Amateurs Versus Professionals
This is from the fabulous Lefsestz Letter which about much more than music. AMATEURS Have tons of ideas, are excited about all of them and see none to fruition. PROFESSIONALS Have tons of ideas, pick one and do their best to make it happen. AMATEURS Think they can do everything. PROFESSIONALS Know it’s almost impossible…
Are Athletes Really Retting Faster, Better, Stronger?
I have to admit I have gone off Ted talks of late after being convinced that they are little more than an intellectual wankfest that attempts to offer simple solutions to very complex problems all dressed up in a nice little Powerpoint presentation. However, I am a fan of David Epstein particularly after reading his…
The Slow Death Of Purposeless Walking
Walking is a luxury in the West. Very few people, particularly in cities, are obliged to do much of it at all. Cars, bicycles, buses, trams, and trains all beckon. Instead, walking for any distance is usually a planned leisure activity. Or a health aid. Something to help people lose weight. Or keep their fitness.…
How The Past Holds You Back
This is somewhat of a weird tale. The other day whilst cooking dinner I was channel surfing and in racing through one of the channels I noticed a face that I knew from the past. Staring back at me as a contestant on a game show was a bloke I used to know – naturally…
The History of Light
This is somewhat apt given that I spent last night in the dark due to a power failure. Click the player below to be taken to the NPR site and the podcast.
Sultans Of Super Set On ‘Developing’ Your Wealth
I wish I had written this…. Our latter-day sultans of superannuation have breezily lavished a $20 million junket on their sales force and themselves to boot. Before this year’s Byzantium bash, the AMP held its ”conference” in Dublin, South Africa, Amsterdam, Colorado and Buenos Aires. If the behemoths of superannuation shell out two bob supporting…
Scariest Chart I have Seen For Awhile
I snipped the chart below from How Americans Die – parts of this little booklet are not relevant locally since we dont have the same childish fascination with guns that Americans do but the chart below is probably universal to Western economies. What caught my eye was the expansion of the deaths related to Dementia, Alzheimer’s…
A Self Fulfilling Fantasy
I came across this interesting piece on the British Psychological Society website. You can read the article in full at your leisure but I wanted to look at one particular piece of the article. In short the article looks at the gamblers fallacy – that is the notion that after a series of losses that…
Motivation Monday
I might have to break out the textbooks and get my arse into gear….. SARAH FERGUSON, PRESENTER: 93-year-old Elisabeth Kirkby has just about done it all. She was a soapy star in the risque 1970s hit TV show, Number 96. She then became a member of Parliament for the Democrats and received the Order of…
Money Can’t Buy Trustworthiness
Try not to be that person. To relate that to social class, consider this experiment. You’re standing on a corner in downtown San Francisco. It’s a four-way stop, meaning cars are supposed to pause before entering the intersection. As you’re sipping your latte, you look to your left before stepping off the curb. The car…
John Henry and the Making of a Red Sox Baseball Dynasty
Then, in 1975, Henry’s father died. Suddenly, at 26, he was back in Arkansas and running a 1,000-acre farm. Farmers often guard against volatile crop prices by buying futures contracts to hedge risk. Henry began purchasing soybean and corn futures and soon realized he was more interested in futures trading than farming. As Seth Mnookin…
Surviving Anxiety
Let’s say you’re sitting in an audience and I’m at the lectern. Here’s what I’ve likely done to prepare. Four hours or so ago, I took my first half milligram of Xanax. (I’ve learned that if I wait too long to take it, my fight-or-flight response kicks so far into overdrive that medication is not…
S&P 500 Day By Day…..
I came across this image on Bespoke – those folks who generate arrays of dazzling data very few of which are in any way helpful to market participants. It shows the daily change on the S&P 500 since January and I have no idea why this would be of interest but I thought I would…
