Weekend Reading #121
This is the hundred-and-twenty-first weekly edition of our newsletter, Weekend Reading, sent out on Saturday 5th June 2021.
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What we're doing.
I don’t know why, but this week was exhausting. It could be the continued gyrations in the markets but this isn’t something we are not used to. Most likely it is that our business has evolved so much that there is a LOT happening each week. It was also Eugene’s birthday (on the anniversary of Tiananmen Square) so he celebrated it in true fashion by coming to my house and working all day long. I know we’ve said this a few times before but most weeks there is nothing too exciting to report as we focus on executing the things we need to do to progress and deliver on our plans. This week was no different. DC
What we're thinking.
A couple of weeks ago now, I read about the UK Royal Navy’s Carrier Strike Group that has recently set sail from Portsmouth on its maiden voyage around the world. As such, the route it takes and the countries it visits along the way are of the utmost geopolitical significance and are highly reflective on the allies as well as foes modern Britain looks to face up to. Ultimately it has been done as a symbol that post-Brexit Britain indeed means business, and the fact that the group is travelling to the Asia Pacific frontier is highly suggestive of our Nation’s intentions to build relationships in that particular region over any other. The group predominantly led by Britain, consists of forces from the US, Netherlands and France, and will carry out a number of training exercises and missions with countries along its journey. Perhaps most interesting of all, is what happens when it reaches Asia; the plan is to sail through the South China Sea, to which China has claimed sovereignty over. And in addition to this, it has been noted that the group will not sail directly through the Taiwan Straits instead on its route to Japan. The return route which has not yet been confirmed is also of interest, will the UK force return via the Cape Coast signalling a strong desire to develop ties with West Africa or alternatively return hastily via the Suez Canal through which it came. Time will tell, but with growing hostility between the US and China, to have such resources deployed in the region will be important for maintaining sustained trade links if the time comes. HS
We are thinking this week about hiring and how to go about it. We have so far kept our team to a small and tight-knit group but after a steady first 5 months of the year, progressing on our targets and with capital in our back pocket, we are now considering beefing up the team. It’s easy to get CVs and read about accomplishments and experience but in a business like ours the most important thing is the fit with the business’s culture and ethos. We are a young business, full of ideas and full of fun (most of the time) and we are going to have to kiss a lot of frogs before we take the plunge and pop the question. It’s such a critical decision to get right and anyone who has any words of wisdom for how to make sure we do, please reach out and send us your advice. DC
What we're playing.
I have continued to enjoy playing Call of Duty this week, opting to try out many more of the multiplayer game modes, as well as briefly touching on the Zombies mode. Whilst Zombies has been a game mode that we have loved over the past decade, the latest CoD still pales in comparison to that of World at War or Black Ops 1 and 2. As far as current generation consoles go, the best bang for your buck seems to be Black Ops 3 given that the Chronicles Zombie expansion allows you to access and replay many of the favourites from throughout the years. It also neatly ties up the storyline of Richtofen, Dempsey, Takeo and Nicolai. For those that don’t know what I’m talking about at all, here’s the link to a quick 5 minute storyline summary although the best thing to do would be to play it yourself and try to complete the Easter Eggs that the developers have hidden throughout the maps. YouTubers and streamers creating these type of summaries have spent hours explaining the intricacies of the story and after more than 10 years of playing CoD. It still seems unbelievable to think that the first CoD I played all those years back was Modern Warfare 2 released in 2009. How time flies! HS
What we're reading.
Bill Gates has been in the news quite a bit of late for a variety of reasons. One of the less talked about is the release of his new book, How to Avoid a Climate Disaster. Being a technologist, Gates is not a fantasist. He is a world-wary pragmatist who knows how to build technologies and systems that solve real world problems. And in this book, he takes on one of the most existential problems of our age – climate change – and sets out what he would do to put right what we’ve all been doing so wrong. The set of problems is vast – and Gates details each one and, drawing on his understanding of innovation and what it takes to get new ideas into the market, he describes how technology is creating solutions. Gates’ approach is not all doom and gloom. Far from it. And his style of writing is quick and his proactiveness infectious as he offers up his reasoning for why it’s very far from too late as he sets out what we all can do – from individuals to institutions to nations – to make things better. An optimistic and satisfying read. EJP
Chamath Palihapitiya has been in the headlines a lot recently. This New Yorker piece on “The Pied Piper of SPACS” talks about his modus operandi and includes one extraordinary story of his pitch to a bunch of mutual fund managers on Virgin Galactic. Chamath has an admirable background and a stellar track record. In recent times he has recast himself as an investor influencer – very vocal on social media and all over CNBC. Chamath knows exactly what he is doing in courting a new type of investor who follows him a-la Elon Musk. Sometimes I’m a bit torn as on the one hand the guy is clearly incredibly smart and accomplished and on the other clearly an opportunist. His All-In Podcast with Jason Calacanis, David Sacks and David Friedberg is one of my top listens for the sheer quality of the repartee but when I see the shameless self-promotion it gives me great cause for pause. No wonder he is running for office. DC
It’s always heartening to read of people and businesses brave enough to take on Amazon. And it’s especially fortifying when someone believes it possible to take on Leviathan on their home turf, in a sector where they’ve swept all else before them. As you might have guessed from reading this newsletter, books are hugely important to us at TBC, and so to read this excellent article in the FT Magazine about how James Daunt is doing all he can to keep Amazon from wiping all physical bookstores off the map is an uplifting and fascinating read. If like us, you believe in both the power of a physical book and the magic of the bookstore, then you will cheer on the plight of Daunt Books (the chain Daunt founded), Waterstones (the chain he has successfully turned around) and now, Barnes & Noble (where he has been put in charge of halting their decline in the US). Under Daunt's guidance, these brands are doing what they can to keep Jeff Bezos from ending bookstores as we know them. As Daunt says, “Amazon is the predator that has culled the weak in this business and left only the strongest. If we relax for a second, it will eat us.” Of course, I use Amazon. A lot, especially in the last year, but I do always try to shop for books in store if I can. That's not because I'm on some charitable mission (Waterstones and Barnes & Noble are owned by private equity group, Elliott Advisors, after all), but it's because there are few things I like doing more than spending half an hour in a good bookshop and I think it would be an absolute travesty if the economics of bookstores, stripped so thin by e-commerce, make their presence no longer viable. Daunt is trying to make sure that doesn't happen and with some success, especially in the UK, where Waterstones, notably pre-pandemic, and bookstores, in general, are fighting back. At the heart of Daunt’s strategy is to shake up the way stores present books, aiming to allow people to browse, linger, relax, and garner recommendations from knowledgeable staff (who are now heavily trained and only hired if they are genuine book lovers). This approach unleashes a force that Amazon will never be able to emulate with its algorithm, that being human context, understanding and the power of a personal recommendation. In short, relationship management. Whether Daunt can repeat the trick in the US with Barnes & Noble remains to be seen, but it's heartening to read about him fighting the good fight. EJP
One of my favourite weekly newsletters to read is written by former Fortune journalist (and author of the famed “Termsheet” publication), Polina Marinova, and its called the The Profile. I read it for pure pleasure. Many of my reads are financial markets related one way or the other but this is just a treat each week. Each week Polina features a substantial profile about someone really interesting (usually famous, but sometimes not so much) and packs it with multimedia source material for readers to refer to. This week she features Magnus Carlsen, chess celebrity and supreme genius. There is so much in there to unpack that I couldn’t even consume all the content.
“At just 21 years old, Carlsen competed against 10 players simultaneously while he had his back to the boards. He kept track of the positions of 320 pieces blind. He defeated all 10. "One of the most amazing things in chess is that you don't really need the board, you can just keep it up here," he says pointing to his head. “
Highly recommend subscribing to her substack too. DC
This article written in August last year attempts to answer a question I ask myself practically every single day and about which we wrote last week.
Why do so many smart people spectacularly dismiss Bitcoin and so many other smart people think it’s the most extraordinary investment they’ve ever seen? This blogpost written by someone who goes by the pseudonym, Croesus (what a name), links it to IQ points AND belief and trust in the existing system. It sounds fairly obvious but to unpack it you really must read it. It's not too long but once you’ve read it you will really get it). DC
What we're watching.
Netflix seems to have pulled another masterpiece out of the bag with “Ragnarok”, a modern-day adaptation of the Norse mythology of battles between the gods and giants. While most of us would have been familiar with the portrayal of Ragnarok by Marvel, complete with a Led Zeppelin inspired soundtrack and an absolutely malevolent Cate Blanchett, Netflix’s rendition takes on a more down to earth form, complete with contemporary issues like pollution and a dose of liberalism with identity. Thor is involved, with the look for Loki clearly inspired by Tom Hiddleston’s rendition of the God of Mischief, but there’s a certain charm in watching a retelling of a Norse tale in Norwegian (subtitles, of course), set in the land of ice and snow, from the midnight sun where the hot springs flow. EL
Here in the UK, as we continue to re-emerge from lockdown and life begins to go back to resemble a version of normal, international cricket is back on our televisions and it is a fantastic sight. What’s more, the test currently being played between England and New Zealand is at the Home of Cricket, Lords, here in London and the grand old stadium has never looked so good. One of the many things we’ve missed throughout the last year is live sport in front of live crowds. Sure, we’ve enjoyed and endured various periods of lockdown by watching a lot of sport, as authorities, for the most part, did all they could to make sure that sport continued to be played, without crowds for the most part, and those of us stuck in our living rooms were thankful for its entertainment. But crowds are now back at Lords and about 7,000 lucky punters, a quarter of its capacity, were able to watch the cricket this week. The sight of cricket – white kit on green grass – is unique but so is the sound of a cricket crowd; a gentle, soporific hum punctuated by cheers and shouts when things get interesting. Goodness me, it’s nice to hear cricket fans once again. EJP
Last week my wife and I watched some of the Friends reunion. I wasn’t really expecting much as these types of things tend to irritate me. But once I sat down and started watching I was drawn back into another time. I was completely thrown by the emotional reaction I had to seeing the snippets from the shows all those years ago nevermind the cast themselves, who have aged so much. And then I realised quite quickly that I’m older (and wiser) too! They say life is what happens while you are making plans and I guess I’ve been making plans for quite a while since the show came to an end. But despite the immense nostalgia, I laughed again and again at some of those snippets. Starting to sound like my own parents I will say nevertheless, “they don’t make shows like that anymore”. But that is because I’m no longer in my teens and twenties either. DC
What we're listening to.
An insightful podcast episode we listened to this week was from Talks at Google with anthropologist David Graeber who spoke about the fascinating 5,000 year long history of debt. As Graeber recounts, being rich or poor through history has largely been a struggle between creditors and debtors, involving the rights and wrongs of interest payments, debt peonage, amnesty, repossession, restitution, the sequestering of sheep, the seizing of vineyards and many more lively stories and anecdotes besides. As we all know, the bond markets of modern finance have a deep and rich history and their roots dig deep into the earth of our world. Graeber shows how the history of debt is also a history of morality and culture. This is the story of debt and it, largely, reflects the story of us as a civilisation. EJP
Spotify this week launched its Only You experience in-app, which proposes fully customised playlists that have an uncanny ability to please. It hasn’t been put to the test (yet), but through the many hours of working and writing, some pleasing discoveries have been made. The first is a delightful collection of piano pieces by Tchaikovsky, aptly named “Six Pieces” - this recording of the full collection is an absolute joy to listen to. The second jewel that has somehow eluded addition to my playlists for many years is a song cycle of Lieder by Robert Schumann titled “Myrthen” - think opera but accompanied only by a piano. This recording featuring the duo of pianist Gerold Huber and baritone Christian Gerhaher, joined by soprano Camilla Tilling, is the perfect piece to put on with a pot of hot tea for a quiet afternoon. And if the first Lied, Widmung, sounds like it’s something you might have heard for solo piano before – you probably did. Its most famous rendition is probably the version transcribed into solo piano by Franz Liszt, a fine performance of which is here. EL