Five Links for April 2024
Every month, the five most mind-expanding links to read/watch/listen. If you find these interesting, please do share widely with your friends and allies.
What Makes Us Happy? by Joshua Wolf Shenk
on Harvard’s landmark 70+ year study on happiness and its director, George Vaillant.
You, too, can be the proud parent of Abraham Lincoln’s baby by Auren Hoffman
We already spend way more on our kids than we do on all our luxury purchases combined. In the not-too-distant future, you will be able to have the baby of your very favorite influencer.
Why Is It So Hard to Build an Airport? by Bryan Potter
A truly amazing stat: The US has built more commercial nuclear reactors (two) in the past 25 years than it has major commercial airports (zero).
The Double Life of Former Wirecard Executive Jan Marsalek from Der Spiegel
Anyone that has been at dinner with me has heard me talk incessantly about Wirecard (the biggest tech fraud in history). I’m obsessed with it. The book Money Men is a must read. Jan Marsalek, the former COO, helped orchestrate a multibillion dollar fraud. At the same time, he was leading a double life as a Russian spy. Can’t wait for the movie!
Inventing the Perfect College Applicant by Caitlin Moscatello
Helping rich kids get into elite colleges is a $2.9 billion dollar industry. At the top of that industry are the consultants like Christopher Rim, who charge families over $100,000 a year to turn students into Ivy Bait.
Bonus (Listen): Steve Case: AOL, AI & American Innovation on World of DaaS podcast
Few people understood the power of the internet earlier than Steve Case. When he joined AOL in the 80s, it was illegal for regular citizens to access the internet and less than three percent of the country was online.
listen on Spotify / Apple Podcasts or watch on YouTube
How a ragtag band of internet friends became the best at forecasting world events by Dylan Matthews
There are lots of studies that show that expert predictions are relatively unreliable, but the forecasting group Samotsvety are consistently making predictions two or three times more accurate than their competition.
Paper Trail by Frederik Joelving
Tens of millions of dollars flow into the paper mill industry every year, where scholars pay for publication in fraudulent “scientific” journals. In a new evolution, brokers are paying bribes to editors to place bad papers in reputable journals.
Bonus (Fun): Tokyo is the New Paris by Noah Smith
A strong objective case for a very subjective award: best city on earth.
Bonus (Listen): Renaissance Technologies on the Acquired Podcast
Three hours on the best performing investment firm of all time, and whether or not they “solved the market.”
More reading links at https://twitter.com/AurenReads
Tweet of the Month (Thread)
all the books I read last month:
Troubled by Rob Henderson (must read)
HT: Rob Henderson
Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits by Philip A Fisher
HT: Will Snellings
Means of Control by Byron Tau
HT: Byron Tau
Million Dollar Weekend by Noah Kagan
HT: Noah Kagan
Auren Hoffman is CEO of SafeGraph (geospatial data on physical places) and GP at Flex Capital ($200M VC firm). Engage on twitter: @auren
and please share Five Links with your friends and allies.