What We’re Reading
Here are a few good articles the Collaborative Fund team came across this week.
Optimism
Bill Gates and Warren Buffett weigh our current situation:
When I asked whether they believed America needed to be made great again, Buffett nearly jumped out of his chair: “We are great! We are great!” And when I asked about the Trump Administration’s problematic relationship with empiricism, Gates said, “I predict a comeback for the truth.” He went on to say, “To the degree that certain solutions are created not based on facts, I believe these won’t be as successful as those that are based on facts. Democracy is a self-correcting thing.”
On immigration, both men were emphatic: In explaining the success of the American experiment, Buffett said, “You had a welcoming attitude toward immigrants who then did wonders for this country.”
Wisdom
A wonderful essay by a 94-year-old:
People should not look at their approaching golden years with dread or apprehension but as perhaps one of the most significant stages in their development as a human being, even during these turbulent times. For me, old age has been a renaissance despite the tragedies of losing my beloved wife and son. It’s why the greatest error anyone can make is to assume that, because an elderly person is in a wheelchair or speaks with quiet deliberation, they have nothing important to contribute to society. It is equally important to not say to yourself if you are in the bloom of youth: “I’d rather be dead than live like that.” As long as there is sentience and an ability to be loved and show love, there is purpose to existence.
Alternative retirement
A growing number of people are living on cruise ships:
Mr. Salcedo estimates he has been on 950 cruises and logged 7,000 “cruise days” at sea. His standard regimen involves five hours of work in the morning, followed by activities such as dancing, seeing shows and scuba diving. While he still maintains a condominium in Miami, he spends very little time there: perhaps a few hours each week when his ship is in port, to check up on his property and enjoy breakfast at McDonald’s.
In total he spends almost all 52 weeks of the year at sea, at a cost of about $70,000 per year.
Civility
This is a brilliant idea of how to clean up article comment sections:
On some stories, potential commenters are now required to answer three basic multiple-choice questions about the article before they’re allowed to post a comment. (For instance, in the digital surveillance story: “What does DGF stand for?”)
Negative knowledge
Ben Carlson says some of the most important decisions are the ones you don’t make:
investments you don’t make.
people you refuse to work with.
pundits you stop paying attention to.
people you stop going to for advice.
clients you don’t want to work with.
types of investment products you won’t put your money in.
filters and policies you put in place to guide your actions.
History
This is a fascinating Edward R. Murrow documentary about investing in the 1950s:
Have a good weekend.