Read, Learn, Improve - 30-Jul-16

The Questions That Matter - And the questions that don’t – Link here

This Bull Market Is Powered by Your Indifference – Link here

This much I know: Daniel Kahneman - The 78-year-old Nobel prize-winning psychologist on his pessimistic mother, the delusion of investment bankers and the need for irony - Link here

Dumb Alpha: Trailing or Forward Earnings? – Link here

Dollar Shave Club: How Michael Dubin Created A Massively Successful Company and Re-Defined CPG – Link here

Is 2016 the Worst Year in History? – Link here

Feudal trap: Why do Indians fear prostitutes and traders? – Link here

Satan’s Credit Card: What The Mark Of The Beast Taught Me About The Future Of Money – Link here

Is Active Management Dead? Not Even Close – Link here

Platform wars: the final score – Apple vs Google – Link here

Best-Paid CEOs Run Some of Worst-Performing Companies – Link here & Link here

Most of hardcore long term investor are familiar with concept of behavioural finance/science, this article “Set It and Forget It: How Default Settings Rule the World” – Link here - is in continuation of authors earlier article “Too Human (Not) to Fail” – Link here

Driverless Cars Threaten to Crash Insurers’ Earnings - Technology may be decades away, but firms are already scrambling to figure out how to deal with expected decline in premiums as autos become safer – Link here

(info graphic) How Jeff Bezos Built his Amazon Empire – Link here

I have been following Game Of Thrones, House of Cards and few other shows, I use to always wonder how they the whole process of making it works and here it is all explained in 3mins – Link here

Read,Learn,Improve – 23-Jul-16

As per investopedia Gillette has 70% global market share of shaving blades, taking advantage of its strong market hold it has been resorting to strong price hike (my mach 3 was priced at 25% higher compared to last year). I use to always think its opportunity for new player entrant, however it would take deep pocket to do so (marketing & branding) and hence we never so any new entrant. However now things seems to be changing – Unilever recently announced acquisition of Dollar shave – Link here and Link here

Remodeling India’s Investment Treaty Regime – Link here

What’s Next for Artificial Intelligence – Link here

The Diderot Effect: Why We Want Things We Don’t Need – Link here

Which Countries Have the Most Immigrants? – Link here

Indian e-commerce in 10 charts – Link here

Think Less, Think Better – Link here

The $1.3-Billion Defence Deal That India and Japan Don’t Want to Admit is struggling – Link here

We’ve Just Witnessed One of the Least Volatile Economic Recoveries on Record – Link here

A race to the bottom: Can roboadvisors build real businesses? – Link here

The Myth of the Millennial Entrepreneur – Link here

A Dozen Things I’ve Learned from Elon Musk About Business and Investing – Link here

My boss shares amazing one line quotes on daily basis and yesterday he sent us this - " There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics” and if you remember the The Big Brexit crisis, it’s probably time to check facts that were shared by both Exit & Remain camp – Link here

Entertainment & Investment  – Rush is hollywood movie based on real life incidents/ rivalry between two Formula 1 race driver Niki lauda and James Hunt, go ahead and watch it - very intense and many learnings. There is one particular scene in the movie where Niki Lauda (World Chanpion) communicates his risk appetite clearly.  It’s raining very heavily and race track is as such dangerous with rain more so. If you don’t have time, watch scene here

Read, Learn, Improve - 16-Jul-16

There is new game in town called “Pokeman Go”, let’s just say it has taken pretty much whole developed nation by storm. To know why, simply understand it merges real world with virtual world. And this could probably be beginning of new revolution how we interact, socialize & entertain ourselves. Read more about it here - Pokémon Go isn’t a fad. It’s a beginning – Link here . People take drugs to escape reality of the world, could this or Virtual Reality Headset be an alternative?

My Crazy thought - Mind works in weird way and I had this absolutely crazy thought on why we gone need Virtual Reality Headset (Oculus rift, HTC Vive etc). For that matter many analyst, fund manager, investor, press everybody was surprised when Facebook announced to acquire Oculus rift. First let me be clear, I haven’t used it. However going by online review Link here , Link here, quality of oculus rift is very good – Link here, there are few problems which I think we may be able to solve it. However I think one of the interesting use I could think of was watching live sports /events – post bomb blast in turkey, attacks at various  part in EU, some people might be sacred to go out in public worrying terrorist might target it. Hence what if we can transmit live sport/event to a VR headset and give people experience of live sport in their living room. Just a thought.

The Harshad Mehta case: Where time has overtaken justice by a mile – Link here

Dan Ariely on the Power of Irrational Thinking – Link here

Nettie Stevens discovered XY sex chromosomes. She didn't get credit because she had two X’s. – Link here

Entertain Yourself (The bleak truth about how we spend our time) – Link here

A shopper’s manifesto: These three simple questions are the key to quitting fast fashion – Link here

Rural migrants aren’t the reason why India’s major cities are overcrowded, the apathetic government is – Link here

Why are we still waiting for the male pill? - Despite decades of promising research, the many men who want their own contraceptive pill still have nothing. One of them, Andy Extance, looks at the obstacles – practical, political, economic – and meets the people hoping to make male birth control a reality. – Link here

The World’s Most Powerful Stock Pickers Don’t Manage a Penny – Link here

The Laws of Capitalism are Being Rewritten – Link here

Meet the robots changing modern farming: Prospero, Aquarius and SW 6010 – Link here

Take a Simple Idea and Take It Seriously - When basic beats flashy – Link here

A Dozen Entries from the Venture Capital Devil’s Dictionary – Link here

Prince Oberyn Martell Vs Gregor Clegane in trial by combat- if you have been following Game of Thrones (GoT) that probably bough flashes of heart wrenching fight scenes. In case you haven’t seen GoT, I suggest you give it a try. Just remember in case if you get addicted there are 6 season ahead to finish, so consider yourself warned before beginning. Trial by combat is method where justice is served through fight, many of us know GoT is purely fictional, however many of plots are inspired by true events. Like Trial by combat read on - A Brief History of Trial by Combat – Link here to know more.

Credit Summit 2016, July 26, Mumbai – Agenda - complimentary invite - Register now Link here

 

Read,Learn,Improve – 2-Jul-16

The strange story of a fertility drug made with the Pope’s blessing and gallons of nun urine – Link here

4 Important Lessons You Can Learn Now That 3D Printing is Dying – Link here

The secret of taste: why we like what we like - How does a song we dislike at first hearing become a favourite? And when we try to look different, how come we end up looking like everyone else? – Link here

Chatbot lawyer overturns 160,000 parking tickets in London and New York – Link here

How Amazon Triggered a Robot Arms Race – Link here

ISRO launched 59 Indian & 74 Foreign Satellites in the last 20 years – Link here

Be More Successful: New Harvard Research Reveals A Fun Way To Do It – Link here

Government employees earn (much) more than private sector ones – but only at the entry-level – Link here

Slavery as free trade - The 18th-century thinkers behind laissez-faire economics saw slavery as a great example of global free trade – Link here

(Infographics) How Machines Destroy and Create Jobs – Link here

3 Ways to Make Money in the Markets – Link here

How do you make the Olympics pay? Fudge the figures – Link here

The Perilous Task of Forecasting - Wharton’s Philip Tetlock on how forecasters can do better – Link here

Can Netflix survive in the new world it created – Link here

Henry Kravis Q&A: ‘Worry About What You Might Lose on the Downside’ – Link here

(Light fun read) Here's What Financial Pundits Mean When They Say...- Link here

Read, Learn, Improve – 25-Jun-16

Let say if Driverless car becomes a reality, which most of the people think it will happen, would it change our living pattern? Will it change composition of our city? Why would anybody buy cars? Just use uber or Ola.  Right now many people don’t buy cars as most of their travel is through public transport and few don’t buy as usage is minimal or it’s purely tiring to drive and get stuck in traffic. However driverless car can change that, driverless car would not make errors that humans are prone to it and hence can drive at way faster speed safely than probably few humans can. Also traffic would be easily avoided as more cars become automated and route management is done by algorithm. Since traveling would not be any longer pain, we would not mind traveling far off as it would be easy and so our city which is probably densely packed would expand…..phew….some impact driverless can have – read more here - Driverless Cars to Fuel Suburban Sprawl – Link here

If you have been regularly follower of Read,Learn,Improve or interacted with me, you would have heard about CRISPR from me. Its revolutionary gene editing tech that seems to solve lot of medical and other problems and looks like FDA just gave it green signal for human trial – Link here  , and FYI its being funded by Sean Parker , the same guy who created napster and was with Facebook too – Link here

(Must read) No One Knows What Will Happen – Link here

Why YouTube stars love to hate multi-channel networks – Link here

With Organic Cotton and Online Ads, Boll & Branch Helps Indian Farmers – Link here

The Economist - TECHNOLOGY QUARTERLY - THE FUTURE OF AGRICULTURE – Link here

Facebook’s ads will now know what stores you go to – Link here

Why Does a Tire Company Publish the Michelin Guide? – Link here

The attacks on Raghuram Rajan: Lessons from Stanley Fischer's term as Israel's central banker – Link here

Index we trust - Vanguard has radically changed money management by being boring and cheap – Link here

The invisible forces behind all of our decision making – Link here

If you have ever heard of Kardashian family (or Kim Kardashian) you ought to know they are worth easily in access of US$100mn and one ought to wonder what talent they do really have that gives them the ability to make money. Or in analyst language what’s their business model and how they are able to sustain it. Have a look at this short (3mins) YouTube video to know about the same – Link here . It serves a good marketing lesson.

Entertainment – have a look at this interesting short film by Shirish Kunder – Link here

Read, Learn, Improve – 18-Jun-16

This is the best piece for all those people who have zero or very small (not seen one full bull & bear cycle) encounter with stock market and are thinking of making a career as Stock Market Trader (Not investor). I have meet tonnes of people from various backgrounds like – fresh or existing MBA students, doctors, teachers, even few fundamental analysts – who want become trader. Most of these guys have either heard some stories about how a guy with Rs100 in his pocket become rich or heard how Mr. George Soros broke Bank of England and in process made few billion dollars - What you’re not hearing about George Soros today – Link here

Everybody is jazzed up about self driving car, however there is an interesting point which many of us seemed to have missed it. In ethic parlance its called Trolley/Train Problem – problem goes something like this - A train is hurtling towards five unsuspecting people. Do you pull a switch to divert the train onto another track, where only one man is sitting? Or do you do nothing? There are few variation of this problem and trust me it becomes very interesting and gives you very interesting insight into how human mind works, what we consider ethical, how we justify or rationalize our decision. Now going back to basic trolley/train problem introduce self driving car to this equation and you have a problem. Read up here to get more idea - Self-Driving Cars Will Teach Themselves to Save Lives—But Also Take Them – Link here

WHY DO WE WORK SO HARD? -  Ryan Avent reckons that our jobs have become prisons from which we don’t want to escape – Link here

Here’s why robots may someday be doing surgery independently – Link here

A group from Silicon Valley has a serious plan for creating a totally new US stock exchange – Link here

The FDA approved a weight-loss device that sucks food out of your stomach – Link here

Starbucks has more customer money on cards than many banks have in deposits - Link here

Nude pics as IOU: a new, risky online loan among Chinese university students – Link here

The Financial Price of Forgetting Bad Times - As we age, we tend to focus on positive memories and that can hurt us financially – Link here

The price of LEDs is falling so fast it’s profitable to farm in a New Jersey nightclub – Link here

Ego is the Enemy: The Legend of Genghis Khan – Link here

Ships Have Gotten Too Big – Link here

The End of the U.S. Manufacturing Renaissance (Such as It Was) – Link here

Tesla Knows When a Crash Is Your Fault, and Other Carmakers Soon Will, Too – Link here

Make The Neanderthals Great Again! – Link here

Explaining Investing In Ways That Make Sense – Link here

Weekend Relax - HBO’s Silicon Valley makes for good fun watch. If you follow tech, Silicon Valley and are little bit familiar with Silicon Valley culture you would be hooked on it in no time. If you are not than you would be more inquisitive to know more.  Here is article that gives you idea of which real life persona has inspired characters – Link here

Read, Learn, Improve - 11-Jun-16

Mary Meeker one of the partners at renowned Silicon Valley venture-capital fund Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byer delivered her annual Internet Trends, Link here for her complete presentation (200+ slides). Below are the key pointers that I could spot

• Global internet user stands @3bn and is growing at 9% YoY, excluding india growth stands at 7% YoY


• India has 2nd largest of internet user with 277mn, after China, US drops to 3rd.


• India's internet user grew by 40% YoY vs 33% YoY


• Global Smartphone user growth stands at 21%YoY vs 31% YoY


• China's Gross Capital formation in last 6 years is higher than in previous 30 years (in numbers 2010-15 - US$21Tr, 1980-2009 - US$20Tr)


• World population growth rate is slowing to 1.2% vs 2% in 1975


• People shared 3bn photos in 2015 vs 2bn in 2014 and ~250mn in 2010


• In Thailand people shop online through instagram ( a primarily photo sharing app)


• Average global smartphone users has 33 apps of which one uses 12 daily, of which 3 actually take up 80% of time (4hrs) (3 apps are FB, WhatsApp & Chrome)


• As speech recognition accuracy goes from 95% to 99% it would be game changer (currently it stands around 90%)


• Google self-driving car project has driven more than 1.5mn miles, while Tesla customers have driven 100mn miles with Autopilot active.


• Slide 134 to 160 gives insight into how tech would change Automobile (Car) industry


• Amazon has 3% market share of total retail sales in USA, while Alibaba has ~6.5% share of total china retail sales


• Netflix has revenue half that of Viacom, however its market cap is double that of Viacom


• Non-tech companies have become aggressive in acquiring tech companies


• Highlights by other website – Link here

Other Articles

We're all cyborgs living in a simulated reality': Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk makes freaky claim – Link here

Dopamine Investors – Link here

Bring On the Blockchain Future – Link here

Inside McKinsey’s private hedge fund – Link here

Software as Weaponry in a Computer-Connected World – Link here

Gaokao season: China embarks on dreaded national exams – Link here – I wonder if some day MT educare or any other such firm would provide similar services, a potential new business line.

We're beginning a massive experiment on the farm economy - The Texas cotton industry will show what happens when crop subsidies go away – Link here

New Tools Turn Manufacturing Workers Into Robo-Employees – Link here

Explaining Investing In Ways That Make Sense – Link here

It was in Jul’15 I had attended an talk by Jack Hidary (who is he) and from his talk it seemed pretty clear people are having too many apps (Tyranny of app) on their phone - The app boom is over – Link here  and sooner or later it would collapse. And Indian company came up with substitute, but as anybody knows tech industry has lowest entry barrier and typically big gets bigger Google came up with its own version killing it - How Google killed AppSurfer – Link here

Too Human (Not) to Fail – Link here

How Disney found its way back to creative success – Link here

James Randi and the Seer-Sucker Illusion - Illusion is not Forecasting – Link here

Welcome to Larry Page’s Secret Flying-Car Factories – Link here