Linkfest

FT alphacast - future of wearables http://aca.st/8a1fc9 via @acastIn this #TedTalk, prof. @AdamMGrant shares the surprising habits of original thinkers: http://bit.ly/1qn2OIW #Originals @TedTalksRecord year: APAC private equity deal value rose 44% in 2015 to a record $125 billion http://ow.ly/108vvz
Price vs. service for international airlines. #travel #datavizhttps://www.1843magazine.com/travel/what-the-numbers-say/come-fly-with-me …
How Many Decimals of Pi Do We Really Need? - Edu News | NASA/JPL Edu http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/news/2016/3/16/how-many-decimals-of-pi-do-we-really-need/ …Top V.C. on “Mostly Crap” Start-Ups, Mark Zuckerberg, and Early Facebook’s Grim Lunches | Vanity Fair http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/03/chamath-palihapitiya-interview-says-start-ups-are-mostly-More evidence: Behind every major Wall St clusterf*%k stands McKinsey & Co.
Valeant & The Roll-Up Racket
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/04/04/inside-the-valeant-scandal …Rob Ford: The Honest Liar - BuzzFeed News http://www.buzzfeed.com/ivortossell/rob-ford-the-honest-liar?utm_term=.qo65MYZKW#.fqjzoPrkQ …Fireside Chat with A.R. Rahman - Talks at Google https://youtu.be/2XXM6fc0zzw via @YouTubeGoldman Sachs | Talks at GS - Peter Diamandis: Creating the Future Through Technology http://www.goldmansachs.com/our-thinking/talks-at-gs/peter-diamandis.html …Goldman Sachs | Talks at GS - Shaquille O’Neal: Making an Impact on the Court and in the Community http://www.goldmansachs.com/our-thinking/talks-at-gs/shaquille-oneal.html …How Maritime Insurance Built Ancient Rome http://priceonomics.com/how-maritime-insurance-built-ancient-rome/ …Andrew S. Grove, Intel Chief Who Spurred Semiconductor Revolution, Dies at 79 - The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/22/technology/andrew-grove-intel-obituary.html?_r=0 …Too much of a good thing | The Economist http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21695385-profits-are-too-high-america-needs-giant-dose-competition-too-much-good-thing …Searching For Google CEO Sundar Pichai, The Most Powerful Tech Giant You’ve Never Heard Of via @mat @buzzfeednews

Long weekend link-fest

Clayton Christiansen -  Such a treat talking to @pmarca at @startupgrind: http://bit.ly/223f4Q0
Sell Short the “Ph.D. Standard,” Buy Gold – Non-Dollar Report http://nondollarreport.com/2016/03/sell-short-the-phd-standard-buy-gold/ …
Network Effects http://www.slideshare.net/a16z/network-effects-59206938/21-For_example_if_its_X …
Excessively Candid http://FoodNetwork.com Recipe Reviews - The New Yorker http://www.newyorker.com/humor/daily-shouts/excessively-candid-foodnetwork-com-recipe-reviews?intcid=mod-most-popular …
McKinsey’s fingerprints are all over Valeant - http://FT.com http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/0bb37fd2-ef63-11e5-aff5-19b4e253664a.html?ftcamp=crm%2Femail%2F%2Fnbe%2FArtsLeisure%2Fproduct …
Rooted to the plot: what can Voltaire’s ‘Candide’ teach gardeners? - http://FT.com http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/27cb998e-ed01-11e5-bb79-2303682345c8.html?ftcamp=crm%2Femail%2F%2Fnbe%2FArtsLeisure%2Fproduct …
(8) Advita Bihani's answer to What are things I should do every day to have a good life? - Quora https://www.quora.com/What-are-things-I-should-do-every-day-to-have-a-good-life/answer/Advita-Bihani …
Lord Mervyn King: "The End of Alchemy" | Talks at Google - YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gj7-lO7pT-s&feature=youtu.be …
IAmA partner with a multi strategy hedge fund : SecurityAnalysis https://www.reddit.com/r/SecurityAnalysis/comments/47yrup/iama_partner_with_a_multi_strategy_hedge_fund/ …
Frenzel & Herzing Value Investment Blog» Blog Archive » HQ Life and the Story of the Fake Sheikh http://frenzel-herzing.com/hq-life-and-the-story-of-the-flash-sheikh/ …
An in-depth conversation on 10 years of tweeting with @Jack Dorsey http://bloom.bg/1Uf9S7i
Here's Ex-Lehman CFO Erin Callan's Stunning New Memoir - Fortune http://fortune.com/2016/03/21/erin-callan-lehman-book/ …
A British mathematician just won a $700,000 prize for solving this fascinating math problem http://read.bi/1pzdjZJ
MiB: Bethany McLean - The Big Picture http://ritholtz.com/2016/03/mib-bethany-
PRESENTING: Wall Street's brightest minds reveal the most important charts in the world http://read.bi/1pzcLmG
The Reith Lectures, Niall Ferguson: The Rule of Law and Its Enemies: 2012, The Human Hive http://bbc.in/Lc2WEN
Inside Apple CEO Tim Cook’s Fight With the FBI | TIME http://time.com/4262480/tim-cook-apple-fbi-2/ …
Bridgewater, world’s largest hedge fund, plans for life after founder http://on.wsj.com/1S4gr8T via @WSJ
How GE Exorcised the Ghost of Jack Welch to Become a 124-Year-Old Startup - Bloomberg Business http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-03-17/how-ge-exorcised-the-ghost-of-jack-welch-to-become-a-124-year-old-startup …
We create the names of paint colors for a living -. Ask us anything! : IAmA https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/3tyt69/we_create_the_names_of_paint_colors_for_a_living/ …
A profile of elevators: Up and Then Down - The New Yorker http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/04/21/up-and-then-

Some video/podcast links

Fascinating example of human-computer interaction: The New York Gambit, via @nytimes http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/20/nyregion/vying-to-become-the-next-bobby-fischer-chess-championship.html?smid=nytcore-iphone-share&smprod=nytcore-iphone …
Why workers hate open-plan offices, pricing in political risk and women in the global economy http://podcast.ft.com/?p=3302
AMAZING MiB: Jack Bogle, Vanguard Group founder http://ritholtz.com/2016/03/mib-jack-bogle-vanguard-group-founder/ …
Watching Charlie Rose: Ron Chernow on @CharlieRose: http://hulu.com/w/s0rq
Learning machine learning — Benedict Evans http://ben-evans.com/benedictevans/2016/3/14/to58mvtuxcs47ndvw0gmdqnh7d1tab#.VukZb5-eLbU.twitter …
Watching Charlie Rose: Marissa Mayer on @CharlieRose: http://hulu.com/w/rv2d
Via @NPR: Episode 390: We Set Up An Offshore Company In A Tax Haven http://n.pr/1S4GZqB
Via @NPR: Episode 689: A Hedge Fund, A Country, And A Big Sailboat http://n.pr/1YHK6ay
Via @NPR: Episode 687: Buy This Passport http://n.pr/1QMitqC
Via @NPR: Episode 424: How Much Is A Firefighter Worth? http://n.pr/1R1Zd94
The Ice King http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/frozen-assets/ …
The Yin and Yang of Basketball http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/yin-yang-basketball/ …

Linkfest

John Bogle tells the fascinating story of Vanguard’s origins http://www.valuewalk.com/2016/03/masters-business-jack-bogle-vanguard-group-founder/ …
Watching Charlie Rose: Marissa Mayer on @CharlieRose: http://hulu.com/w/rv2d
The Man Who Sold the Eiffel Tower. Twice. | History | Smithsonian http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/man-who-sold-eiffel-tower-twice-180958370/?no-ist …
What Google Learned From Its Quest to Build the Perfect Team - The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/28/magazine/what-google-learned-from-its-quest-to-build-the-perfect-team.html …
The long march from China to the Ivies | 1843 https://www.1843magazine.com/features/the-long-march-from-china-to-the-ivies …
The Billionaires’ Loophole - The New Yorker http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/03/14/david-rubenstein-and-the-carried-interest-dilemma …
Former CEO Mulcahy on Turning Xerox Around https://youtu.be/Q_hRTyllwC4?list=PL5C14B375A7F2FEA8 … via @YouTube
Gimlet Media | » #57 Milk Wanted https://gimletmedia.com/episode/57-milk-wanted/ …
#8 Frequent Flyer Miles by Surprisingly Awesome via #soundcloud https://soundcloud.com/surprisinglyawesome/frequent-flyer-miles?utm_source=soundcloud&utm_campaign=wtshare&utm_medium=Twitter&utm_content=https%3A//soundcloud.com/surprisinglyawesome/frequent-flyer-miles …
Richard Oldfield, Chairman of Oldfield Partners LLP https://youtu.be/t-OAWlhJUo4 via @YouTube
Mary Pilon: "The Monopolists: Obsession, Fury, and the Scandal Behind ..... https://youtu.be/-CpE8K4ts6s via @YouTube
The director of @tribecafilm on the storytelling power of Snapchat @ZoeLaHenry http://bit.ly/1Ref309
A Eulogy for the Pit Trader — MEL Magazine — Medium https://features.wearemel.com/a-eulogy-for-the-pit-trader-ee2a2dfeb85#.y18lrwt16 …
The Incredible Rise and Final Hours of Fracking King Aubrey McClendon http://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-aubrey-mcclendon/ …
I’m Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Ask Me Anything. : IAmA https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/49jkhn/im_bill_gates_cochair_of_the_bill_melinda_gates/ …

Weekend Linkfest

Travis Kalanick: Uber's plan to get more people into fewer cars | TED Talk | http://TED.com http://www.ted.com/talks/travis_kalanick_uber_s_plan_to_get_more_people_into_fewer_cars …
Warren Buffett CNBC Transcript, Feb 29, 2016 https://www.scribd.com/doc/301250188/Warren-Buffett-CNBC-Transcript-Feb-29-2016 …
Mamma mia! As Starbucks looms, Italians warm to U.S.-style coffee http://on.wsj.com/1Qpe1Bg
How @Snapchat makes money http://bloom.bg/1QtYnCk
Former hedge fund manager Phil Falcone spoke in public for the 1st time in years slamming HF industry http://uk.businessinsider.com/falcone-speaks-at-alpha-hedge-east-2016-2 …
According to Malcolm Gladwell, mastering a skill takes 10,000 hours of practice. Does it? http://go.nautil.us/practice
Sir Ronald Cohen: Impact Investing Is the Future https://youtu.be/VgWJZiRL7BQ via @YouTube
View media
The Daily Telegraph through the eyes of its readers http://s.telegraph.co.uk/graphics/projects/Telegraph-letters-Editor-anniversary/index.htm

Rural electric co-ops, traditionally bastions of coal, are getting into solar - Vox http://www.vox.com/2016/2/26/11116230/rural-electric-co-ops-solar …
Watching Charlie Rose: Bill Gates on @CharlieRose: http://t.co/tOejTz2zRE
Moody's CFO Linda Huber Has Instituted Changes https://youtu.be/yGhlIVjzW3w via @YouTube
A Conversation with Nate Silver — Conversations with Tyler — Medium https://medium.com/conversations-with-tyler/nate-silver-conversations-with-tyler-1bdafe685d77#.c4oqzpyx8 …
Odd Lots: The Big Long - Bloomberg Business http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-02-22/odd-lots-the-big-long …
Paul Graham on Doing Things Right by Accident · The Macro http://www.themacro.com/articles/2016/02/paul-graham-startup-school-radio-interview/ …
Fintech's search for a 'super-algo', and Mohamed El-Erian on avoiding the next collapse | FT Alphachat on acast https://www.acast.com/ft-alphachat/fintechssearchforasuper-algo-andmohamedel-erianonavoidingthenextcollapse …
Alphachat: Boardroom battles at Xiaomi http://aca.st/eef86e via @acast
Berkshire Hathaway: The Next Ten Years http://www.rationalwalk.com/?p=14163 via @rationalwalk
What @Google learned while trying to create the perfect team. https://rework.withgoogle.com/blog/five-keys-to-a-successful-google-team/ …
Best Practices for Building a Meaningful Network https://youtu.be/56C8l4klXUg via @YouTube
Interview With Jeff Gramm Author Of Dear Chairman http://www.valuewalk.com/2015/12/dear-chairman-book/ … via @ValueWalk
Lost in the Meritocracy http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2005/01/lost-in-the-meritocracy/303672/ …

Notes from The monopolists (1)

I've been reading the history of monopoly recently, here's some notes: 

The book talks about Ralph Anspach, professor of economics at San Francisco state university...

"Pulling open his front door, Ralph called out a hello to his wife, Ruth, and his two sons—Mark, age twelve, and William, age seven. He was looking forward to eating a simple dinner with his family and perhaps playing a board game with them afterward."

"As smart and feisty as their parents, the boys were more politically aware than most children their age and were precocious Monopoly players. They loved everything about the game—its iconic Atlantic City properties, its tiny homes, its play money, its idiosyncratic tokens. The object of the game was to bankrupt all opponents and be the last person standing by acquiring real estate and charging rent. As players made their way around the board, they acquired or negotiated trades for properties. Then, they tried to get all of a like color grouping and build houses and hotels on their monopolies to jack up the rent, thus clearing out the coffers of their rivals."

"Getting warmed up, Ralph then railed against the economic culture that had fostered the current oil crisis—it was a far cry from the anti-monopoly climate that had existed in the United States in the late 1800s and early 1900s, he said. Back then, “trust-busting,” or the breaking up of large monopolies and trusts, had been part of the national political discourse, and strong anti-monopoly laws had been put into effect. The laws had come in the wake of John D. Rockefeller’s and Andrew Carnegie’s strongholds on the oil and steel industries, respectively, which had raised prices sky-high and, critics said, destroyed many small businessmen and seriously undermined America’s standard of living."

"Suddenly, William interrupted his father. He had just won a game of Monopoly the night before, he reminded him. It had been a lot of fun. So how could monopolies be so bad? Had he done something wrong by winning the game?"

"Ralph’s punch line: Competitive capitalism is the best economic system in the world, but it is constantly being undermined by greedy monopolists. Since Adam Smith had also argued against monopolists, his theories couldn’t have been more relevant to what was happening in the 1970s, at least as far as Ralph was concerned."

"A better capitalist board game, Ralph said, would be one in which players competed against each other to produce better-quality, lower-priced goods while government regulated or abolished monopolies. In short, the game would teach the opposite of what the Parker Brothers game taught.

Then it hit him. He could create an anti-monopoly game of his own."

"When a player landed on a space on the Anti-Monopoly board, she or he could serve the monopoly with an indictment. The more indictments served, the more points earned. Players purchased indictment chips and brought cases against companies with spoofed corporate names: Egson Oil, Fort Auto, and Nazareth Steel. "

"Anti-Monopoly hit the market around the time that news about Watergate broke. In the ensuing weeks, details about the scandal, followed by denials from the Richard Nixon White House, unfolded day by day. Meanwhile, OPEC announced a plan to cut oil production by 25 percent. Ralph thought all the bad news boded well for sales of his antiestablishment pastime."

"A negative story about the game appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle. “I can’t help thinking this game would be much improved if it didn’t constantly remind the player of its classic predecessor,” the Chronicle reporter wrote. “It’s a little like living in your first husband’s house with a second husband.” 

"On his lawyer’s advice, Ralph wrote to game distributors to emphasize that Anti-Monopoly was produced by Anti-Monopoly Inc., which was not associated with Parker Brothers."

"Howes wrote on behalf of General Mills, the cereal king and Betty Crocker steward that had purchased Parker Brothers in 1968. Parker Brothers president Robert Barton, in consultation with his son, Randolph, had agreed to sell in order to diversify the family’s financial portfolio, and General Mills aspired to be a massive consumer conglomerate, part of an industry-wide trend toward mergers. "

Revisiting my media consumption habits

Top Podcasts:
Serial (Season 2 isn't the best, but still an incredible master class in investigative journalism)
Tim Ferris show(great interviews in general)
Planet Money(short and crips - always)

Some that listen to here and there:
Reply All
Startup
Radiolab
99% invisible
Energy Gang
Criminal
Ted Radio Hour

Stuff that I've completely cut out:
Live markets news/WSJ/Bloomberg Live

Stuff partially cut out:

Economist(I read it cover to cover for years, but still a little negative; still read the technology/science/International segments)
FT Alphaville(too addictive to stop reading)

Value investing:
valueinvestingworld.com
Slack access to Manual of ideas
valuewalk.com
hurricanecapital
punchcardblog

Linkfest

The Industrialist's Dilemma Session 4: Anne Wojcicki, 23andMe - YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edmUKj7WrFU …
The Swedish ship Vasa's revival https://www.abc.se/~pa/publ/vasa.htm …
What the Economic Crash of 2008 Taught Me http://nautil.us/issue/31/stress/what-i-learned-from-losing-200-million …
Great read from November '99: Buffett speaking at Allen & Co conference http://archive.fortune.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1999/11/22/269071/index.htm … ht @Craig_McDermott
Sometimes the swan really is white. http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/02/02/why-were-terrified-of-typical.aspx …
Why We're Terrified of Typical -- The Motley Fool http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/02/02/why-were-terrified-of-typical.aspx#.VrXnKCaWybA.twitter …
Even God Would Get Fired as an Active Investor - Alpha Architect http://blog.alphaarchitect.com/2016/02/02/even-god-would-get-fired-as-an-active-investor/#.VrXmRSyix5I.twitter …
The 100 Jokes That Shaped Modern Comedy -- Vulture http://www.vulture.com/2016/01/100-jokes-shaped-modern-comedy-c-v-r.html …
Uber's #rebranding: coming of age http://bit.ly/1X0UEAE via @WIRED or arrogance &inconsistency http://on.ft.com/1NRL1x8 via @ftcompanies?
Why I'm Always Late - Wait But Why http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/07/why-im-always-late.html …
An Ephemeral Form of Value: Thoughts on the 2015 Pershing Square Investor Letter | Punch Card Investing https://punchcardblog.wordpress.com/2016/01/29/an-ephemeral-form-of-value-thoughts-on-the-2015-pershing-square-investor-letter/ …
Invest like a legend: Steve Eisman - The Globe and Mail http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/rob-magazine/invest-like-a-legend-the-skeptic-steve-eisman/article28378668/ …
Finding What We’re Not Looking For | Above the Market https://rpseawright.wordpress.com/2016/01/20/finding-what-were-not-looking-for/ …
The Crusade Against Multiple Regression Analysis | http://Edge.org https://edge.org/conversation/richard_nisbett-the-crusade-against-multiple-regression-analysis
The Rise of the Artificially Intelligent Hedge Fund | WIRED http://www.wired.com/2016/01/the-rise-of-the-artificially-intelligent-hedge-fund/all/1 …
Oddball Stocks: Reading, resolutions and "research" http://www.oddballstocks.com/2016/01/reading-resolutions-and-research.html …
Japan’s innovative solution to its energy and space crisis: The world’s largest floating solar power plant - Quartz http://qz.com/603830/japans-innovative-solution-to-its-energy-and-space-crisis-the-worlds-largest-floating-solar-power-plant/ …
An End to Parking? | Mother Jones http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2016/01/future-parking-self-driving-cars …
Email Wisdom Checklist from Google | Hurricane Capital https://hurricanecapital.wordpress.com/2016/01/23/email-wisdom-checklist-from-google/ …
Review of Susan P. Mattern, "The Prince of Medicine: Galen in the Roman Empire" https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2013/07/31/review-susan-p-mattern-prince-medicine-galen-roman-empire …
Cars and the Future - Stratechery by Ben Thompson https://stratechery.com/2016/cars-and-the-future/ …
Historic Photos by Harry Benson (30 photos) http://bit.ly/1OLF1Ly

Best of 2015

Aneurysm ‹ Literary Hub https://t.co/XInlz50sKo
How Failed JC Penney CEO Ron Johnson Is Redeeming Himself With Enjoy https://t.co/96Ced5f4T2
Incredible: Switched @ Birth - Transcript | This American Life https://t.co/SdWgFdCBDM
Three Thrown Over the Cuckoo's Nest • Damn Interesting https://t.co/l3ZzTRSsYm
Epic Icahn Interview https://t.co/FeukyPGcV3
A Chunky History of Peanut Butter - The New Yorker https://t.co/fMfQHaESmH
DealBook Conference 2015 - Activist Investing https://t.co/Qw8H4uRGGy via @YouTube
Kenneth Griffin Looks Back on Citadel’s 25 Years - The New York Times https://t.co/tNx8fm9FWL
adele interview: world exclusive first interview in three years | read | i-D https://t.co/gNuoGV5ke5
Lunch With T. Boone Pickens https://t.co/MBHhUBwtSJ
Back to business: Michael Bloomberg - http://t.co/9wP2fKLyE3 http://t.co/Edy0FjSJgt
Reid Hoffman’s Big Dreams for LinkedIn - The New Yorker http://t.co/1I6mI6QbX3
'How the Bloomberg Terminal Made History--And Stays Ever Relevant' http://t.co/WIoDDVuijJ via @readability
Lunch with the FT: Novak Djokovic - http://t.co/9wP2fL39vB http://t.co/Dcm6AMpGxe
Should You Ever Use a Pie Chart? http://t.co/EWiCIXtI83
Sir Alex Ferguson Full Length Interview (w/Subtitles) - Fergie Time, Van Gaal & Developing Players - YouTube https://t.co/oT4nm28Op2
A Brief History of the Salem Witch Trials | History | Smithsonian https://t.co/hahp8aysny
The Man Who Built Silicon Valley: A Tribute to Andy Grove | Andreessen Horowitz http://t.co/ZPt617ahjR
The Great Dictator (1940) - Charlie Chaplin - Final Speech - Music - Hans Zimmer - Time - Subtitles - YouTube https://t.co/xHT8FwwPsK
Lessons Learned from A History of Oil | Base Hit Investing http://t.co/iiDjvLHaD5
'The siege of Herbalife' http://t.co/1pMfR4aRiq via @readability
Rose George: Let's talk crap. Seriously. | TED Talk | http://t.co/RAwLlGZOAP http://t.co/ksafbcXQnz
Inside the Brain of an Investing Genius — http://t.co/GU3e5x5s5f https://t.co/L0A0NOGMCp
In Praise of Slowness: Challenging the Cult of Speed https://t.co/QeocJNfagC
Too Much Reading, Not Enough Thinking? - http://t.co/q65H7n5rKs http://t.co/BglOCNa7Ay
Polygraph Expert Shows How to Beat a Lie Detector Test - Bloomberg Business http://t.co/gcDiC4FSBk
Larry Page: The Untold Story - Business Insider http://t.co/QJ838ppgIk
Noma: Fantasies of a Happier Kitchen http://t.co/mCirbwXw8f
Up in the Air: Meet the Man Who Flies Around the World for Free — http://t.co/TtM1sHLv7U https://t.co/0SEk3ZvaV9
Everything I Know About Journalism in 395 Words - http://t.co/mxw60W1cPO http://t.co/u5Ugblw2kx
The Singular Mind of Terry Tao - The New York Times http://t.co/pgGfIJRkAs
Re-Re-Re-Reintroducing Hillary Clinton - The New York Times http://t.co/lDuYd9Vqyd
“How to Write a Memoir” (@theamscho) http://t.co/jBCOjxQlmE
The Innocent Man, Part Two | Texas Monthly http://t.co/so6Rn92Da6
The Innocent Man, Part One | Texas Monthly http://t.co/TyI4j8nGMR
Inside the sony hack - Fortune http://t.co/aTU5W3kM6m
Welcome to Dog World! https://t.co/IP27mlka0R
Dear commencement speakers of 2015: You look fabulous! - The Washington Post http://t.co/mS0RUChnwN
A history of the world in funny puns - Telegraph http://t.co/oQG208JUrW
Business Insider CEO Henry Blodget: Masters in Business (Audio) by Bloomberg View via #soundcloud https://t.co/4aYZE3cihJ
â–¶ John Heins & Whitney Tilson: 'The Art of Value Investing' - YouTube https://t.co/cQI69rLWo2
â–¶ U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara on Leading Ethical Organizations - YouTube https://t.co/6gDLle1Op9
Atul Gawande on the Secrets of a Puzzle-Filled Career: 'Shocking' Healthcare Costs http://t.co/hGktb8iUqG
Learning from Michael Burry | Street Capitalist: Event Driven Value Investments http://t.co/U4pfY0IVpZ
How to Disagree - paul graham http://t.co/CHylzOkDbc
How to Use a Squat Toilet - Features - World Hum http://t.co/KQVKc0vY3x
An Interview With Michael Lewis http://t.co/kjBtsozyx7
On coffee - Java Man - gladwell - newyorker http://t.co/2msYHpRMTj
The Order of Things - The New Yorker http://t.co/1iLLCsV6Gf
Twelve Rude Revelations About Sex http://t.co/gplzn50A16 via @Instapaper
The Answer Is Never : Longreads Blog http://t.co/7lMpUeHemd
â–¶ Paul Tudor Jones - TED Talk PTJ - YouTube https://t.co/BXTNdINAzv
Michael lewis - Charlie Rose | http://t.co/Mc3K2o2WdM http://t.co/3W6a7KBdNL
How to Be a Better Spouse - Scientific American http://t.co/jYXUmtUHNf
Daniel Kahneman: The Riddle Of Experience Vs. Memory http://t.co/cTapvIAP98
The Twisted History of Your Favorite Board Game : Longreads Blog http://t.co/pPommrJ24l
Must-see video: Sex, luxury and the $10,000 Apple Watch - Fortune http://t.co/DTYoiF1FzP
Annotating the Oracle: Experts Weigh In on Berkshire’s Annual Letter - MoneyBeat - WSJ http://t.co/fDrIf6gOzk
After nearly 7 years as CFO, I will be retiring from Google to spend more time… https://t.co/XxS8EcRnwZ
Jonathan Ive and the Future of Apple - The New Yorker http://t.co/ZyESV0dlvF
Hi Reddit, I’m Bill Gates and I’m back for my third AMA. Ask me anything. : IAmA http://t.co/5vzm5nK8W7
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Notes from 'Men of Mathematics' (1)

A few notes from - Men of Mathematics (Touchstone Book) (E. T. Bell): 

It must not be imagined that the sole function of mathematics—“the handmaiden of the sciences”—is to serve science. Mathematics has also been called “the Queen of the Sciences.”

Mathematics has a light and wisdom of its own, above any possible application to science, and it will richly reward any intelligent human being to catch a glimpse of what mathematics means to itself.

Lagrange (whom we shall meet later) believed that a mathematician has not thoroughly understood his own work till he has made it so clear that he can go out and explain it effectively to the first man he meets on the street.

But it may be recalled that only a few years before Lagrange said this the Newtonian “law” of gravitation was an incomprehensible mystery to even highly educated persons.

Students of mathematics are familiar with the phenomenon of “slow development,” or subconscious assimilation: the first time something new is studied the details seem too numerous and hopelessly confused, and no coherent impression of the whole is left on the mind.

Skipping is not a vice, as some of us were told by our puritan teachers, but a virtue of common sense.

In saying that Descartes was responsible for the creation of analytic geometry we do not mean to imply that the new method sprang fullarmed from his mind alone.

Relativity, for example, is sometimes said to have been the great invention reserved by time for the genius of Minkowski.

Archimedes had the fundamental notion of limiting sums from which the integral calculus springs, and he not only had the notion but showed that he could apply it. Archimedes also used the method of the differential calculus in one of his problems. As we approach Newton and Leibniz in the seventeenth century the history of the calculus becomes extremely involved. The new method was more than merely “in the air” before Newton and Leibniz brought it down to earth; Fermat actually had documented significant parts of it ...

Only by seeing in detail what manner of men some of the great mathematicians were and what kind of lives they lived, can we recognize the ludicrous untruth of the traditional portrait of a mathematician.

Returning for a moment to the movie ideal of a mathematician, we note that sloppy clothes have not been the invariable attire of great mathematicians.

Men who should have been above such brawls seem to have gone out of their way to court battles over priority in discovery and to accuse their competitors of plagiarism. 

Both inventors and perfectors are necessary to the progress of any science. Every explorer must have, in addition to his scouts, his followers to inform the world as to what he has discovered.

Things that now seem as simple as common sense—our way of writing numbers, for instance, with its “place system” of value and the introduction of a symbol for zero, which put the essential finishing touch to the place system—cost incredible labor to invent. Even simpler things, containing the very essence of mathematical thought —abstractness and generality

The mystical “not-being” of the seventeenth century Leibniz is seen to have a “being” as simple as ABC.

On the life of Gauss: 

Nevertheless Gauss crowned the higher arithmetic, in his day the least practical of mathematical studies, the Queen of all.

As a child he was respectful and obedient, and although he never criticized his poor father in later life, he made it plain that he had never felt any real affection for him. Gerhard died in 1806. By that time the son he had done his best to discourage had accomplished immortal work.

Dorothea Gauss took her boy’s part and defeated her obstinate husband in his campaign to keep his son as ignorant as himself.

Gauss himself cared little if anything for fame; his triumphs were his mother’s life.

Before this the boy had teased the pronunciations of the letters of the alphabet out of his parents and their friends and had taught himself to read.

Shortly after his seventh birthday Gauss entered his first school, a squalid relic of the Middle Ages run by a virile brute, one Büttner, whose idea of teaching the hundred or so boys in his charge was to thrash them into such a state of terrified stupidity that they forgot their own names.

Büttner was so astonished at what the boy of ten had done without instruction that he promptly redeemed himself and to at least one of his pupils became a humane teacher. Out of his own pocket he paid for the best textbook on arithmetic obtainable and presented it to Gauss. The boy flashed through the book. “He is beyond me,” Büttner said; “I can teach him nothing more.”

Before entering the Caroline College at the age of fifteen, Gauss had made great headway in the classical languages by private study and help from older friends, thus precipitating a crisis in his career. To his crassly practical father the study of ancient languages was the height of folly.

When Gauss left the Caroline College in October, 1795 at the age of eighteen to enter the University of Göttingen he was still undecided whether to follow mathematics or philology as his life work. He had already invented (when he was eighteen) the method of “least squares,”

Gauss shares this honor with Legendre who published the method independently in 1806. This work was the beginning of Gauss’ interest in the theory of errors of observation.

A cathedral is not a cathedral, he said, till the last scaffolding is down and out of sight. Working with this ideal before him, Gauss preferred to polish one masterpiece several times rather than to publish the broad outlines of many as he might easily have done.

His own contemporaries begged him to relax his frigid perfection so that mathematics might actually digest some of it...

Consequently some of his works had to wait for highly gifted interpreters before mathematicians in general could understand them, see their significance for unsolved problems, and go ahead. His own contemporaries begged him to relax his frigid perfection so that mathematics might advance more rapidly, but Gauss never relaxed.

the Duke came to his rescue, paid for the printing of his doctoral dissertation (University of Helmstedt, 1799), and granted him a modest pension which would enable him to continue his scientific work unhampered by poverty. “Your kindness,” Gauss says in his dedication, “freed me from all other responsibilities and enabled me to assume this exclusively.”

The word “imaginary” is the great algebraical calamity, but it is too well established for mathematicians to eradicate. It should never have been used.

But arithmetic was his first love, and he regretted in later life that he had never found the time to write the second volume he had planned as a young man.