Thursdays are all about longform links on Abnormal Returns. You can check out last week’s linkfest including a look at the hard life of commercial truck drivers.
Quote of the Day
"To me, understanding how much weirder the world really is than it seems, and how much different it works than even our best scientists like Einstein thought it worked a century ago, is an exhortation to embrace new, weird ideas and explore them with curiosity."
(Packy McCormick)
Books
- An excerpt from "The Revolution That Wasn't: GameStop, Reddit, and the Fleecing of Small Investors" by Spencer Jakab. (wired.com)
- A Q&A with Vidya Krishnan author of "Phantom Plague: How Tuberculosis Shaped History." (npr.org)
- An excerpt from "Healing: Our Path from Mental Illness to Mental Health" by Thomas Insel. (theatlantic.com)
- A Q&A with Chuck Klosterman author of "The Nineties: A Book." (gq.com)
- An excerpt from "From Hollywood with Love: The Rise and Fall (and Rise Again) of the Romantic Comedy" by Scott Meslow. (vulture.com)
Companies
- The rise and fall of Peloton ($PTON) is a classic business tale. (ft.com)
- Intel ($INTC) CEO Patrick Genslinger is trying to turn around a company that helped build Silicon Valley. (nytimes.com)
- Telegram is the anti-Facebook ($FB). That doesn't mean its good. (wired.com)
Longreads
- Crowds have always formed in markets. Now they have the ability to coordinate. (drorpoleg.com)
- Why does the U.S. make it so hard to become a doctor? (theatlantic.com)
- Can AI be used to crack an ancient language? (restofworld.org)
- A Q&A with Ken Burns in anticipation of the release of his latest film 'Benjamin Franklin.' (variety.com)
- We are just scratching the surface on our knowledge of what is happening underground. (knowablemagazine.org)
- The pandemic has ruined the job of a flight attendant for many. (nytimes.com)
- A profile of 'Warren Sharp' who incongruously straddles the world of the NFL and gambling. (newyorker.com)