Stumbling on wisdom #1
Hi there. My first weekly (or less frequent) lists of digital goodies.
Reads
The Butterfly Effect: The Price Impact of Fund Flows in Inelastic Markets by Isabel Chomnalez: “Returns are highly inelastic: a 1% increase in flows into the stock market will result in anywhere from a 5% to 9% increase in valuations!“
Why the Bezzle Matters to the Economy by Michael Pettis. An essay on similarities between Ponzi schemes and asset bubbles
Podcasts and videos
Mushtaq Khan on using institutional economics to predict effective government reforms by The 80’000 Hours Podcast [200 mins]. Must listen to everyone interested in development, reforms, or institutions.
You Can’t Always Want What You Like by The Happiness Lab [45 mins]. A show about inner conflict between short-term and long-term wants.
Books
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini. One of a few books I’ve read twice. Insightful, well written, and simply fun.
Quiz
You have a ribbon, which you want to tie around the center of the Earth (let’s assume Earth to be a perfect sphere). Unfortunately, you’ve tied the ribbon a bit too loose; it’s a meter too long. The question is this: If you could distribute the resulting slack—the extra meter—evenly around the planet so the ribbon hovered just above the surface, how far above the surface would it be? (Source: The Limits of Intuition by Brian Eno from This Explains Everything by John Brockman)