Funnily enough… the least exhausted are those greater than 60 years old. So, it might be time that we stopped using age as an excuse for not…
SCENE: EXCLUSIVE INTERNATIONAL tropical hotel. I’m sitting by the pool, margarita in hand, sunglasses on – looking at share charts on my laptop. Mid 60s deck chair neighbour wearing retina-damaging speedos, a forest of body hair, sporting an over-tanned big brown belly leans over to me. “What’s that you’re looking at, love?” Me: “Share charts”…
The first time hedge fund legend Paul Tudor Jones met quant maven John Overdeck was over a greasy meal of cut-price pepperoni pizza. It was January 2001, and the two were dining at the Pizza Hut in Greenwich, Connecticut — “my Sunday evening go-to restaurant,” according to Jones — to discuss a business plan for…
Back in 2009, a research team at Bangor University in Wales published a study showing that mental fatigue impairs physical performance. Subjects spent 90 minutes sitting in front of a computer screen either watching a bland documentary or playing a simple but focus-demanding computer game. Afterwards, when they hopped on an exercise bike for a time-to-exhaustion test,…
Gold goes up a fraction and everyone loses their friggen mind. My LinkedIn feed is alight with gold bugs who have gone all a quiver in their nether regions because gold has had a modest move up. Now I will agree that Linkedin has become like Facebook but for people with either a real job…
Pink Floyd’s Nick Mason charts a history of the innovations which have shaped popular music, from the advent of sound recording to the electric guitar and the synthesizer. More here – BBC News Music Extra
Apparently, the Dow has just logged its best June return in more than 80 years. You may ask exactly the WTF is so important about June which is exactly what I did when I glanced at the article. If your conclusion is that there is nothing special about June at all then you would be…
From 30,000 feet, Britain’s coastline has a familiar sweep and shape. Zoom closer in – to, say, the cliffs of Dover – and it becomes less easy to comprehend. All you can see is a confusing series of jagged edges; down on the beach, peering at rocks with a magnifying glass, the coastline refuses to…
Passion can be an energizing, fulfilling force, the stuff upon which businesses are built, works of art are created and Olympic medals are won. However, if you’re not careful, passion can become an equally destructive curse, leading to suffering and distress. Understanding how this happens — and how you can prevent it — is integral…
