Influential Reads – January 2022 - Something For The Effort

Reading Time: 3 minutes

January 2022

“You can’t replace reading with other sources of information like videos, because you need to read in order to write well, and you need to write in order to think well.” — Paul Graham

I am going to claim one book read in January, Range by David Epstein. A more accurate portrayal would be that I read it in many months, but completed it in January. I will post some notes at some point.

Goodreads is already telling me I am behind schedule:

Here are my most influential reads – in no particular order:

Let The Wild Rumpus Begin – “Today in the U.S. we are in the fourth superbubble of the last hundred years.”
Tech questions for 2022 – “Most of the questions I’ve discussed so far are about the future of tech, but a central theme in the trends presentation I published last month was all the ways that industries much bigger than tech are being disrupted now by things that tech was excited about 10, 15 or 20 years ago. “
Who Will Buy the Bonds? – “The point is, unless you believe hyperinflation is coming, there is no logical reason to question whether people will want to hold US government denominated liabilities. The more interesting question is, what is a sustainable rate of interest for the USD?”
The control/responsibility matrix – “People who grab control and avoid responsibility are often easily identified because they spend a lot of time whining.” – Head of Sales: “If marketing would only give me more SALs, I would sell more.” SMS Inside Thought: “ Yeah, and if somebody would do my job for me, that would be cool too.”
Harvard-trained economist shares his 21 money rules – “Choose jobs that everyone but you hates. All else being equal — skills, education and experience — people with unpleasant, nerve-racking, insecure, disturbing or financially risky jobs get paid more than people with the same skills working jobs with none of these drawbacks.”
Effort toward quality – “Persistent quality problems are a systemic issue, and if you’re not working on your system, you’re not going to improve it.”
The antidote to “just be positive” – “What I’m saying is that mental flexibility is much more valuable than unquestioned positivity.”
The Fed Is Ignoring the Money Supply and Letting Inflation Rip – “Just like Arthur Burns, the current Fed leadership is ignoring the sharp increase in the money supply during the past two years and instead is blaming external factors. As a result, inflation is again soaring. History is repeating itself.”
A Quick Guide to Planning Your Year – “Every year, I take a few days and give myself some reflective space.”
Stock Market History, Illuminated – “And since 2009 it has been incredible. One down year, 12 up years. The lone down year was low single digits, while the 12 up years were high-teens. Makes me wonder if anyone under 30 – through no fault of their own – thinks that this is the way markets always work.”

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.

Top clicks across the site last month: