Weekend Reading #134
Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash
This is the hundred-and-thirty-fourth weekly edition of our newsletter, Weekend Reading, sent out on Saturday 4th September 2021.
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What we're thinking.
Markets have had lift off. Whether in stocks or crypto, it feels like a frenzy. When your normie friend starts talking about bored apes your ears prick up. Everyone has FOMO. However well you are doing there is always someone doing better. We’ve all seen this before and it’s a helluva lot of fun while it lasts. No one is clever enough to know when it ends but it will. In the meantime, give yourself a break and enjoy the action.
A word of caution, however, and that word is “Evergrande”. The news about the financial troubles of China’s 2nd largest real estate developer is everywhere, and everyone seems to be aware of it. Its bonds are trading at close to 30c on the dollar – bad, but no defaults. However, this time there are a few standout observations:
Historically, China has never let any financial distress dance so close to the line to even have a smidgen of default risk;
As of Friday their bonds are no longer deemed as valid collateral for repo transactions in Shanghai and Shenzhen;
The bulk of their nearly US$29bn of outstanding debt and loans are denominated in USD, with a minority in HKD, the holders of which are predominantly foreign bond investors.
Everyone thinks that everyone else thinks it will be fine. And so, the common knowledge game trots on until one day it resolves itself – one way or another.
Almost in another dimension, a new trend has emerged in the land of NFTs. Pictures of what animal this time, you may ask? Well, pictures of nothing. No pictures. It’s now all about text. A new project that appeared on the 27th of August called “LOOT” involves 8,000 sets of adventuring loot that were minted. For anyone who has spent enough time in fantasy adventure games like Skyrim, World of Warcraft, Diablo or Dungeons and Dragons, the idea of a random set of items is something familiar. Put that list on a JPEG and you get something like this:
Yes, that’s it. And the floor price for one of these: around 15 ETH, so just under US$60k.
Interestingly, one of the reasons the project gained so much fascination and interest among the crypto community was that by eschewing any actual graphic representation of these items, loot bag owners would be compelled to imagine what these items really looked like and value them based purely on a description. And indeed, creativity has started to flow, as we see from tweets like this:
p.s. this particular bag #313 is for sale at 16.07 ETH at the time of writing.
What we're reading.
Elizabeth Kolbert is a New Yorker staff writer whose 2014 book, The Sixth Extinction, which argued that the Earth is in the midst of a modern, man-made, sixth extinction, won her a Pulitzer for non-fiction. It was a brilliant read and her follow up, the recent release, Under a White Sky, digs deeper into the largely depressing subject of the state of our environment. This book sets out the immense challenges humanity faces as we scramble to reverse, in a matter of mere decades, the effects we have had on the atmosphere, the oceans, the world's forests and rivers. Kolbert’s books on climate and, as she calls it, the ongoing mass extinction are challenging but vital reads. I found that they focus the mind, setting out in real-world examples what we’ve done and what we continue to do, and what we are not doing enough of to suspend the degradation that we’ve all done so much to cause. Reading them hasn’t yet led me to glue myself to a train, XR-style, but they have nudged me to change my behaviour, even if only a little. EJP
A few months back, I wrote about the first book in an incredible African-themed Fantasy series called Rage of Dragons by Evan Winter. Last week, I finished the second one in the 4-part series called Fires of Vengeance. Hardly possible to believe, but it was even better than the first one. Breath-taking excitement without interruption! Yes, there is magic and dragons and demons, but it is all so original and the African theme is so cleverly weaved into it all. I’ve tried reading fantasy quite a few times and never until this series had I had such fun. Well worth the read! DC
The boom in NFTs as we’ve wrote about before is in in full swing at the moment, leaving us in a situation where people are prepared to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars (even millions) for a JPEG of a cartoonish monkey etc. It’s not that this hasn’t been already happening for quite some time, but it is interesting to see that mainstream media is finally taking notice. Headlines were made this week when pro basketball player, Steph Curry bought one of the Bored Apes for a whopping 55 ETH ($180,000 at time of purchase). Whilst the ‘Bored Ape Yacht Club’ doesn’t do anything particularly unique, the community surrounding it has been extremely welcoming and as such, sales figures have been incredible. Whilst platforms like OpenSea or SuperRare have become the de facto place to auction off these crypto assets, the Bored Apes have also caught the attention of traditional auction houses such as Sotheby’s wanting a piece of the pie. This week they announced they will auction of a collection of 101 of the Bored Apes. For now, owning an ape is a sign of wealth, much like a Ferrari or a Rolex would be. Consequently, a number of memes have surfaced showing ‘drip checks’ in which owners flex their ape on an Apple Watch, quite accurately exclaiming that in doing so makes their watch worth more than a Rolex or Patek Phillipe. HS
What we're watching.
Nowadays, so much television seems the same. It’s basically a window through which we gawp at the super-rich which, whilst entertaining for a time, does wear a little thin. Pretty Little Lies. Succession. The White Lotus... all great shows in their own way but all, when you stop and think about it, simply turn the extraordinary and convoluted lives of the privileged into a spectator sport, giving mortals like me the chance to revel in the misery of people who, you would have thought given their status and wealth, should be beyond mundane worries. Having said that, and despite the number of them I’ve consumed with my wife over the past 18 months of on-and-off lockdowns, these shows are my guilty pleasure! Given the fact that I cannot really stand too much violence or tension on television (too stressful after a stressful day, I find), they have become my go-to genre. So, I was delighted to find that David E Kelley (of Pretty Little Lies fame) had created another show. Nine Perfect Strangers fits the mould of the shows that give me the most respite and pleasure perfectly. The premise is a simple one – 9 strangers come together to visit Nicole Kidman’s weird wellness retreat in the California countryside and, what starts out as a pleasant-looking place for people to unwind and forget their troubles quickly turns into something quite different, darker and more extraordinary. Yes, for the most part, this is more rich people moaning. But, yes, I think it’s mighty entertaining. EJP
The White Lotus is EDGY. It is a glorious blend of tension-building dark comedy and social satire. It was shot during the peak of COVID last year and the show was created to take place in one location, a resort in Hawaii where it all unfolds. Apparently, HBO was given a short window in which to decide to shoot it and they leapt at it. The setting is that of a 5-star luxury resort where the super-wealthy go to relax and escape the stresses of the real world. What makes this show great, apart from the very clever plot and sequencing is the characters. They are just brilliant. There are some shock factor, laugh out-loud, roll on the floor moments but what I will say is it is very much not for kids or those who are easily offended. Oh, and the music is awesome too (per Ed below). DC
What we're listening to.
Having watched the excellent White Lotus, which was set on Hawaii, one thing I took away from the show was the soundtrack, especially the Native Hawaiian folk music. The Rose Ensemble is an early-music group based in Minnesota and they provide versions of traditional Hawaiian songs for the show, including the beautiful Hawai'i Aloha which is taken from their album Nā Mele Hawai'i: A Rediscovery of Hawaiian Vocal Music. As we've talked about often in this newsletter over the past 18 months, in a summer when too few have been unable to get overseas for our usual annual escapes, film, music and television have provided a bit of much-needed escapism, and taking the opportunity to travel to Hawaii whilst sitting on a London bus thanks to the unique sound of The Rose Ensemble isn't a substitute for being on a Maui beach, but it is a very uplifting and pleasant experience, nonetheless. EJP
With the insane coverage of COVID blanketing us in opinions 24/7 it was really interesting to take a step back and listen to this Lex Fridman podcast featuring Vincent Racaniello, a virologist, immunologist, and microbiologist at Columbia. He is co-author of the textbook Principles of Virology and co-host of This Week in Virology podcast. The episode featured a discussion on viruses and let me tell you, we know NOTHING. The sheer number of viruses around is enough to blow one’s mind but Racaniello is an absolute beast of knowledge and delivers his lesson entertainingly through stories. Whatever you thought you knew, you didn’t. It's very long but at 2x speed its far quicker! DC
Like all great inventors, I think it is fair to assess James Dyson as a slightly strange chap. Undoubtedly, however, he is an incredible British business success story and the legend about his perseverance in bringing his inventions to market and becoming the one of the UK's richest people is inspiring and something to be celebrated. He is also a man of Bath, my hometown, and he resides on the city's outskirts and sponsors the rugby team, so I think he is a thoroughly good egg. This podcast Dyson put out with Tim Ferriss is one of the few I have ever heard him appear on and it was fascinating to dig into the mind of the man who, whilst very well-known due to the worldwide nature of his brand, remains somewhat of a personal enigma. The podcast does little to dispel the notion that Dyson is, as I say, a quirky fellow, but it would be disappointing to learn that one of our greatest entrepreneurs and inventors was anything but interesting and thoroughly individual. They say it takes a certain type of madness to build anything significant – and Dyson is proof that original thinking and courage in one's convictions are vital elements if you want to go out and change the world. This podcast should be essential listening for anyone looking to build anything as Dyson is one of our master builders and there is much that can be learned from his success and failures. EJP
One of the great legendary pianists of our time is the great Martha Argerich, and there was no way to refuse Spotify’s pop-up suggestion of a playlist entitled “Argerich: Great Chopin Recordings”. This is truly a fascinating listen, and underscores how much room for interpretation there can be when it comes to classical greats. To be honest, the clean-cut lines of her playing contrast quite starkly with the more fluid style of other Chopin greats like Evgeny Kissin, and certainly delivers strength and precision with every single note. EL