Read, Learn, Improve – 17-Sep-16

Bayer-Monsanto Combination Likely Too Big in U.S. Cottonseed – Link here

Can the open hardware revolution help to democratise technology? – Link here

The John Bogle Expected Return Formula – Link here

Adblock Plus now sells ads – Link here

Would you fly in a pilotless airliner? - Driverless trains and cars are already with us – but how soon before pilotless airliners? The biggest challenge may be getting passengers on board – Link here

How Morality Changes in a Foreign Language - Fascinating ethical shifts come with thinking in a different language – Link here

Chinese Billionaire Linked to Giant Aluminum Stockpile in Mexican Desert – Link here

Banks and Colleges Are Wasting Our Money – Link here

How Does America Keep Finding Vast Stores of Energy? – Link here

What Fiat Chrysler chief Sergio Marchionne told us over lunch – Link here

India’s Sham-Scam Scooter Policy of the 1970s – Link here

How India’s digital economy can recover its mojo – Link here

A Bored Investor Is a Dangerous Thing - If the stock market feels too quiet, resist the urge to spice things up in your portfolio – Link here

Two Key Checklist Items – Link here

Hacking a Company's Stock Price – Link here (what happens if a researcher discovers vulnerability in a niche medical device? A pacemaker, for example?)

Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari review – how data will destroy human freedom – Link here  - It’s a chilling prospect, but the AI we’ve created could transform human nature, argues this spellbinding new book by the author of Sapiens.

Watch: This anytime pizza machine might soon be at a railway station near you (if you're in Mumbai) – Link here

 

Read, Learn, Improve - 10-Sep-16

(Links open in new window)

Indian IT sector has been shining example of Indian industry as well stock market for wealth it has created. However off lately, there has been a concern whether Indian IT companies can compete & stand against global biggies in wake of change in technology. Basic question being it’s true we do have tonnes of engineers and software programmer but how competent are they for new tech? And it looks concerns are very legitimate if you see global ranking of our programmers, they are nowhere near top on overall basis or on domain basis. Read this to get more insight - Which Country Would Win in the Programming Olympics? – Link here . Many of you might spot that even US is not amongst the top – 5 either on overall basis or in any particular domain, very true, thought they have ability to attract best talent from across the globe. I guess Vishal Sikka is probably on right path of training its employee, will it yield fruits? Let’s wait & watch.

Why Luck Plays a Big Role in Making You Rich – Link here

The court that rules the world - A parallel legal universe, open only to corporations and largely invisible to everyone else, helps executives convicted of crimes escape punishment. Part 2 of a BuzzFeed News investigation – let’s make them poorer, and we’ll get rich – Link here

The Wrong Man - Thomas Webb survived a false conviction, but freedom failed him. Then he met his accuser – Link here

A Chinese Mystery: Who Owns a Firm on a Global Shopping Spree? Owners of Anbang, a Chinese insurer behind a wave of multibillion-dollar deals, include relatives and friends of its politically connected chairman – Link here

An Insider’s View: Why is Bollywood Going Bust? – Link here

Smashed Fortunes - How market speculators in China upended life in India’s ship-recycling yards – Link here

Aadhar seems to be on verge of creating a revolution for india, blockchain is another tech that I believe can ease how business is registered and run – take a look at global examples how it is being used - The Blockchain is Perfect for Government Services, Here’s A Blueprint – Link here

Exclusive: how Elizabeth Holmes’s house of cards came tumbling down – Link here

5 Interview Tips to Find the Long-Term Employee – Link here

Judges Need Not Know All Laws – Link here

Proof of evolution that you can find on your body (Video – 3:54) – Link here

When You Change the World and No One Notices – Link here

This Is Your Brain's Default Setting—Here's How And When To Change It - We may be hardwired for overconfidence, but there's more than one trigger for it and it's not always a bad thing – Link here

Why China Isn't a Financial Center – Link here

Apple’s little-known (and somewhat unsexy) secret to success – Link here

 

Read, Learn, Improve - 3-Sep-16

How good is it? How bad is it? - Modi, as a Delhi outsider, has shut down access to power and its benefits – By Monika Halan – Link here

The court that rules the world - A parallel legal universe, open only to corporations and largely invisible to everyone else, helps executives convicted of crimes escape punishment. Part one of a BuzzFeed News investigation – Link here

Meet the Greater Honeyguide, the Bird That Understands Humans – Link Here

The EpiPen was her ‘baby.’ Now this pharma CEO is in the hot seat over price hikes – Link here

Busting the billion-dollar myth: how to slash the cost of drug development - A non-profit organization is proving that new drugs don't have to cost a fortune. Can its model work more broadly? – Link here

Gut reaction: the surprising power of microbes - Most of us think of microbes as germs to be feared and killed. In fact they hold the key to improving our health – and may be the key to tackling obesity – Link here

After US and China, India is the third-largest market for morning after pills – Link here

Yuval Noah Harari on big data, Google and the end of free will – Link here

How should we read investor letters? - Considering the correspondence between C.E.O.s and shareholders as a literary genre – Link here

Today’s Inequality Could Easily Become Tomorrow’s Catastrophe - By Robert J. Shiller – Link here

The other side of Warren Buffett - Don’t Buff it up - An investing hero is not a model for how to reform America’s economy – Link here and here is reply by Fortune on same – Link here

A 1977 Warren Buffett Interview from the WSJ Archives – Link here

Why being bilingual helps keep your brain fit - Most people in the world speak more than one language, suggesting the human brain evolved to work in multiple tongues. If so, asks Gaia Vince, are those who speak only one language missing out? – Link here

Finland's Basic Income Experiment Is Too Timid – Link here

 

Read, Learn,Improve - 27-Aug-16

 

This may just prove to be positive for Indian pharmaceutical companies - Counterfeit pills, potentially from China, killed Prince, investigators now believe – Link here

Have you heard of Galapagos syndrome – well It explains how the country’s geography, history, and culture have come together to create a love for a technology that the rest of the world has all but forgotten. In case you wondering one such business here is bamboozle for you - Why Japan has more old-fashioned music stores than anywhere else in the world – Link here

DEUTSCHE BANK’S $10-BILLION SCANDAL - How a scheme to help Russians secretly funnel money offshore unraveled – Link here

98 personal data points that Facebook uses to target ads to you – Link here

How a British plan to convert an illiterate boy into a loyal maharaja failed – Link here

XXXI Olympics came to end last week, here is interesting take on what it takes to win medal - Letter from… Milton Keynes – Link here . In Stock market, investor pays attention to Top Management – their value system, habits, capability, etc – same thing goes for sports. If we want to win medals we probably need to clean up & bring in right people along with right culture – InGovern one of the top Corporate Governance and Advisory firm came up with full fledge report that looks at - Governance of Sports in India – 2016:01 – Link here , or alternatively you can read news-story on same report - Link here

The watchers - Alternative-data firms are shedding new light on corporate performance – Link here

Data Geeks Are Taking Over Economics – Link here

How to Stay Rich in Europe: Inherit Money for 700 Years – Link here

Accountancy’s Big Four need more competition - I myself have been wondering about this and hopefully we should have more competition, but it’s difficult market to break in – Link here

The Upside of Losing Half Your Money - The importance of extreme diversification – Link here

The Spectrum Auction: How Economists Saved the Day – Link here

The Man Who Woke Up One Morning and Forgot How to Read – Link here

Mapping the Greatest Empires of History – Link here

Read, Learn, Improve - 20-Aug-16

The Global Guru on Valuation Aswath Damodaran seldomly writes on valuation without numbers and when he does, it’s a treat in its own way - Investing and Valuation Lessons from the Renaissance – Link here

Bronze Trumps Silver? Counterfactual Thinking and the Olympics - Link here

Katsuyama Shakes Up Industry Even Before His IEX Exchange Opens – Link here

As a kid I was made aware about Bigfoot/Yeti through Bollywood & believed it to be true. Come internet age and satellite channel I was disappointed to learn this was purely fiction or rather imagination. But looks like there are always some people who continue to remain irrational or hopeful and create a business out of it estimate to be worth $10bn – move on unicorn, we have mega unicorn- The mystery of how a company set up to search for Bigfoot hit a $10 billion value – Link here

WTF is Experience Design? – Link here (don’t miss Acron video)

We humans love to predict future, almost majority of stock market participates are involved in doing the same which one should avoid. If one compares historic prediction vs reality, reality is often different. One would be compelled to say how did we miss this? Like since invention of the car, everyone has been predicting personal cars that can fly. I think very few people actually thought of automated cars prior to jumping to flying cars. Anyway here is food for thoughts on what would happen when automated cars hit the road - When Cars Fly – Link here

THE SPORTS LINCHPIN – Link here

What a well-known researcher discovered when he asked people to flip a coin on important life decisions – Link here

Cheating death - Science is getting to grips with ways to slow ageing. Rejoice, as long as the side-effects can be managed – Link here

The Rise of the Buy Side - Financial rewards for trading are down. Incentives for making markets are gone. And the business of bond trading has been turned on its head – Link here

Virtu Never Loses (Well, Almost Never) - In the history of electronic trading, no company has been as successful as this paradigm-changing market maker, which operates in more venues than it has employees – Link here

Things I’m Pretty Sure About - A few big lessons – Link here

Is it time for a world technology organization? – Link here

Mining the Ocean Floor: Good Idea? – Link here

How Progress Occurs – Link here

Here’s a Bunch of Data That Shows How Great The World is Doing – Link here

 

Read, Learn, Improve – 13-Aug-16

Hollywood is known for its VFX and animated movies that are larger the than life, at the same time cost of doing is also very high, as per one estimate on Quora, a 5 second shot would cost around $80,000 (now we know why movies cost so high). As per another website, Steven Spielberg’s Avatar had employed 1,844 people to work on its VFX, while Iron Man had 1,834 and Avenger’s had 1,514. Since most of the businesses are getting disrupted by tech, looks like this VFX industry is also rip for the same - Watch: Technology developed at MIT could make videos truly interactive – Link here – I clearly see two advantage of it. First most of the big studios like Sony & Disney’s of the world have their own studio, so this new tech would probably lower requirement of manpower. Second hopefully our very own Bollywood would start using more of VFX.

Indian Banking - In a Time For Change - Nandan Nilekani (ppt) – Link here

How Think Tanks  Amplify Corporate America’s Influence – Link here

The Insurance Industry Has Been Turned Upside Down by Catastrophe Bonds – Link Here

Economics of sports - its Really Hard to Make Money as an Olympian – Link here

The Decline of War - We are experiencing one of the least discussed, yet most remarkable cultural shifts of all time: war, one of our species’ most abiding and defining social practices, is at its lowest ebb ever – Link here

(Must read) Thirty Years Reflections on the Ten Attributes of Great Investors - Michael J. Mauboussin – Link here

Chinese scientists to pioneer first human CRISPR trial – Link here – and I am not sure whether to be happy or scared, just like knife can be used to chop vegetables or rob someone, CRISPR can be used either way.

Uber – Didi deal needs some more studying and here are few interesting insights - Ola’s non-compete pact with Didi tested in Uber China deal – Link here . However I found this insight to be very interesting - Chinese tech firms forced to choose their market: home or everywhere else – Link here – I wonder why Chinese govt would want their domestic company to choose between home or international market?, I mean, if china think of ruling world, its business that rules and one ought to be more support of home companies that become big globally.

Are Low-Skill Workers America's Next Great Economic Resource? – Link here

How to Read Financial News: Tips from Portfolio Managers – Link here

Walmart and the multichannel trap – Link here

The Eccentric Billionaire Who Ignores Investors to Get Them Rich – Link here

Looks Can Kill: The Deadly Results of Flawed Design – Link here – This is in continuation of design series, how design helps us do work efficiently or save life, but sometime it can backfire and cause harm.

 

Read,Learn,Improve - 6-Aug-16

(The long read) 1MDB: The inside story of the world’s biggest financial scandal – Link here

Why Is the Stock Market So High? Ask the Bond Market – Link here

Nixon's Failed Effort to Withhold His Tax Returns – Link here

Meet the most notorious member of the Haldiram Bhujiawala family – Link here

World is filled with amazing business and business model. China’s Cheating Husbands Fuel an Industry of ‘Mistress Dispellers’ – Link here –  Most likely readers are likely to assume something which is not the case. These days most of the people are educated and have understood stuff like black magic & stuff doesn’t work. Problem needs to be solved by brain and that’s what they are doing.

How Fintech is Digitally Disrupting the Financial World – Link here

The competitor Amazon never saw coming – Link here

Bitcoins Make Bank Robbery Great Again – Link here

(must read) Disrupting Your Own Happiness – Link here

Evidence-based investing requires less religion and more reason - Technical Analysis: The Market’s Oldest Religion – Link here

Less sex please, we're millennials – study – Link here – one wonders what happens to all consumption driven stock, that are partly driven by population growth?

The Time Everyone “Corrected” the World’s Smartest Woman – Link here

Israel Proves the Desalination Era Is Here - One of the driest countries on Earth now makes more freshwater than it needs – Link here

There are tonnes for scam going around, I guess it has been since ages, recently a study discovered that Flossing Might Be a Giant Scam -  Link here

(video) A 7-Circle Roundabout Looks Like It Should Be Pure Hell But Somehow Works Seamlessly – Link here

Mecca of sporting event Olympics are here and India is represented by its largest contingent ever. There are lots of event that India is participating for the first time, however 2 that stood out for me are Gymnastic and Athletics. In gymnastic India is represented by Dipa Karmakar – Read here & her story, she one of the only five women gymnasts in the world to have successfully completed the dangerous Produnova vault (one of the most riskiest, just google to know more about it).  Dhutee Chand would be competing n 100m sprint, whether she will win or not is altogether different debate, however her story of making it to Olympic platform is story of history being made on global level. Imagine you not allowed to compete because god/nature made you certain way. Read here , here and here