This week’s highlights:  The Cost of Kids, The State of Private Equity and Automotive Country Clubs

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Fifteen on Friday – 03/01/19 – Issue 322

Happy Friday,

David

Food for Thought:

Top Read of the Week:  TheAtlantic – It Isn’t the Kids. It’s the Cost of Raising Them.

Why It Matters:    Further context and diving deeper into a specific research finding is incredibly important.  As this article notes, “for several decades, the work of happiness researchers has consistently pointed to an unintuitive conclusion: Having children doesn’t tend to make people happier, and might even make them less happy.”  Yet the result changes profoundly when controlling for financial related concerns.

Consider as well:

1. NYT – A ‘Tradition’ Omission: I Had Never Seen ‘Fiddler’ Until Now   This is a beautiful reflection on the impact of family culture and tradition.  “If I chalked up my familiarity with “Fiddler” to its clichéd resemblance to my life, now I remembered that clichés are clichés because they’re true, right?”
2. GQ – How to Read 80ish Books a Year (And Actually Remember Them)
3. MC – I Was One Of The Top Doctors In My Field. I Was Also An Opioid Addict.  Having just finished Beth Macy’s tremendous Dopesick, this piece again highlights the severity and ubiquity of the opioid epidemic.  The resounding message, the sinister potency of the opioid molecule and its hijacking of normal brain chemistry, means that anyone is susceptible.
4. Youtube – 4 Year Old at Hockey  What does a 4 year old talk about on the ice at hockey practice? One dad wired up his son after watching him babble from the sidelines.  The result is both hilarious and heartwarming.

Business/Economics:

Top Read of the Week:  Bain – Global Private Equity Report 2019 –

Why It Matters:   Bain’s annual review of private equity is arguably the most comprehensive look at the state of the industry.  This year’s 88 page tome does not disappoint.

Consider as well:

1. WB – The Game Theory of Brexit – If you have trouble keep tracking of the various permutations regarding Brexit, this is an excellent synopsis.
2. Stratechery – The Value Chain Constraint
3. Bloomberg – The Bill Gross You Didn’t Know: Taxes, Deficits and Asperger’s
4. AW – The Six New Commandments of Hedge Fund Investing

Culture/Tech/Science:

Top Read of the Week:  NYT – Trading Fairways for Straightaways at Automotive Country Clubs

Why It Matters:  “Robert A. Lutz, the outspoken retired auto executive, lamented the inevitability of driverless cars. “Automotive sport — using the cars for fun — will survive, just not on public highways,” he said. “It will survive in country clubs such as Monticello in New York and Autobahn in Joliet, Ill. It will be the well-to-do, to the amazement of all their friends, who still know how to drive and who will teach their kids how to drive.”

Consider as well:

1. Outside – Urban Organics Wants to Fix Food – Credit KW – Inside a repurposed Twin Cities brewery, a massive aquaponics operation is ready to provide a locavore’s dream: fresh produce and fish, raised indoors every month of the year
2. NPR – Scientists Release Controversial Genetically Modified Mosquitoes In High-Security Lab  Scientists have launched a major new phase in the testing of a controversial genetically modified organism: a mosquito designed to quickly spread a genetic mutation lethal to its own species, NPR has learned.
3. WP – How to Get Rich Without Being Lucky – Naval Ravikant
4. TSB – HRH Prince of Wales Visit to G&G – Prince Charles, well known for his sartorial proclivities, visits a famed English shoemaker.