Thursdays are now all about longform links on Abnormal Returns. You can check out last week’s linkfest including a look inside the great NBA bubble experiment.
Quote of the Day
"When things are hard, when things are scary, when we’re tired, when we’ve had a run of bad luck: magical thinking kicks in."
(Ryan Holiday)
Investing
- A look inside the short-selling community where not everything is as it appears. (institutionalinvestor.com)
- How one hedge fund bet big, and won, betting against America's shopping malls. (esquire.com)
- Institutional investors are all fishing in the same pond. Rishi Ganti and Orthogon Partners are traveling off the beaten path. (institutionalinvestor.com)
Profiles
- A big profile of Moncef Slaoui who helps lead Operation Warp Speed. (usatoday.com)
- A profile of BioNTech’s founders, Ugur Sahin and Özlem Türeci, about their long journey to a successful product. (wsj.com)
Pandemic economy
- Department stores were already in terminal decline, but the pandemic gave them a shove. (vox.com)
- The pandemic is forcing men to confront their lack of adult friendships. (washingtonpost.com)
- What Mason jars can tell us about the state of the pandemic economy. (marker.medium.com)
Longreads
- Custom silicon is the new barrier to entry for Big Tech. (mule.substack.com)
- Five lessons from Dave Chapelle about the state of media and content. (stratechery.com)
- Oklahoma is the hot new marijuana market. (politico.com)
- More people are turning to virtual assistants to tackle their to-do lists. (newyorker.com)
- How to use mental models to facilitate a career change. (fs.blog)
- Why transportation tends to 'resist rapid innovation.' (wired.com)
