Long read: Too much stuff: can we solve our addiction to consumerism?
In our last week’s edition of the 3L&3S, we featured Yvon Chouinard’s oped in the NYT about the need for a quality revolution to drive sustainability and deal with climate change. A reader responded with this long read in The Guardian – an excerpt from a new book “Stuff: Humanity’s Epic Journey from Naked Ape to Nonstop Shopper” by […]
Long read: The Most Dangerous Conflict No One Is Talking About
More than the Middle East or Russia or Taiwan, the most likely place for an epic punch-up is the South China Sea. That’s the main thrust of this long piece in The Atlantic with the author, Tim McLaughlin, casting China as the primary instigator. Mr McLaughlin begins by explaining why the odds are in favour […]
Kings of Capital Portfolio Newsletter: Quality lenders to benefit from RBI’s credit shakeout
To curb systemic risk posed by the sharp growth in unsecured credit and NBFC credit in the banking system, the RBI raised risk weights on both from 100% to 125%, effectively asking lenders to set aside more equity capital for these credit risks. This move is likely to have highest impact on business models of […]
From Konappana Agrahara to Electronic City: A Village as a Microcosm of India
Three decades ago, the fortunes of two tiny villages ~20 kms away from Bengaluru changed for the better. In 1992, Infosys set up its campus in these villages and triggered a transformation in what is now known as Electronic City. This monumental change created winners (the tech companies, their employees, landowners) and losers (landless farmers, […]
Short read: The High Stakes of Low Quality
Quality in essence underpins durability or sustainability whether it comes to investing or consumer products. However, falling attention spans and growing consumerism has driven people’s preferences away from durability towards short termism or use and throw behaviour. Yvon Chouinard, the legendary founder of the iconic clothing brand Patagonia, writes in this oped for the New […]
Short read: Charlie Munger – He didn’t merely teach us how to invest, he showed us how to think
Charlie Munger, the vice chairman and lesser known partner at Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathway, passed away earlier this week, just short of his 100th birthday. Investors who have aspired to follow on the footsteps of Berkshire have benefited from Munger’s nuggets of wisdom not just in investing but on life in general – much of it […]
Short read: Pieces aligned: Indian chess is on the cusp of an unprecedented revolution
Over the past decade, chess coaching academies have mushroomed in almost every suburban neighbourhood in peninsular India. Combine that with easy online access to the best chess players in the world and to a massive repository of chess knowledge and you have the recipe for an explosion of “young Indian chess players who have started to […]
Long read: The Road to Self-Renewal
Many of us face a version of mid life crisis in our professional lives as well, often stagnating or even burning out, essentially losing steam. Apparently, societies go through the same – thrive and decay, said John Gardner in his book – Self Renewal: The Individual and The Innovative Society. Gardner says the society’s ability to […]
Long read: Tyrian purple: The lost ancient pigment that was more valuable than gold
If you are one of those people who think that whatever the ancients could do, we can do better then this article will make you think again. The opening lines of Zaria Gorvett’s article are: “For millennia, Tyrian purple was the most valuable colour on the planet. Then the recipe to make it was lost.” The reason […]
Long read: How an American woman built one of India’s most prestigious medical schools
CMC Vellore (or to use its full name, Christian Medical College Vellore) is a legendary medical college – probably second only to AIIMS in the league table of India’s top medical schools – where some of India’s finest doctors practice. Living in this era of resurgent nationalism, we were stunned to learn from this fine […]
Global Compounders Portfolio: First Anniversary Review
Marcellus’ Global Compounders Portfolio (GCP) strategically invests in 25-30 deeply moated global companies aligned with megatrends, fostering a consistent mid to high teens compounding of free cash flow/earnings. As GCP reaches its first birthday, we reflect on our journey. Despite the brief time span, it’s reassuring to witness the portfolio’s progress aligning with our expectations, […]
Short read: The fallout from the weirdness at OpenAI
For those of you who may have missed the drama at OpenAI, the startup at the forefront of Artificial Intelligence or AI becoming mainstream: “On November 17th the board of the maker of ChatGPT suddenly booted out its chief executive (Sam Altman). On the 19th it looked as if Mr Altman would move to Microsoft, […]
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