Weekend Reading #77
Photo by Clem Onojeghuo on Unsplash
This is the seventy-sixth weekly edition of our newsletter, Weekend Reading, sent out on Saturday 18th July 2020. To receive a copy each week directly into your inbox, sign up here.
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What we're doing.
For the first time in months, this week we put faces to Zoom screens and Slack handles with a socially-distanced Three Body Capital team get together. And what better way to celebrate clapping eyes on each other once again than with a braai (that’s a barbecue for the non-South Africans) in the garden, washed down with some summer sunshine, a bit of cricket and a few frothy lagers.
As we discussed last week, we’ve been yearning for some team contact as we began to feel the limitations of online collaboration. Zoom, Slack and GDrive are very good but they can only take a growing business so far, so the chance to get together, throw a cricket ball around (hand sanitiser to hand) and share a few proper in-person laughs was most welcome.
It’s a cliché to say that this period of lockdown will remind us all what is most important in our lives. But having got together again with family, friends and colleagues in recent weeks after an extended period of absence, this is one cliche that rings most definitely true. Turns out that absence both makes the heart grow fonder and proves how technology still has a long way to go before it replaces human interaction entirely.
We’re looking forward to getting back in the office together at some point in the not too distant future. Until then, as we all beaver away in our home offices from day-to-day, the chance to share a braai and beer together was a terrific step back towards normality.
Also, our Three Body Fund completed it’s 3rd official month end (on our anointed mid month NAV date) earlier this week with a great month. We have been extremely active this week as we watched a little volatility sneak back into the high flying tech space. Outside of the actual fund action we are busting ourselves with quite a lot of new ideas and spending our time learning and researching.
What we're thinking.
“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.
“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
Gandalf’s attitude is how we should all think about what we’re living through. And whilst it might be hard to do, controlling that which you can control and doing everything to make the best of it continues to be the only option. Onwards!
What we're reading.
We stumbled across this mighty informative tweet-storm that told the history of Bloomberg and the story of its founder, Michael Bloomberg, who started the company back in 1981.
When he founded the company, Bloomberg was already 39 years old. He faced large incumbents who were already equipping financial services institutions with tens of thousands of installed terminals and data was being piped in by an entrenched set of global news agencies. Up against this battalion of rivals and intimidating odds, Bloomberg went on to become the dominant player in financial information.
An array of mighty incumbents? Against a steep set of odds? Founders moving into their late 30s? These traits sure sound familiar to the team here at TBC and it is with Bloomberg’s entrepreneurial zeal and optimism that we continue on our path.
If you’re planning a summer escape, have a read about the company that will sell your luggage if it were to get lost by an airline. This is a fascinating and weirdly unsettling story.
If you’ve ever waited at the luggage carousel to no avail, with the prams and golf clubs swinging by and still no sign of your bags, you’ll know the sweet pain of lost luggage. After an extensive search, the airline’s customer support also comes up empty-handed, so you take your disappointment and compensation (if you’re lucky) and life goes on.
But it’s likely that life goes on for your luggage, too. Written off as “unclaimed,” it sits in some murky depot for 3 months. Eventually, the airline sells it — along with hundreds of other lost suitcases and cargo shipments — to a private company. The new owner cracks/breaks the lock, sifts through your former possessions and starts putting them up for sale. And that’s how your stuff ends up for sale at a store in Scottsboro, Alabama.
One of our great recent finds is Nautilus magazine. We picked up a plethora of fascinating articles including this interview by Kevin Berger which features Maria Konnikova, a New Yorker contributor and author of The Biggest Bluff with a PHD in psychology.
After a series of seemingly incredibly unlucky occurrences in her life, Konnikova found herself pondering the role of luck in life. She meandered her way to poker as an experiment to see if she would be able to discern between skill and luck through her success or failure. Within a year she was beating the pros and the book is her story and path not only to self discovery but also to self doubt. A fascinating article and definitely added onto our book list for further reading.
What we're listening to.
The All-in podcast is worth a listen. The show features “industry veterans, degenerate gamblers and besties” Chamath Palihapitiya, Jason Calacanis, David Sacks and David Friedberg covering all things economic, tech, political, social and of course, poker.
In this episode, the guys discuss a bunch of eclectic but intrinsically linked stuff – including WHO's incompetence, kicking off Cold War II, China's grand plan, 100X'ing America's efficiency. It’s the smartest conversation we’ve heard in a long time (at least on a podcast). Deserving of your time.
A cool new artist we’ve connected with this week is Phoebe Bridgers, an American indie rock musician from California. Bridgers has been making waves across the Atlantic, with her witty lyrics and melancholic melodies winning her a broad legion of fans. She’s the sort of musician who appeals to teenage girls and thirty-something-year-old men alike. You may have heard a little of her music if you watched the BBC’s adaptation of Normal People, a show we talked about in the newsletter recently, as her songs make up a good bulk of the soundtrack.
Bridgers offers up good music for anytime of day, as her upbeat stuff (Motion Sickness, for example) suits the mornings whilst, Punisher, her latest album of more acoustic-sounding works is a nice accompaniment to glass of wine time in the evening.
Only in her mid-20s, it feels as if Bridgers is at the very start of a great musical adventure. This recent profile from the New Yorker also gives an insight into who she is, where she’s from and where she’s headed. It describes her music as “frank and anxious”, which doesn’t sound like listenable music, but it’s haunting, beautiful and most memorable.