This week’s highlights: Dinner with Le Carre, SPAC Magic, Talking Out Loud
Issue 408
by David Wells – Nashville TN
Happy New Year –
I had high hopes that this first issue of Fifteen on Friday would open on a more upbeat note with the passage of the holidays. Certainly that is not the case. First here in Nashville was the bombing on Christmas morning. Then there are the events that transpired this week at the US Capitol. While politics is not a sphere I spend much time on, as someone educated in the classical tradition, I have a deep seated respect and reverence for the august institutions of our American democracy.
Seeing the images of the shirtless, fur and horned-hat wearing rioter desecrating the seat of democracy called to mind Antiochus Epiphanes IV’s desecration of the Jewish temple in 168 BC by sacrificing an pig on the Jewish alter. While I do not want to equivocate secular and religious institutions, both moments share a fundamental break from the past. This is further exacerbated by reports surfacing today of feces and urine being left behind in the Capitol.
As Wednesday closed, I found myself heartbroken as I attempted to explain to my 10 year old son that this is not the norm of our democratic experiment. God have mercy on us as we attempt to move forward together as a people.
Original Content This Week –
Regards,
Seeing the images of the shirtless, fur and horned-hat wearing rioter desecrating the seat of democracy called to mind Antiochus Epiphanes IV’s desecration of the Jewish temple in 168 BC by sacrificing an pig on the Jewish alter. While I do not want to equivocate secular and religious institutions, both moments share a fundamental break from the past. This is further exacerbated by reports surfacing today of feces and urine being left behind in the Capitol.
As Wednesday closed, I found myself heartbroken as I attempted to explain to my 10 year old son that this is not the norm of our democratic experiment. God have mercy on us as we attempt to move forward together as a people.
Original Content This Week –
- Why is Corporate Strategy So Often a Waste of Time?
- What MacKenzie Scott Can Teach Us About Wealth in The Time of Covid It may feel odd to talk about wealth right now – given stress, uncertainty, and suffering – for many folks this is the exact right time to be having the conversation.
Regards,
David
Food for Thought
- WashPo – My Dinners With Le Carre What I learned about writing, fame and grace when I spent two weeks showing the master spy novelist around Miami
- Wired – A 25-Year-Old Bet Comes Due: Has Tech Destroyed Society
- Vanity Fair – Requiem for a Dream Of all my restaurants, BALTHAZAR has been the hardest to watch suffer through the pandemic. But, I have hope—and my memories
- NYT – What We Found in Robert Caro’s Yellowed Files The author of “The Power Broker” and a multivolume biography of L.B.J. is giving awed archivists — and New York — access to more than 50 years of research.
- NYT – The Man Who Turned Credit-Card Points Into an Empire Brian Kelly, The Points Guy, has created an empire dedicated to maximizing credit-card rewards and airline miles. What are they worth in a global pandemic — and why are they worth anything at all.
Business
- HBR – Build a Family Business That Lasts Companies that endure do these five things right.
- GMO – Waiting for the Last Dance The Hazards of Asset Allocation in a Late-stage Major Bubble
- Frank Rotman – 26 Thoughts on Top Quartile Venture Funds
- Blomberg – SPAC Magic Isn’t Free
Culture / Tech / Science
- WashPo – Nurtured by Nature How the pandemic has intensified our connection to the outdoors.
- F1 – How McLaren emerged as Mercedes and Red Bull’s biggest threat – and why they could be a factor in 2021
- Coveteur – How Being Separated from My Closet Changed My Relationship with Personal Style
- Eater – Life Was Not a Peach David Chang’s new memoir grapples with the white-hot fury that defined most of his career. But as an employee on the receiving end of that rage, the book fails to account for trauma he caused me.
- Psyche – Talking out loud to yourself is a technology for thinking
My Forthcoming Book:
When Anything is Possible – Wealth and the Art of Strategic Living, on January 12, 2021.
However wealth arrives – whether made or inherited, it can be a disorienting and worrying experience. When Anything is Possible is meant to be a guidebook about how to engage thoughtfully and strategically with 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.