The 2010s Were the End of Normal – How social media, the Great Recession and Donald Trump combined to bring out the ‘indigenous American berserk.’
Given that many of us have spent our Christmas break speaking to friends and relatives who are either worried about the CAA-NRC turmoil in India or are exultant about India’s turn to the Right, we felt it is worth beginning the New Year on a positive note. We believe that this too shall pass, that […]
The conventional DCF method undervalues longevity of a business
An investor looking to buy and hold stocks over a long time period, needs to be able to differentiate between businesses which can deliver longevity of consistently healthy free cashflows and those that run a high degree of uncertainty in their fundamental prospects. This differentiation is essential, both, in order to avoid premature exits from […]
The curious tale of how Japan got hooked on KFC at Christmas
There is almost a sense of purity when it comes Japanese cuisine with all the emphasis on the freshness of ingredients and retaining as much original flavours of the ingredients. Indeed, Japan is host to the highest number of Michelin starred restaurants. Yet, like everything Japanese, there is an oddity involved with Japanese when it […]
The buzz around AirPods
In last week’s 3L-3S, we featured a piece on how the emergence of headphones are actually influencing the sort of music being produced. This piece in the Economist looks at the business side of things for ‘earwear’. The numbers are indeed staggering: “Apple does not release figures for any of its “wearables”, but AirPods are the fastest-growing […]
The ideal team size for a money manager to beat the market
Michael Mauboussin, director of research at BlueMountain Capital Management, has conducted a study which looks at the ideal team size for an asset management firm seeking to beat the market. He finds that funds managed by a team do better than funds managed by a single individual. That begs the question “What is the ideal […]
Can we break our addiction to plastic? The future of packaging
This video on Youtube of a marine conservation biologist trying to help a sea turtle relieve of a plastic straw up its nostril went viral with 38m views. Similar gut wrenching videos of vast swathes of plastic dumped in the ocean – the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (supposedly twice the size of Texas) – have inspired some people to […]
Your Apps Know Where You Were Last Night, and They’re Not Keeping It Secret
If there’s one thing that has made smartphones the gamechanging tech of our lifetimes, it is the use of location data – think Amazon’s delivery efficiencies or ride sharing or food delivery, etc. Whilst all these are examples of how businesses and consumers alike have benefited from the technology, there is a dark side to […]
Are anti-competitive firms killing American innovation?
When the economist, Thomas Phillipon, moved to America in 1999, he found a country where high quality products were available at “dazzlingly cheap” prices. “But over the past two decades, Mr Philippon writes in “The Great Reversal”, this paradise has been lost. Europeans now enjoy cheap cross-continent flights, high-street banking, and phone and internet services; Americans […]
What comes first – Strategy or Structure?
The former US Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld, famously said, “You go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time.” A robust military structure built on the foundations of unswerving training and a disciplined approach is one that is believed to win wars. This […]
The man who made the “worst” video game in history
We know of companies who have shot themselves in the foot going for instant glory and in the bargain sacrificing sustainability. Here’s an example of an entire industry – video gaming, which back in the 80s was bigger than Hollywood and pop music combined went bust, thanks to the mad rush for riches. Centrestage was […]
The Bus Ticket Theory of Genius
Paul Graham is an investor, especially known for having founded Y Combinator, a successful incubation platform in Silicon Valley, having incubated companies such as Airbnb, Drobbox, Doordash, etc. In this particularly insightful blog, Paul highlights the need for obsessive interest in a subject as a key ingredient for success, especially the creative kind of success. […]
How headphones are changing the sound of music
David Byrne’s book “How Music Works” talks about how music composition has a context to it. “For example, he explains that medieval European music was often harmonically simple because playing lots of notes at once sounded terrible in cathedrals, and that trumpets were common in early jazz because the instrument’s high frequency could be heard over a talkative […]
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