Saturdays are all about longform links on Abnormal Returns. You can check out last week’s linkfest including a look at how planning for a pandemic didn’t translate into actual performance.
Quote of the Day
"I, like hundreds of other chefs across the city and thousands around the country, are now staring down the question of what our restaurants, our careers, our lives, might look like if we can even get them back."
(Gabrielle Hamilton)
Society
- Anne Case and Angus Deaton co-authors of "Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism" on the role education plays in societal splits. (chronicle.com)
- On the symbiotic relationship between corporate America and anti-hunger groups. (thereader.mitpress.mit.edu)
- American children were anxious before the coronavirus hit. What now? (theatlantic.com)
Business
- Evidence that Amazon ($AMZN) uses independent seller data to inform its own private label decisions. (wsj.com)
- How Jack Dorsey and Twitter ($TWTR) placated an activist investor and just in time. (vanityfair.com)
- Stop comparing e-sports to traditional sports: the structure and economics are completely different. (matthewball.vc)
Investing
- A profile of Dmitry Balyasny of Balyasny Asset Management with lessons learned from a tough 2018. (institutionalinvestor.com)
- How the trade in Magic the Gathering cards came to resemble the stock market. (wired.com)
Longreads
- The next NASA trip to the Moon will be safer than Apollo 13, but will not be risk-free. (nytimes.com)
- Adam Gopnik, "Coffee was perhaps the first naïve emissary of internationalism." (newyorker.com)
- The story of how the George Foreman Grill changed retail. (menshealth.com)
- The state of the Great Barrier Reef is more complicated that it is portrayed in the media. (afar.com)
- What it's like to go through Army Ranger school. (outsideonline.com)
- Why Jason Isbell isn't tired of talking about addiction. (gq.com)
- Preppers are having their day in the sun. (nytimes.com)
