This week’s highlights:  Lawnmower Parents, The Last Short Seller, and Tiny Homes

Fifteen on Friday – 09/21/18 – Issue 302

Food for Thought:

1. WAT – Lawnmower Parents Are the New Helicopter Parents & We Are Not Here for It  Chances are, you’ve met this new breed of parent.
2. BitterSoutherner – He Saw Our Darkness Nearing the 15th anniversary of Arkansas icon Johnny Cash’s death,  we reassess the Man in Black’s career — a life spent wrestling through music with the demons and saviors that haunt almost every Southerner.
3. ESPN – Living The Stream How did Ninja become gaming’s first crossover star? The Fortnite legend is relentless about one thing: He’s always on.
4. NYT – Ranch Nation  How one creamy, peppery salad dressing became America’s favorite flavor.
5. JC – Every Nashville Bachelorette.  So true, so true.

Business/Economics:

1. II – How Jim Chanos Uses Cynicism, Chutzpah — and a Secret Twitter Account — to Take on Markets (and Elon Musk)
2. HBR – Planning Doesn’t Have to Be the Enemy of Agile
3. FastCo – Forget the new iPhones: Apple’s best product is now privacy  Under Tim Cook’s leadership, Apple saw just how critical an issue user privacy would become. Now it’s at least as important a feature as shiny industrial design or a nice camera.
4. BMC – What Does an EV/EBITDA Multiple Mean?.  Using multiples is a way of simplification when valuing a business, but the multiple itself embeds assumptions around capital intensity, returns on invested capital and growth.  As only Michael Mauboussin can do, here he teases out each of those and how they affect valuation.
5. DataTrek – What Rolex Teaches Us About Disruption

Culture/Tech/Science:

1. Hodinkee – A Week On The Wrist Apple Watch Series 4  The future of the Apple Watch is coming into focus – and I like what I’m starting to see.
2. GuardianUK – A right to repair: why Nebraska farmers are taking on John Deere.  Farmers like fixing their own equipment, but rules imposed by big corporations are making it impossible. Now this small showdown could have a big impact
3. NYT – Once a Summer Camp, Now a Family Home  In the Connecticut wilderness, the Portuguese hotel designer Alexandra Champalimaud has created an unexpected respite.
4. WashPo – Chevy Chase Can’t Change  The 74-Year-Old Comedy Star Is Sober And Ready To Work. The Problem Is Nobody Wants To Work With Him.
5. LV –  “The biggest time saver yet — moving into a tiny house”