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The Week’s Best Articles – 07/28/17

Jul 28, 2017 | Fifteen on Friday

This week’s highlights: The Masochist Marathon, the evolution of private equity, and how AI finally beat checkers.

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Fifteen on Friday – 07/28/17 – Issue 246

Food for Thought:

  1. Esquire – The Masochist’s Marathon.  Since 1986, the world’s top ultrarunners have fought to compete in the Barkley Marathons—an ever-shifting race designed by a madman to break their spirits that runs through 100 miles of hellish Appalachian Mountains, unmarked trails, and snake-riddled wilderness. So far, only fourteen people have ever completed it.
  2. TheAtlantic – Schools Are Missing What Matters About Learning.  Curiosity is underemphasized in the classroom, but research shows that it is one of the strongest markers of academic success.
  3. Medium – What is Bitcoin and should you invest in it?  Cryptocurrencies are inescapable in the news these days.  Maxwell Anderson has compiled an excellent primer here on what the fuss is all about.
  4. NYT – How My Son Picked Out My New ‘Best Friend’
  5. TheGuardian – Microsoft Paint to be killed off after 32 years.  A sad day indeed.

Business/Economics:

  1. Oaktree – There They Go Again…Again.  Howard Marks’ latest missive on what is going on in markets.  “Investors should choose their risk posture based on an assessment of what’s being offered in terms of absolute return, absolute risk, and thus absolute risk-adjusted return.  But today – on that famous other hand – investors generally don’t have the luxury of holding out for absolute returns and safety like they enjoyed in the past.”
  2. NYT – Economy Needs Workers, but Drug Tests Take a Toll
  3. CF – Every Great Investment Hurts
  4. TMM – Special Report on Private Equity: 7 ways PE firms are evolving
  5. WSJ – A Hot Investment Too Popular for Its Own Good.  It has proved startlingly easy for companies to cut the rates on their leveraged loans

Culture/Tech/Science:

  1. TheCut – I Have Money for the First Time Ever and I Feel Guilty About It
  2. TC – What it’s like to ship yourself overnight on Cabin’s sleep pod bus
  3. TM – 10,000 Hours With Claude Shannon: How A Genius Thinks, Works, and Lives.  We got up-close-and-personal with a genius for five years. Here are 12 things we learned.
  4. TheAtlantic – How Checkers Was Solved.  The story of a duel between two men, one who dies, and the nature of the quest to build artificial intelligence.
  5. FWF – A Whiskey Connoisseur’s Guide to Drinking on a Budget.  Don’t waste your time and money trying to nab bottles of Pappy and other “white whales.” Instead, regain your whiskey mojo by taking advantage of these loopholes.

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