Thursdays are all about longform links here at Abnormal Returns. You can check out last week’s links including a look at the consumerization of IT.
Quote of the Day
"Greenspan’s genius was to combine high-calibre expert analysis with raw political methods. He had more muscle than a mere expert and more influence than a mere politician."
(Sebastian Mallaby)
Technology
- Today everything except the smartphone is a niche product. (stratechery.com)
- What the Apple ($AAPL) Watch 2 is (and isn't). (hodinkee.com)
- There was a time the Internet could have been open, however that time has passed. (kottke.org)
Markets
- A dozen things learned about multi-sided markets. (25iq.com)
- The power of prediction markets. (nature.com)
- The future of sports betting. (espn.com)
Media
- Have we reached 'peak attention'? (newrepublic.com)
- Tags like Millennials or Gen Y are played out. (shift.newco.co)
- The newspapers had to die for new things to bloom. (stratechery.com)
Retail
- The rise and fall of the Army surplus store. (artofmanliness.com)
- The weird economics of Ikea. (fivethirtyeight.com)
- Wal-Mart ($WMT) raised wages and stores perked up. (mobile.nytimes.com)
Society
- Adolescence used to be pretty well defined. Not any more.... (aeon.co)
- Why the modern world has male identity in crisis. (ft.com)
- Living in an 'extreme meritocracy' is exhausting. (theatlantic.com)
Longform
- A half dozen things learned from Bill Gurley about investing. (25iq.com)
- A conversation with Robert Shiller about behavioral economics. (psmag.com)
- Why we are still so enthralled with the post-WW II growth rates that were an anomaly. (wsj.com)
- Why visionary CEOs are never followed by visionary successors. (hbr.org)
- Being data-driven is great but that isn't enough. (rpseawright.wordpress.com)
- A look at the competition to build the leading satellite delivery rocket. (fortune.com)
- The golden age of television had its origins in the 1980s. (vulture.com)
- Go to Havana, Cuba now before the tourists ruin it. (outsideonline.com)