People are sick of drinking. Investors are betting on the ‘sober curious’
Last year, Coca-Cola launched its first alcoholic beverage in Japan partly to make up for the dwindling sales as the trend to stay away from sugary drinks gains strength. Turns out that people are now giving up drinking alcohol too. This piece in the CNN talks about how a combination of the need to take […]
Meet the Money Whisperer to the Super-Rich N.B.A. Elite
It is often said that likelier route to achieving financial independence is not so much in generating superlative returns as much in having a disciplined approach to saving. This applies even more so for sports superstars who often at a very young age tend to earn big bucks, quickly get on to a lavish lifestyle […]
The restaurant owner who asked for 1-star Yelp reviews
Steve Jobs is known to have trashed any market research as he staunchly believed that customers seldom know what they want. The online review systems have in some ways used this fact to influence customer choices and perhaps even, as this Hustle piece suggests, at the cost of extorting small businesses. David Cerretini, a restaurateur […]
Does reading fiction make us better people?
In our blogs we often discuss the impact of reading extensively on the human mind (example: https://marcellus.in/blogs/marcellus-the-working-habits-of-great-minds/). This fascinating piece from the BBC goes a step further and cites scientific research which shows that reading does make us better people. Why does this happen? Reading, it turns out, “is like a training course in understanding others. The […]
Josh and Barry Tweet Like Crazy: Are They Revolutionaizing RIA Marketing – or Just Wasting Time?
New York–based investment advisory firm Ritholtz Wealth Management is famous for its outstanding blogs and for Ben Carlson’s bestselling book “A Wealth of Commonsense”. What Ritholz is also doing is redefining marketing for the wealth management profession. Josh Brown, is the co-founder, CEO and public face of the firm. “Brown, who tweets under the handle @ReformedBroker, […]
How Data (and Some Breathtaking Soccer) Brought Liverpool to the Cusp of Glory
As everyone now knows, Liverpool are once again the football champions of Europe. But what you might know is the role data analytics – Moneyball style, Billie Bean style analytics – has played in Liverpool’s triumph. In fact, without analytics, Liverpool (which is owned by the same American company which owns baseball’s Boston Red Sox) […]
Marcellus: Crushing Risk is More Rewarding than Chasing Returns
Published on:14 June, 2019 High flown theories of Finance & Investing don’t work in India. What works in the Indian stockmarket is risk minimisation. We minimise risks associated with accounting fraud, with topline & bottomline volatility and with liquidity. In other words, we invest in clean monopolies selling essential products. Sophisticated investment literature can be […]
Marcellus: Your All-Powerful Plastic Brain
Published on:8 June, 2019 British neuroscientist, Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, has shown that the human brain continues to learn, evolve and adapt throughout its life. Her work on the plasticity of the human brain is a tonic for those of us who are keen to learn new skills and push our minds to places it has not […]
Marcellus: India’s tiger boom is System 2 thinking exemplified
Published on:7 June, 2019 We navigate day-to-day life, making decisions mostly based on our intuitive thinking, which is formed by years of experience in understanding and judging events. However, many important decisions in life, especially in investing, require thinking beyond the obvious, what is called System 2 thinking. This summer, I went tiger sighting at […]
Influencer grannies are a lesson in how to reinvent oneself
Utkarsh Amitabh in his succinct post talks about the need for everyone to keep evolving to stay relevant in the current environment. He cites the example of Italian grannies who have embraced social media & digital marketing to spread their handmade pasta recipe and their culture. Their readiness to evolve & accept technology has helped […]
Why Tracking Your Symptoms Can Make You Feel Worse
Elena Lacey at WIRED cites some research studies to show how tracking your symptoms actually makes you feel worse than help in a recovery. “Fifteen percent of adults in the US use an app regularly or occasionally to track symptoms of a disease. About as many use a sleep-tracking app to figure out whether they […]
If Akbar and Ibrahim II had met, they would have liked each other: Manu S Pillai
This conversation between two of India’s best historians who are currently in circulation – William Dalrymple and Manu Pillai – exposes the cardboard cutout history that is routinely taught in India’s schools and which infect the popular narrative of how India has evolved. Pillai points out that whilst Shivaji (and his war with the Mughals) […]
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