Rx – A Dose of Scepticism
With communication tools becoming handier, investors are increasingly confronted with the challenge of navigating through the uncontrolled barrage of information hitting them. A large part of this flow is either not relevant or more dangerously, is misinformation. Being sceptical and questioning is a simple and useful tool, as well as an important first step in […]
Pause, rewind, play: Words of wisdom from The Wall – two timeless lectures by Rahul Dravid
At Marcellus, we are ardent fans of ‘The Wall’ – Rahul Dravid, not least because of the similarities between our investing beliefs and his batting temperament – minimising risk, but also the statesmanship he exudes which makes his contribution to the game go beyond that as a player – someone who derives meaning and purpose […]
Apple and Google want to turn your phone into a Covid-tracking machine
It was just a matter of time. Given the efficacy of contact tracing in flattening the curve so far, to execute contact tracing at a large scale, technology had to come to the rescue. Whilst Asian countries such as China, Korea and Singapore have been using mobile phone based surveillance for contact tracing, with Apple […]
Lesson From Singapore: Why We May Need to Think Bigger
Most parts of the world, including the most severely affected United States are now reporting either a stagnation or a decline in the number of daily new cases, prompting talks of return to normal life. Given this has been achieved through stringent lockdown measures, such decisions of returning to normalcy need to factor in the […]
Is Private Equity Having Its Minsky Moment?
In this fascinating long read, Matt Stoller tears into the Private Equity industry given the heavy indebtedness amidst the pandemic driven economic depression exposes the industry’s vulnerability and how the industry is using political capital to engineer a bailout yet again. The newsletter traces the PE industry’s origins to the 1980s junk bond boom and […]
What leader are you? It depends on your parents
Several of you might have wondered why some people are natural leaders – delegating tasks or ordering people about effortlessly – whilst others are unsure, hesitant wrecks. This contrast is especially startling when you see two people or comparable ability who perform very differently in leadership roles. The author says that part of the answer […]
The Three Equations for a Happy Life, Even During a Pandemic
Even by the high standards of the long essays published in The Atlantic, this piece is simply exceptional. The author teaches a class in Harvard Business School on Happiness. That is not as odd as it sounds because: “The scientific study of happiness has exploded over the past three decades. The Nobel Prize winners Daniel Kahneman […]
Reverend Thomas Bayes and a Big Buy Call on India
With most investors spending majority of their time reading and thinking about Coronavirus, it would be fair to say that their minds are now firmly “anchored” by the crisis. As Kahneman & Tversky showed 40 years ago, anchoring impacts our ability to think rationally. 300 years ago, Thomas Bayes created a pathbreaking theorem which can be […]
How Facebook and Google are helping the CDC forecast coronavirus
Contact tracing-testing-isolation has been a strategy several governments have adopted to control the Covid situation to a large extent. However, much of contact tracing techniques involve using data sources which potentially infringe on privacy laws. Whilst these can be justified in the current situation, many fear that these can be legitimised in the post Covid […]
Robots Welcome to Take Over, as Pandemic Accelerates Automation
Industries which require employees to be physically present in the premises and hence can’t implement an effective Work From Home policy may see an accelerated adoption of automation. Replacing a human being, a natural host for the virus, with a robot provides a simplistic solution to breaking the chain. Businesses might find the robot, which […]
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