Saturdays are all about longform links on Abnormal Returns. You can check out last week’s linkfest including a big profile of Warren Buffett ahead of another Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting.
Quote of the Day
"Computing as we know it is being changed by AI and machine learning."
(Kara Swisher)
Big tech
- What Microsoft ($MSFT) lost by not pursuing SaaS upstarts Slack and Zoom ($ZM). (stratechery.com)
- An oral history of Amazon ($AMZN) Prime. (vox.com)
- A profile of Satya Nardella and his turnaround of Microsoft ($MSFT). (bloomberg.com)
- A profile of Chris Cox as he exits Facebook ($FB). (finance.yahoo.com)
Finance
- When hedge funds hire private investigators some weird stuff can happen. (institutionalinvestor.com)
- ETF tax-efficiency: Vanguard is the king of heartbeat trades. (bloomberg.com)
- Kentucky's public pension funds are a mess. (huffpost.com)
Gambling
- FanDuel and DraftKings are poised to dominate mobile sports betting as it rolls out across the country. (cnbc.com)
- Horse deaths could be the end of horse racing. (nytimes.com)
Book excerpts
- An excerpt from "Extra Time: Ten Lessons for An Ageing World" by Camilla Cavendish. (ft.com)
- An excerpt from the first chapter of Mark Manson's new book "Everything is F*cked: A Book About Hope." (markmanson.net)
Longreads
- The humanities live in more places than just the university. (wsj.com)
- How technology is changing spycraft. (foreignpolicy.com)
- Why we don't have effective treatments for stroke. (qz.com)
- A profile of Lis Smith, the strategist behind the insurgent campaign of Mayor Pete Buttigieg. (politico.com)
- A profile of David Milch and the forthcoming Deadwood movie. (vulture.com)
- Who was Donald J Sobol the author behind the Encyclopedia Brown series? (crimereads.com)