The Mahabharata and the Ethics of Investing
(Pictured above: The Panchachuli peaks photographed from Saurabh’s decrepit phone) Published on:23 July, 2019 As investment managers, can we morally justify earning healthy returns year after year from investing in companies which generate supernormal returns from monopolising the sale of essential products to millions of Indians? The Mahabharata provides guidance on this troublesome ethical question. […]
The Generosity Of True Sportsmen
Author: Rohit Brijnath Source: The Mint (https://www.livemint.com/mint-lounge/features/the-generosity-of-true-sportsmen-1563513345806.html) Just as last Sunday’s double sport madness in London culminated with the insane end to the cricket world cup finals and the rivetting five-setter Wimbledon men’s singles finals, one could crave for how Rohit Brijnath, one of the best writers of sport prose, capture this on paper. Unsurprisingly, […]
Elon Musk wants to link brains directly to machines
Author: The Economist Correspondent Source: The Economist (https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2019/07/18/elon-musk-wants-to-link-brains-directly-to-machines) The Economist calls him the “world’s most famous entrepreneur” given his desire to solve the world’s problems, be it climate change, mobility, space travel, urban transportation. Yet his most progressive project, in terms of potential impact on humanity could be Neuralink, his company which last week announced […]
Singapore Sends an Alert to the Investing World
Author: Andy Mukherjee Source: Bloomberg (https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-07-10/singapore-s-temasek-revives-specter-of-secular-stagnation) Temasek, Singapore’s state investing firm, has in its annual report raised the spectre of “secular stagnation”: “The concept of a persistent downturn that doesn’t respond to easy money featured in the Singapore state investment firm’s annual report for the first time since 2016, one of three possible troubling scenarios […]
How Norway turns criminals into good neighbours
Author: BBC Correspondent Source: BBC (https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-48885846) It is no surprise that Scandinavian countries often find themselves atop most rankings for human development indices or happiness quotients. Yet this is a fascinating story in the BBC about how Norway treats its prisoners or rather prepares its convicted citizens while in prison to resume a normal life […]
‘I couldn’t handle being the best because the only way was down’
Author: Annesha Ghosh Source: The Cricket Monthly (http://www.thecricketmonthly.com/story/1194801/-i-couldn-t-handle-being-the-best-because-the-only-way-was-down) Even as men’s cricket has made significant strides over the years especially in terms of players’ fitness reflecting in the general athleticism on the field or the power hitting, the gap between men’s and women’s cricket has remarkably narrowed in recent years. Adam Gilchrist’s quote in this […]
Martina Navratilova on Megan Rapinoe and the Trajectory of Gay Women in Sports
Author: Masha Gessen Source: New Yorker (https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/martina-navratilova-on-megan-rapinoe-and-the-trajectory-of-gay-women-in-sports) The unwinding of prejudice – whether it is around race, caste or sexuality – is not just a socially relevant issue, it is also fascinating for investors to watch given the insights it provides into how “consensus” on a given subject evolves the course of 20-30 years. Hence, […]
Small Data is More Important than Big Data
Published on:18 July, 2019 In the context of investing, the current fad for big data and machine learning seems overblown. Successful investing entails understanding basic probabilities well and whilst machines can be used to crunch these probabilities, to date the old fashioned method of reading annual reports to calculate these probabilities has worked pretty well. […]
Hedge Funds Are Tracking Private Jets to Find the Next Megadeal
Author: Justin Bachman Source: Bloomberg (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-02/hedge-funds-are-tracking-private-jets-to-find-the-next-megadeal) That hedge funds are always data hungry is not surprising but the new ways they find to satiate their hunger surprises us. Justin Bachman in his article shows how hedge fund managers track private jets to predict the next big M&A in the USA. He gives a recent example […]
China and new tech generation shake old notions of good branding
Author: John Gapper Source: FT (https://www.ft.com/content/4ba8c746-7bc4-11e9-8b5c-33d0560f039c) Only 22% of Searches on Amazon Include a Brand Name Author: Juozas “Joe” Kaziukėnas Source: Market Place Pulse (https://www.marketplacepulse.com/articles/only-22-of-searches-on-amazon-include-a-brand-name) John Kay, a British economist in his brilliant book on corporate strategy – “The Foundations of Corporate Success” cites among the most sustainable sources of competitive advantages as Brand, Architecture […]
Generalise, don’t specialise: why focusing too narrowly is bad for us
Author: David Epstein Source: The Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/jul/12/generalise-dont-specialise-why-focusing-too-narrowly-is-bad-for-us) In his best-selling book The Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell talked about the power of singular focus and specialised training over ‘10,000 hours’ as a means to achieve success in any given field. David Epstein, (who also authored The Sports Gene) in his new book ‘Range: How Generalists Triumph in a […]
Your Professional Decline Is Coming (Much) Sooner Than You Think
Author: Arthur C Brooks Source: The Atlantic (https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/07/work-peak-professional-decline/590650/) It is no secret that age and happiness is linked. However, the relationship between age and happiness is not linear: “In wealthier countries, most people’s contentment starts to increase again in their 50s, until age 70 or so. That is where things get less predictable, however. After […]
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