Thursdays are now all about longform links on Abnormal Returns. You can check out last week’s linkfest including a look at why we need to study philosophy now more than ever.
Quote of the Day
"If any year ever feels like the worst, it’s mostly because our brains have a tendency to judge the present more harshly. Unfettered media consumption skews our perception, and it becomes easy to slide into unhealthy patterns of belief."
(Rebecca Renner)
Book excerpts
- An excerpt from Guy Raz's new book "How I Built This: The Unexpected Paths to Success from the World’s Most Inspiring Entrepreneurs." (tim.blog)
- An excerpt from Joel Greenblatt's new book "Common Sense: The Investor's Guide to Equality, Opportunity, and Growth." (valuewalk.com)
- An excerpt from Daniel Yergin's new book "The New Map: Energy, Climate and the Clash of Nations." (wsj.com)
- Ten quotes from David Chang's new memoir "Eat a Peach." (eater.com)
Corporate decline
- ExxonMobil ($XOM) used to be the country's most valuable company. What the heck happened? (wsj.com)
- The story of how GE ($GE) fell back to earth: a review of Thomas Gryta and Ted Mann’s "Lights Out: Pride, Delusion, and the Fall of General Electric." (realclearmarkets.com)
Big tech
- Facebook ($FB) has turned a blind eye to state-sponsored manipulation for years. (buzzfeednews.com)
- Everybody seems to love Google ($GOOGL) CEO Sundair Pinchai, they all don't love the company though. (wsj.com)
BS
- Diana Fleischman, "Human intelligence is incredibly useful but it doesn’t safeguard you against having false beliefs, because that’s not what intelligence is for." (nautil.us)
- Why is there so much pseudoscience and pseudophilosophy these days? (bigthink.com)
- Raphael Milliere, "At its core, GPT-3 is an artificial bullshit engine—and a surprisingly good one at that." (nautil.us)
- A deep dive into the taxonomy of assholes. (scottbarrykaufman.com)
Florida
- The battle over who owns Florida's beaches is complicated and heated. (sarasotamagazine.com)
- Someone is smuggling Florida's flying squirrels overseas. (nationalgeographic.com)
Longreads
- Why big corporations get bailed out by the federal government and small businesses don't. (features.propublica.org)
- How a high profile distressed debt manager destroyed his career in the course of day. (institutionalinvestor.com)
- Why we should be aware of 'revenge effects' when implementing new technologies. (fs.blog)
- Why doesn't everyone in the US have broadband access? (vox.com)
- A profile of Alexander Vindman a few months removed from impeachment. (theatlantic.com)
- How over time a massive bomb came together in Beirut's port. (nytimes.com)
