This week’s highlights:  Marital Happiness, The Demise of Subway, and 6 billion nights of sleep.

Fifteen on Friday – 01/05/18 – Issue 267

Happy 2018 everyone and welcome back to the first issue of Fifteen on Friday in the New Year.  I hope this finds you well and warm – no small feat in the crazy weather going around.

Woodmont published our Fourth Quarter Market Commentary this week entitled “2017: 12 for 12 for the First Time Ever!” Click here for a thoughtful yet concise look at the goings on in the stock and bond markets currently.

All the best,
David

Food for Thought:

1. RH – Seriously, You—Ok, We—Need To Stop Watching The News This Year  The amount of information we consume on a daily basis is embarrassing.
2. NYT – The Most Expensive Mile of Subway Track on Earth  How excessive staffing, little competition, generous contracts and archaic rules dramatically inflate capital costs for transit in New York.
3. Medium – How I’m Training My Wife to Be Happy.  A thoughtful look at the power of one person to meaningfully engage the life of another.
4. NYT – The More the Merrier, and the Messier.  Coming off the holidays, this was a wonderful reflection on the joys and challenges of family, especially under one roof.
5. Tennessean – Nashville Classical shines in city’s early literacy efforts.  As a Classical parent and board member, it is incredibly encouraging to see the phenomenal work that the team and scholars are putting in, and the corresponding success.

Business/Economics:

1. Vanguard – What’s behind the falling number of public companies? – Credit SF
2. HBR – How to Excel at Both Strategy and Execution
3. BI – Subway’s ‘mystery meat’ and ‘mushy and rotten vegetables’ destroyed the ‘Eat Fresh’ advantage it spent years building.  “America will pay for quality…But Subway never gave us the chance to buy a great sandwich”
4. Bloomberg – Inside the Eccentric, Relentless Deal-Making of Masayoshi Son.  The Japanese billionaire has changed the startup game with his aggressive investing and enormous checkbook. Does he know what he’s doing?
5. BI – The cost of bitcoin payments is skyrocketing because the network is totally overloaded

Culture/Tech/Science:

1. YF – What Fitbit’s 6 billion nights of sleep data reveals about us – Credit SF
2. DIGG – A Watch Expert Describes The Differences Between A $5,000 Watch And An $85,000 Watch.  A Patek Philippe 5170P costs a boatload more than a (still very expensive!) Omega Speedmaster Moonwatch. Does it justify the difference?
3. WashPo – The bodies of his work: Michelangelo’s muscular mastery is on display at the Met
4. Fortune – Has Apple Lost Its Design Mojo?
5. WashPo – Two dying memoirists wrote bestsellers about their final days. Then their spouses fell in love.  My favorite read of 2017 was Paul Kalantithi’s When Break Becomes Air.  This story is a heartwarming look at life afterwards for his widow and another author’s widower.