This week’s highlights: A Sudden Evacuation, the $1 Test, and the iPhone ultrasound.

Fifteen on Friday – 11/03/17 – Issue 260

A Happy Fall Friday to You.

With Halloween now past us, we are knocking on the door of Thanksgiving, Christmas and the holidays.  The retailers seem maybe a bit over eager with Christmas trees and decor already out on the selling floor, but then again, with Christmas only 51 shopping days away, maybe not.

I put out a quick list on LinkedIn this week of My Favorite Signs of a Near Market Peak.

Have a great weekend,

David

Food for Thought:

1. DDD – Tubb’s Fire 10/9/17- A sudden evacuation.  Of everything else I’ve read this week, this one has stuck with me the most.  The author, a personal finance blogger, tells the minute by minute story of how he and his family fled their home at 2 AM during the California fires a little less than a month ago.  I think we all think that if we had to leave our home quickly, we would have the time to grab precious items, etc.  But the reality is likely to be much more complicated.
2. NYT – Lord & Taylor, WeWork and the Death of Leisure
3. TheCut – I Listen to 35 Hours of Podcasts Every Week. Is That … Bad? – Credit SF – This one hit a little close to home.
4. WashPo – How an Ivy got less preppy: Princeton draws surge of students from modest means
5. MarketWatch – What Anthony Bourdain can teach you about succeeding in business – Credit SF – The Cpt. Jack Sparrow of the food world’s take on life in business.

Business/Economics:

1. BHI – Thoughts on Cost of Capital and Buffett’s $1 Test – Part 1
2. TC – Toxic VC and the marginal-dollar problem.  Venture capital should come with a warning label.
3. Economist – How leading American newspapers got people to pay for news
4. GOI – The Best Investing Books for a Budding Value Investor to Read.  “I get a lot of questions about what investing books people should read. My advice to most is to stop reading books and start doing the practical work of slogging your way through 10-Ks, annual reports, etc.”
5. FS – Rory Sutherland on The Psychology of Advertising, Complex Evolved Systems, Reading, Decision Making.  Kudos to Shane Parrish (Farnam Street) for this tremendous interview.  Rory Sutherland is the Vice Chairman of Ogilvy & Mather Group, which is one of the largest advertising companies in the world.  Rory started the behavioral insights team and spends his days applying behavioral economics and evolutionary psychology to solve problems that conventionally advertising agencies haven’t been able to solve.

Culture/Tech/Science:

1. MIT – This Doctor Diagnosed His Own Cancer with an iPhone Ultrasound  Can a smartphone-enabled ultrasound machine that only costs $2,000 become medicine’s next stethoscope?
2. Wired – The College Kids Doing What Twitter Won’t
3. CNBC – CNBC reviews the $1,150 new iPhone X — the best smartphone you can buy.  I’ve read a lot of iPhone X reviews this week – they all say the same thing – Apple has a winner on its hands
4. BI – The 50 best movies of all time, according to critics
5. Jalopnik – The Grand Tour: Season 2 Launches Dec. 8 And Here’s The New Trailer.  For the gear-heads out there.