“Discard the junk…you are far better off to read a much smaller amount of good material with care and thoughtfulness.”
– Barton Biggs

Food for Thought:

• Ted – The Price of Shame.  “Public shaming as a blood sport has to stop,” says Monica Lewinsky. In 1998, she says, “I was Patient Zero of losing a personal reputation on a global scale almost instantaneously.” Today, the kind of online public shaming she went through has become constant — and can turn deadly. In a brave talk, she takes a hard look at our online culture of humiliation, and asks for a different way.
• WSJ – Why Islam Needs a Reformation.  To defeat the extremists for good, Muslims must reject those aspects of their tradition that prompt some believers to resort to oppression and holy war.
• The Atlantic – The City That Believed in Desegregation.  Integration isn’t easy, but Louisville, Kentucky, has decided that it’s worth it.
• WSJ – Resilience Can Be Learned.  How a widow traced a long path back toward optimism.
• The Atlantic – The Neurological Pleasures of Fast Fashion.  Research shows that the brain finds pleasure in the pursuit of inexpensive things, and high-street chains and online retailers sites alike are cashing in.
• TA – Investment Dressing: Is It Worth It?.  An interesting piece to pair with the article above about where does it make sense to splurge for quality.
• RH – 28 Pieces of Productivity Advice I Stole from People Smarter Than Me

Business/Economics/Investing:

• WSJ – Kraft-Heinz Deal Shows Brazilian Buyout Firm’s Cost-Cutting Recipe.  3G Capital’s strategy features ‘zero-based budgeting,’ a tool to slash costs by focusing on details as minute as how to make photocopies.
• MF – Notes From Charlie Munger’s Daily Journal Meeting 2015
• Forbes – The Implosion Of A Warren Buffett Wannabe
• Reuters – Newcomers jump into activist investing, eying returns and capital
• FastCo – The Evolution of Steve Jobs.  If Apple’s rise depended on the standard Steve Jobs clichés, what are we to make of its dominance now? Time to revisit—and correct—the myth.
• WSJ – AmEx’s Chenault Aims to Overcome Setbacks.  End of Costco deal and creeping competition pose threats to chief’s legacy of success.
• WSJ – How Adidas Aims to Get Its Cool Back.  The German sports brand wants to end its long U.S. slump.
• FastCo – Inside Gap’s Plan to Get Back Into Your Drawers.  Gap’s new CEO Art Peck knows that the first step toward regaining its iconic reputation is making clothes people actually want to wear.
• WSJ – Japanese Robot Maker Fanuc Reveals Some of Its Secrets.  Company helps make iPhones and Teslas; greetings in a canary yellow blazer.
• WSJ – PowerPoint Karaoke Brings Stress Relief to Silicon Valley’s Embattled Office Workers. ‘PowerPoint karaoke’ pits players in improv slideshows, whales, chest hair.

Life/Culture/Art/Science:

• TED – What if 3D printing was 100x faster?  What we think of as 3D printing, says Joseph DeSimone, is really just 2D printing over and over … slowly. Onstage at TED2015, he unveils a bold new technique — inspired, yes, by Terminator 2 — that’s 25 to 100 times faster, and creates smooth, strong parts. Could it finally help to fulfill the tremendous promise of 3D printing?
• NYTimes – In Silicon Valley, Auto Racing Becomes a Favorite Hobby for Tech Elites
• WSJ – Why Cable TV Beats the Internet, For Now.  It’s not time to cut cable yet, unless you’re among the few cord-cutters who can clear enough hurdles.