What I Just Read

There's a well-known video clip of a post-game press conference where  Bill Belichick holds forth for ten minutes on the forty-year history of the long snapper in football . In football circles, this video is shocking, because of the stark contrast from the famous grunts, stares and derisive silence with which he typically responds to questions. The way Belichick handled the media as an NFL coach was flawless, a beautiful thing to behold. He made sure to reveal nothing to the competition, and he never allowed himself to be baited into anything, ever. But every once in a while he'd surprise everyone by holding forth on some abstruse sub-domain of football, astounding everyone with the encyclopedic depth of his knowledge. Reading this book is like hearing Belichick answer the long snapper question. It's blunt, it's insightful, it's candid (with one glaring exception), and it's more interesting than you'd expect. [A quick  affiliate link to Amazon  for those re...

Quite a lot of horse sense in this book! Suitable for beginner- to intermediate-level investors, particularly if you want to invest competently with a minimum of fuss, worry and fees. There are two sections: Part I goes over the author's 17 Basic Rules, and Part II goes over each rule in more depth. The rules are useful and complete, and if you apply them, you'll have a robust investment plan. Let me specifically cite the author's Rule #11, which describes his extremely simple, low-fee "bulletproof" portfolio of 25% each in stocks, bonds, cash and gold, with basic annual rebalancing. I'd also recommend pairing this book with two short and excellent books by William Bernstein:  The Investor's Manifesto  and  The Four Pillars of Investing . [A quick  affiliate link to Amazon  for those readers who would like to support my work here: if you purchase your Amazon products via any affiliate link from this site, or from my sister site  Casual Kitchen , I will...

Readable and quite useful. Most of the chapters are bite-sized, quick, and usually contain a good insight or two: the writing equivalent of a three-panel comic strip.  How to Fail  also offers certain extremely helpful heuristics that you can add to your toolbox for navigating reality. Two of the best and most noteworthy: * Set up systems rather than goals [see Chapter 6] * Manage your personal energy levels so that they're higher not lower: work on things and think thoughts that make you feel more energetic rather than less [see Chapters 11 and 12] The reader gets the impression that Scott Adams is deep down a very sensitive person: shy, socially awkward, with insecurities and shortcomings he worked hard to conquer. Social awkwardness is one of those things that almost nobody understands unless you have it, and Adams has found--and generously offers to readers--a few genuinely creative workarounds to deal with it. He's humble and self-effacing enough to admit candidly that he...