Merry Christmas, friend. I love that you are reading my blog on such a day, but please be sure to give your family some attention. Maybe tell them about the best place to get the finest digital content?
Manage expectations when it comes to investing returns (Bason) How long are dams built to last? (Straight Dope) Language influences emotion (Atlantic) How to NSA-proof your email (27 Months) Who is your product for? (Seth Godin) Spouse picking as a life hack (Ryan Holiday) US lobbying and PR firms represent human rights violators (Public Integrity) Happy Holidays, Aaron I was recently reading On Advertising by David Ogilvy, and came across an interesting passage in the second to last chapter of the book. “Highways with billboards have three times as many accident as highways with billboards. President Eisenhower said, ‘I am against those billboards that mar our scenery, but I don’t know what I can do about it’. In California, Governor Pat Brown said, ‘When a man throws a cigarette package from an automobile, he is liable to a fine of $50. When a man throws a billboard across a view, he is richly rewarded’” It’s made all the more interesting by the fact that this was written by an advertising icon more than 30 years ago. While I’m sure Ogilvy would be even more horrified by the dangers of texting and driving, the fact remains that no one enjoys billboards. So why are they still around?
Ogilvy goes on to explain why billboards aren’t going anywhere. “The billboard lobby shrewdly puts many legislators in its debt by giving them free space during election time. The lobby is savage against the legislator who dares oppose it by favoring anti-billboard laws. It subsidizes his opposition, foments political trouble in his home district, donates billboards to his opponents...” The fact that billboards continue to exist is not hard to understand once you realize the Highway Beautification Act is still in place, more than 50 years after being signed by LBJ. The act allows billboards to be erected in any commercial or industrial area adjacent to interstate and federal-aid primary highways, with lax guidelines as to what constitutes commercial/industrial activity. LBJ later realized the bill’s shortcomings, it was meant to remove junkyards from the sight of drivers, but the damage was done. “This damn billboard lobby has run this country," Johnson said in a telephone call in 1968, three years after passage of the Highway Beautification Act. "I never seen such a goddam group of selfish, eager hogs. They won't even let people sit down and try to reason with 'em." Billboards are an eyesore that few people pay attention to and no one wants. Everyone is sick of having advertisements shoved down their throats, prompting the shift away from TV to streaming services like Netflix and HBO Go. Some folks are trying to do something about it, but unfortunately, this issue falls near the bottom of many folks’ priority list. At least now you’re aware. Here’s to another gross lobby manipulating our elected officials and ruining our views.
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Get over book vs street smarts. You need “stream smarts” (Us1) 5 Terrible things that just got pushed through Congress (Huffington Post) Facebook should donate to democracy (Washington Post) The architecture of retail design (HypeBeast) Do I have a financial advisor? (A Wealth of Common Sense) A military strategist explains Donald Trump (Federalist) Be sure to do your holiday shopping through my Amazon Link. The finest digital content, lovingly curated just for you.
Why can’t British podcasts keep up with their American counterparts? (Guardian) In Egypt - Smart people who feel powerless to change politics are turning to entrepreneurship (Casnocha) Reid Hoffman on blitzscaling startups (LinkedIn) We live in the age of bullshit (Quartz) Star Wars marks the fact that Disney is back and better than ever (Economist) Things are still really bad in Fukushima (ZeroHedge) Interactive graph on money wasted in Afghanistan (ProPublica) Be sure to do your holiday shopping through my Amazon Link.
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Using the Army as a model for rebuilding the middle class (NYT) The year in search (Google Trends) Fixing factory farms starts with everyone eating less meat (Huffington Post) 10 dynamite techniques for living with less distraction (Becoming Minimalist) Taking your blogging to the next level (4HWW) Big businesses are hopping on the blockchain train (Fortune) Christmas letter from funds to investors (Evidence Investor) Be sure to do your last minute holiday shopping through my Amazon Link. Finance can be a very dry, uninteresting topic. However, an understanding of the fundamentals and a familiarity with the language is a crucial life skill that everyone needs.
Burton Malkiel’s Random Walk is a magnum opus that you can trust to serve as you 101 course in a single read. To read this, I employed famed angel investor Naval Ravikant’s reading technique of rotating between multiple books so that I don’t get burnt out on a single topic. This allowed me to make sure I could dedicate complete focus to each chapter. While I’d already learned some of these lessons from my time in the financial services industry, there was still much to learn. Getting to understand the “Why” behind financial rules of thumb will serve me well for years to come. Who should read this; Everyone with money to invest or and interest in finance. Major lesson learned; Most people think they are smarter than they are and should focus on simplifying their investment approach. Interesting tidbit; Malkiel has published 12 editions of his bestseller and is the Chief Investment Officer at Wealthfront, a fast-growing automated investment service startup. Buy it here and you’ll support the blog!
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A visual representation of all the world’s money - shocking (ZeroHedge) Mass Shootings explained by a mass shooter (Cracked) Why millennials aren’t buying cars (CoExist) Don’t rush life (Medium) Finding an idea that works through multiple pivots (the Macro) The first 120 days at Uber (Medium) Google’s lobbyist in the European Union (Guardian) Be sure to do your holiday shopping through my Amazon Link. The finest digital content, lovingly curated just for you.
Junk bond failures are a feature, not a bug (Bloomberg) How to pick a cofounder (Medium) Prepare for the podcast explosion in 2016 (Nieman Lab) Meet Marco Rubio, billionaire puppet (Zero Hedge) Three tips from a productivity master (Fast Company) The logistics behind the disappearing banana (Flexport) Be sure to do your holiday shopping through my Amazon Link.
Lots of links from individual's blogs today. Very inspiring.
MUST READ - The Rules (Red Team) Become an Antifragile Entrepreneur (Tom Morkes) How to Get Healthy and Fit (Liam Rosen) Losing your financial religion (Yahoo Finance) What motivates people at work (Ted) 37 dynamite principles for life (Taylor Pearson) A letter to my unborn grandchildren (Jason Zweig) Be sure to share your favorite links and do your holiday through my Amazon Link.
Gift buying can be expensive, stressful, and time-consuming. This guide offers some help to anyone stuck on what to get, or procrastinated too long now you need Amazon Prime to save you.
Millennials notoriously want to see the world and AirBnB offers one of the most affordable ways to do it. A gift card this holiday offers a push out the door.
While you’re at it, capture all your crazy travel experiences with a GoPro Hero 4. Go Pro also released the Hero 4 Session, but as Marques Brownlee explains below, probably best to stick with their primary model.
Reading
As Charlie Munger has said, “In my whole life, I have known no wise people (over a broad subject matter area) who didn't read all the time -- none, zero. You'd be amazed at how much Warren (Buffett) reads--and at how much I read. My children laugh at me. They think I'm a book with a couple of legs sticking out.” Young, or old, wantrepreneurs can take a step in the right direction with classics like The Four-Hour Workweek and Crush It.
But, if you’re are looking for a more recent piece to expand the mind, try Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari for a beautifully crafted narrative of our species. For an inspirational piece of fiction, try The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo.
Body Maintenance
Fitness and health is strongly correlated with entrepreneurial. Even if you are not in the business of personal training or selling supplements, keeping your body firing on all cylinders is a huge part of consistent, high performance. If someone is looking to mix up their workouts, kettlebell workouts are a fun change of pace that can challenge the whole body. One of my favorite kettlebell exercises is the Turkish Get Up.
Keep yourself running all day long with some Bulletproof Coffee. If it is good enough for Dan Andrews, it’s good enough for you.
Gadgets & Style Kind of a weird combo right? Maybe not. Buying decisions around products like the Apple Watch include strong consideration for the aesthetic someone is trying to project. Top gadgets are status symbols and communicate to others that you’ve got money to blow. If you are not trying to break the bank, but still flash some gadgetry, try these gadgets. Divoom Voombox Outdoor Speakers for your next party. DJI Phantom 3 is the favorite drone of Casey Neistat. Amazon Echo is Siri or Google Now in a box. Happy holidays. - Aaron |
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