This week’s highlights: the football town, rock climbing, and Alzheimer’s.
Photo by Snapwire on Pexels.com
Issue 353
Hope you are able to get out and enjoy a nice fall weekend!
All the best,
Food for Thought:
Why It Matters: Football participation rates are falling nationwide. This article looks into the phenomena in greater detail and includes an impressive chart with state by state data. Bottom line – Michael Lewis’ 2017 call to ‘short the NFL” looks more and more prescient.
Consider as well:
- NewYorker – The Myth and Magic of Generating New Ideas A mathematician on how to get the mind into motion.
- NYT – Martin Scorsese: I Said Marvel Movies Aren’t Cinema. Let Me Explain. Cinema is an art form that brings you the unexpected. In superhero movies, nothing is at risk, a director says.
- WSJ – The Truth About Income Inequality– Note Paywall – “The census fails to account for taxes and most welfare payments, painting a distorted picture.”
- Tennessean – Tennessee to hire 80 new employees, consider outsourcing to help ease driver’s license wait times
Business/Economics:
Top Read of the Week: CBR – What the success of rock climbing tells us about economic growth
Why It Matters: “Machines are not the only engines of greater productivity”
Consider as well:
- B-side – Buyers of Pacific Steel Casting ‘looted’ its assets, made ‘insider deals,’ according to bankruptcy trustee – Credit Brent B – What could go wrong when you buy a company for $11MM, but only have to put $2.5MM down…
- JoS – Ben and Jerry’s vs. Amazon Written in 2000, this is a really interesting reflection on two paths to building a company
- GD – Letter to a friend who may start a new investment platform “Are you ready to fully own the ambiguity of a new initiative?”
- AQR – It’s Time for a Venial Value-Timing Sin
Culture/Tech/Science:
Top Read of the Week: NYT – Why Didn’t She Get Alzheimer’s? The Answer Could Hold a Key to Fighting the Disease
Why It Matters: Researchers have found a woman with a rare genetic mutation that has protected her from dementia even though her brain has developed major neurological features of the disease.
Consider as well:
- NYT – Even ‘Project Runway’ Couldn’t Save Zac Posen The designer is closing his brand. What went wrong?
- TheAtlantic – Managing Your Friendships, With Software A slew of new start-ups want to help people manage their relationships the way they would sales leads. Should we be worried about our friends turning us into data points?
- NYT – Wait a Minute. How Can They Afford That When I Can’t? Those expensive vacations and costly college educations may not be as hard-earned as you thought.
- The Economist – Japan’s emperor is a prisoner in his own palaces Stifling bureaucracy and ritual are making Naruhito irrelevant to his subjects