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Welcome to the latest edition of our
irregular and irreverent newsletter. In this issue, you'll get advice on
your finances from Barron's #1 financial advisor; links to
my recent podcast conversations with Malcolm Gladwell and Tom Rath; and 10
articles worth your time and attention.
Let's
get started . . .
WHAT
DOES THE GLADWELL SAY?
It
might not have the thermonuclear virality of the What Does the Fox Say?,
but Office Hours -- the talk show podcast that we
call "Car Talk . . . for the human engine" -- has been drawing
tons of new listeners. The fall season has 3 new shows ready for immediate
download and 3 more coming in the next month.
Right
now you can listen to:
Malcolm Gladwell -- On why hardship can be an advantage, why severe
punishments sometimes increase crime, and why you might want to send your
kid to Hartwick instead of Harvard.
Tom Rath -- On why sitting can be as bad as smoking and why not
getting enough sleep can impair your thinking more than heavy
drinking.
And in
the next few weeks, you'll be able hear two special episodes devoted to
education. Get ready for my conversations with:
--
Diane Ravitch, education historian, former US Assistant Secretary of
Education, and author of Reign of Terror
--
Amanda Ripley, author of The Smartest Kids in the World
For
more, visit:
BARRON'S
#1 FINANCIAL ADVISOR EXPLAINS HOW NOT TO GET SWINDLED
Something
interesting happened last week. The Nobel Prize in Economics went to
three guys -- one of whom says that markets are
efficient and rational and the other who says they're subject to hysteria
and bubbles. (The third guy stayed out of the fray and developed new method
to figure out prices).
Which
economist is right?
Probably
both of them. But the bigger question -- at least for those of us trying to
save for retirement, college tuition, and the ups and downs of a roller
coaster economy -- is this:
What
do we do about it?
When
financial matters get complicated, many of us seek advice from trained
professionals. But as Steven D. Lockshin points
out in his excellent new book, Get Wise To Your Advisor,
the financial advice industry is awash in conflicts of interest.
Lockshin knows what he's talking about. For two decades, he ran his own fee-only,
conflict-avoiding advisory firm -- and his combination of scruples and
savvy earned him the #1 ranking on Barron's list of
independent financial advisors.
I
found Lockshin's book so compelling that I asked him to give readers some
guidance on how to plan their financial futures. The conversation turned
out to be long, so we've posted it on the website.
Even better, Lockshin has provided, exclusively for Pink Newsletter
readers, an 8-page PDF the
questions you should ask before signing up anyone to give you financial
advice. You can find that here.
10
ARTICLES WORTH READING
Yes,
this has become so popular that it's now officially a regular feature. From
my Instapaper account to your email inbox, here are 10 articles that kept
me thinking beyond on last paragraph:
The Wall
Street Journal covers an important development: Recruiters no
longer trust college GPA's as a proxy for ability, so they're moving to an
alternative assessment of graduates' skills.
In The
Guardian, Oliver Burkeman describes research showing that we resist
temptation better through autonomy and consistency than through mere
restraint. In other words, avoid saying, "I can't go
to the gym today." Instead say, "I don't skip
going to the gym."
In
more than 140 characters, the New York Times Magazine describes
the treachery, duplicity, and backstabbing that led to Twitter. One
takeaway: Don't believe the "creation myths" of company
founders.
My
favorite from this Inc. article: The company that rejects
everyone who applies for a sales job, then hires those with the moxie to
try to argue against the rejection.
BusinessWeek reveals that the iPhone, a product that's just 6 years
old, is doing better than recent Apple-is-over press accounts would have
you believe. "If this single product were its own company in the
Standard & Poor's 500-stock index, iPhone Inc. would outsell 474 of
those companies."
A
wonderful George Anders story about 72-year-old Dave Duffield, who just
debuted on the Forbes 400 list on the strength of a software idea he didn't
get cranking on until his 60's.
TheAtlantic.com's Derek Thompson explains a central reason: "[M]en
demonstrate more overconfidence in their own abilities and distrust their
colleagues' aptitude, except under key situations."
This
one bummed me out. A Yale Law School study "finds that people
who are otherwise very good at math may totally flunk a problem that they
would otherwise probably be able to solve, simply because giving the right
answer goes against their political beliefs."
It's
not an article exactly. It's an entertaining 32-page PDF teaching kids
about hyperbolic discounting, sunk cost bias, and loss aversion. No,
really. Check it out.
That's
all for now.
Cheers,
Daniel
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