"It’s absolutely imperative in our view, and I think we’re almost the only insurance company like this — certainly public — in the world that sends the absolutely unequivocal message to the people that are associated with us, that they will never be laid off because of lack of volume, and therefore, we don’t want them to write one bit of bad business.... I mean, you can’t run an auto company without having layoffs. You know, you can’t run a steel company that’s this way. But this is the right way to run an insurance company. And that’s why these cookie-cutter approaches to employment practices, or bonuses, and all that are nonsense. You have to think through the situation that faces you in a given industry with its given competitive conditions, and its own economic characteristics." --Warren Buffett (2004)
Apple’s Services Event – by Ben Thompson (LINK)
Spotting Investment Opportunities In Out Of Favor Industries - by Jonathan Boyar (LINK)
Invest Like the Best Podcast: Michael Mauboussin – The Four Sources of Alpha (LINK)
Related papers: 1) "Who Is On the Other Side?"; 2) "The Base Rate Book"; 3) "What Does an EV/EBITDA Multiple Mean?"; Syllabus: Security Analysis - Spring 2019
WorkLife with Adam Grant (podcast): The Perils of Following Your Career Passion (LINK)
Joe Rogan’s Galaxy Brain [H/T @karaswisher] (LINK)
My Friend’s Cancer Taught Me About a Hole in Our Health System - by Aaron E. Carroll [H/T @WallStCynic] (LINK)
We should discuss soil as much as we talk about coal - by Bill Gates (LINK)
Book of the day (related to the above, and recommended by Jeremy Grantham over the years): Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations