August 2020
Good month all the way around. I have re-made my commitment to stop scanning the major news sites. They give me anxiety for a variety of reasons.
Updated stats through August:
Here are my most influential reads – in no particular order:
- An expert on human blind spots gives advice on how to think – “And so consequential decisions tend to be the ones we don’t have experience with. They’re exactly where there’s stuff we don’t know, and that’s exactly those types of situations where we should be seeking outside counsel.”
- The End of the Beginning – “Economic policy will hamper mean reversion.”
- Where to find the hours to make it happen – “The hours don’t suddenly appear. You have to steal them from comfort.”
- Why Would Anyone Own Bonds Right Now? – “There are no easy answers in the current low rate world we’re living in.”
- Why Markets Don’t Seem to Care If the Economy Stinks – “The most visible and economically vulnerable industries are also among the smallest, based on their market-capitalization weight in major indexes such as the S&P 500.”
- The Times that Try Stock-Pickers’ Souls – “There is no new era. Stocks are still worth the present value of their future cash flows.”
- What, Us Worry? Lack of New Stimulus Hasn’t Roiled the Markets – “As pointed out here a few weeks ago, the unprecedented $5 trillion in fiscal and monetary aid pumped into the economy during the second quarter exceeded total gross domestic product for the period.”
- Staying Focused with a Simple Method – “When you notice yourself avoiding something hard or uncertain … the method is to turn towards it.”
- Focus Week: Rediscover Depth – “For the sake of concreteness, here is one specific strategy among many that I’ve found to be effective: read two chapters from a book every day; with at least one of the chapters read in a scenic or otherwise interesting setting.”
- 51 Years Later, the Cuyahoga River Burns Again – “Late last year, the Trump administration made changes to the Clean Water Act that strip its protections from 60 percent of streams in this country, along with 110 million acres of wetlands.”
Note: This is based on when I read the article, not necessarily when it was first published. Unfortunately, my backlog of things I would like to read always seems to dwarf the amount of time I can devote to reading.