Saturdays are all about longform links on Abnormal Returns. You can check out last week’s linkfest including a look at what makes anti-heroes attractive characters.
Quote of the Day
"The families of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities have been at the forefront of every movement to advance their loved ones’ rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
(Erin Arvedlund)
Book excerpts
- An excerpt from "User Friendly: How the Hidden Rules of Design Are Changing the Way We Live, Work, and Play" by Cliff Kuang and Robert Fabricant. (wired.com)
- An excerpt from Dan Conway's "Confessions of a Crypto Millionaire." (thehustle.co)
- An excerpt from "Lifespan: Why We Age — and Why We Don’t Have To" by David A. Sinclair, a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School. (nextavenue.org)
- Excerpt from "A Theory of Jerks and Other Philosophical Misadventures" by Eric Schwitzgebel. (lithub.com)
Investing
- The $64,000 question: is the value stock slump cyclical or secular? (institutionalinvestor.com)
- Shorting the East India Company bubble: an example of how being early, is the same as being wrong. (aier.org)
Defense
- The Department of Defense has been building a huge biometric database of suspected terrorists. (onezero.medium.com)
- The emerging arms race in space is pretty scary. (ft.com)
Online advertising
- Billions are spent on it, but does online advertising even work? (thecorrespondent.com)
- Travel is a great example of how Google ($GOOGL) is leveraging its position to move up the value chain. (stratechery.com)
Fraud
- We really don't have a good way of tracking the spending of foundations. (vox.com)
- How South Dakota became a tax haven due its trust laws. (theguardian.com)
- Three steps any great con artist takes. (washingtonpost.com)
Longreads
- Yoni Appelbaum, "The United States is undergoing a transition perhaps no rich and stable democracy has ever experienced: Its historically dominant group is on its way to becoming a political minority—and its minority groups are asserting their co-equal rights and interests." (theatlantic.com)
- How the Baby Shark video has turned into an entire industry, including a tour. (nytimes.com)
- If you are a famous athlete like Lindsey Vonn how do you approach the next phase of your life? (theringer.com)
- Cornhole is now a pro sport. (outsideonline.com)
- On the difference between etiquette and manners. (artofmanliness.com)
- Why the Louvre should take down the Mona Lisa. (nytimes.com)