Thursdays are all about longform links on Abnormal Returns. You can check out last week’s linkfest including a look at the rising power and influence of index providers.
Quote of the Day
"99% of what you worry about isn't worth the worry. The universe will trundle on its way regardless of what you do or don't do. So you might as well focus your time and attention on what you care about most deeply yourself..."
(Oliver Burkeman)
Books
- An excerpt from "Stuff You Should Know: An Incomplete Compendium of Mostly Interesting Things" by Josh Clark and Chuck Bryant. (wired.com)
- A summary of "The Secret Wisdom of Nature: Trees, Animals, and the Extraordinary Balance of All Living Things" by Peter Wohlleben. (blas.com)
Space
- Why NASA needs a big, audacious goal like going to Mars. (wsj.com)
- The U.S. needs to begin planning now for an ISS replacement. (washingtonpost.com)
Shkreli-gate
- Everybody went bonkers over this story of a journalist who upended her life for imprisoned pharma bro Martin Shkreli. (elle.com)
- A follow-up with Christie Smyth, the subject of the above profile. (elle.com)
Russia
- How Alexey Navalny got his attackers to confess to his poisoning on tape. (bellingcat.com)
- Russia is planning to take advantage of climate change, not fight it. (propublica.org)
Food
- When a restaurant closes we lose more than just another small business. (eater.com)
- Why does everybody hate on Guy Fieiri? (vulture.com)
Retail
- Warehouse positions used to be well-paying, middle-class jobs. Amazon ($AMZN) has helped change all that. (bloomberg.com)
- An oral history of the big (and ubiquitous) Bed Bath & Beyond ($BBBY) coupons. (nytimes.com)
Tech
- Jack Ma had a long run, relative free of government interference. That is no longer the case. (bloomberg.com)
- Big Tech has been integrating features from competitors since forever. (ben-evans.com)
- How streaming has changed the value (and importance) of a musician's back catalog. (ft.com)
Longreads
- Psychadelics are unlike marijuana in some significant ways, but that does not mean there isn't an investment opportunity out there. (birb.substack.com)
- How Maria Bartiromo went from respected financial journalist to all-in on Trump. (washingtonpost.com)
- Patricia Nilsson, "In the internet era, porn is everywhere, but its owners are out of sight." (ft.com)
- Just because there is a pandemic, doesn't mean you can stop taking care of fruit flies used for scientific research. (nytimes.com)
- Unlike previous years, Oregon's wildfires affected the entire state. (theguardian.com)
- Even before Covid there were serious air quality issues on commercial flights. (latimes.com)
