The weekend is a great time to catch up on some long form items that we passed up on during the week. Thanks for checking in.

Investing

Reduce the noise levels in your investment process.  (Barry Ritholtz)

How social interaction drives active (vs. passive) investing.  (Cleveland Fed via FT Alphaville)

Investment research is going to get transformed by big data.  (Institutional Investor)

Is the conventional wisdom on equity allocations in retirement all wrong?  (Monevator)

Is it time for financial planning to move towards a monthly retainer model?  (Nerd’s Eye View)

Lists

A dozen things learned from Philip Fisher and Walter Schloss.  (25iq)

Five lessons on management from Sir Alex Ferguson.  (Above the Market)

Finance

Some good advice for anyone considering a career in finance.  (Aleph Blog)

A profile of controversial hedge fund manager Dan Loeb.  (Vanity Fair)

The man who helped shine a light on the scandal of corporate tax avoidance.  (Wonkblog)

Dave Ramsey

A profile of Dave Ramsey the “most important personal finance guru in America.”  (Pacific Standard)

Why Ramsey’s advice works for many people.  (Felix Salmon)

Economics

Three important lessons learned from the financial crisis.  (Justin Fox)

The rise of the pass-through structure is changing American business.  (Economist)

Amazon

Why Amazon ($AMZN) is not yet running a profit.  (Remains of the Day)

Can Amazon compete in groceries?  (Bloomberg)

Health

Relax, it’s probably not a spider bite.  (Slate)

Sitting will kill you.  (NPR, Well via @davepell)

Why do so many middle-aged actresses purvey unscientific health nonsense?  (Salon)

Psychology

What happens when an amateur rebuts a ‘celebrated psychological finding‘?  (Narrative.ly via @longreads)

Why selfish people cooperate.  (Priceonomics Blog)

Kissing serves a number of purposes.  (Well)

How anxiety can lead your decisions astray.  (HBR)

Education

Why first-borns do better in school.  (Slate)

The key difference between kids who excel at math and those who don’t.  (Quartz)

Wine

A global wine shortage may be upon us (or not).  (Quartz contra Felix Salmon)

Want to convert money into happiness?  Buy good wine.  (Felix Salmon)

Food

How badly are we overfishing the oceans?  (Wonkblog)

What is the perfect time to drink coffee during the day?  (Smithsonian)

How to be a better cook.  (Scientific American)

Simple labeling can help consumers make better food selections.  (Harvard Gazette)

In search of the world’s hottest chili.  (New Yorker)

Sports

What happens when athletes become stocks.  (Fortune)

Losing is not a winning strategy in the NBA.  (Freakonomics)

Books

The fracking boom wasn’t brought to by ExxonMobil ($XOM). It was brought to you by “wacky outsiders” according to Gregory Zuckerman in The Frackers: The Outrageous Inside Story of the New Billionaire Wildcatters.  (WSJ)

Praise for Nick Bilton’s Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship and Betrayal.  (NYTimes)

An excerpt from Dr. Rick Hanson’s Hardwiring Happiness: The New Brain Science of Contentment, Calm, and Confidence.  (The Atlantic)

Earlier on Abnormal Returns

What books Abnormal Returns readers purchased in October 2013.  (Abnormal Returns)

What you may have missed in our Friday linkfest.  (Abnormal Returns)

Mixed media

London coffee houses and the Enlightenment.  (Public Domain Review via @jasonzweigwsj)

California hasn’t gone to pot since marijuana was largely legalized.  (NYTimes)

Why does everyone think writers should write for free?  (NYTimes contra The Atlantic)

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