This week’s highlights: Parenting in COVID, Hedge funds, and Roy Kent
Issue 439
Happy Friday!
A few interesting articles this week – the Wall Street Journal’s piece about how best to convince people to get vaccinated seems quite timely and ‘on tone’. Earlier this week, I had a routine doctor’s visit. In the course of the appointment, I interacted with 6 different professionals – from front desk staff, nurses, doctors and billing.
While I was asked about COVID exposure, not a single person asked about my vaccination status. This feels like an avoidable miss. Who better to prompt the conversation and spend a couple of minutes answering questions in a calm manner? Or help direct someone to the onsite vaccine clinic?
The only way out of a public health crisis is for us all to recognize the small role we may have to play.
My Original Content this week:
- Fingers in the Ears? – Wealth, Hubris and Entrepreneurship While Wealthy. Does the hyper-agency of the wealthy prevent them from responding to market forces?
Best,
David
Food for Thought
- TheAtlantic – Parents Are Not Okay. This is pretty close to the feeling in our household – “We’re not even at a breaking point anymore. We’re broken.”
- VanityFair – How Yulia Navalnaya Became Russia’s Real First Lady. When the Kremlin tried to kill Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny, his wife launched an epic battle to save his life—and became the face of the resistance to Vladimir Putin.
- NewYorker – Have You Already Had a Breakthrough COVID Infection? The question of what “infection” means is just one of the riddles posed by the late-stage pandemic.
- WE – Mitch Daniels, risk-taker Mitch continues to inspire in his leadership at Purdue.
- WSJ – A Better Way to Encourage Vaccination. Lecturing and moral superiority aren’t working. Healthcare workers should try humility and respect.
Business
- II – Fewer Competitors, a SPAC Downturn, and Inflation Fears Are Fueling a Merger Arb Boom. George Kellner, founder of one of the longest running hedge funds, hasn’t been this bullish in decades.
- Bloomberg – Hedge Funds Are Hot Again. Good Luck Finding One That’ll Take Your Money. A record number of funds are closing to new cash. Investors risk missing out on the top money makers.
- Slate – The Perverse Reason It’s Easier to Build New Highways Than New Subways. In Seattle, for example, the final environmental impact statement for Sound Transit’s East Link light rail project included a study of what it would be like to build 24 alternative routes!
- AWCS – Inflation vs. Wages –
- CNBC – Coinbase slammed for what users say is terrible customer service after hackers drain their accounts
Culture / Arts/ Tech / Science
- WSJ – He Was a Division III Assistant in 2016. He’s an NFL Head Coach in 2021. Brandon Staley is the first year coach of the Los Angeles Chargers. He made it there because of his time at John Carroll University.
- Variety – Selena Gomez, Steve Martin and Martin Short Are Bridging the Generation Gap in ‘Only Murders in the Building’
- RollingStone – How Brett Goldstein Became the Breakout Star of ‘Ted Lasso’. The man behind Roy Kent explains how he went from the writing room to playing the hit show’s fan-favorite character — and why he identifies so much with him
- DesignBoom – virgin hyperloop explains how its 670mph/1,070kph pods work. This video is super cool
- RTBC – The Sounds of Healing. When musician Yoko Sen ended up in the hospital, she was overwhelmed by the cacophony of noise. What if all those beeps and alarms could sound like music instead?
My Book:
When Anything is Possible – Wealth and the Art of Strategic Living
I wrote the book because of a problem I saw and experienced personally. As we pursue our dreams and achieve success, financial wealth is often a natural result.
Yet, the first steps we take to manage this wealth are focused on avoiding negative outcomes (unnecessary taxes, estate issues, losses in the stock market), rather than articulating what we actually want to do with our wealth.
The book is about how we shift from focusing on the things we want to avoid, to the things we want to accomplish with our wealth. Doing so requires a person to articulate 3 key items – Wealth Structure, Wealth Identity and ultimately a Wealth Strategy. The book walks through each of these items in great depth, and guides the reader through a process to develop each.
If you are interested in learning more, visit here and download a free chapter.