Betting On The Blind Side
Michael Lewis has a new book coming out on March 15, 2010, entitled, The Big Short: Inside The Doomsday Machine.
Synopsis:
“A brilliant account—character-rich and darkly humorous—of how the U.S. economy was driven over the cliff.”
You can read an excerpt from it here (it’s lengthy, but worthwhile).
Coffee Shop
Tonight, I went to a coffee shop to get away from my apartment. I wanted to work on some things, but I really just wanted to try out a different environment.
I haven’t been to one in awhile, but I was pleasantly surprised.
This particular one was rather active. There were many people.
Ryan Leslie
Ryan Leslie is here. But you may not know who he is.
Back in 1992, at the age of 14, Ryan was attending public school in Stockton, California. But because his parents worked as Salvation Army officers they were required to move frequently. And they were expecting to move again soon. But Ryan didn’t want to this time so he decided he was going to enter college after his sophomore year.
Berkshire’s 2009 Annual Report
Berkshire Hathaway released its 2009 annual report today.
I found the chairman’s (Warren Buffett) letter to be of particular interest this year as he mentions the company has “added at least 65,000 shareholders to the 500,000 or so already…” as a result of the recent acquisition of Burlington Northern Santa Fe.
In educating the newcomers about how Berkshire conducts business, Warren writes:
“In this letter we will also review some of the basics of our business, hoping to provide both a freshman orientation session for our BNSF newcomers and a refresher course for Berkshire veterans.”
For those interested in learning more about Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway, and/or sound business and investing principles, I recommend reading this year’s report.
It can be found here.
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Warren candidly discussing the BNSF acquisition back on November 3, 2009:
Possibilities
I find the “sticker price” of a lot of things pretty shocking. Maybe it’s just because my main employment post undergrad (the couch surfing, world-changers of 2008!) has been working at or near minimum wage in restaurants, but the amount of money that is being thrown around in the US these days seems a bit absurd.
Three Reads
Here are three reads you may find interesting:
1. Awesome By Proxy (pixelpoppers.com)
2. Achievement Porn (petermichaud.com)
3. Laptop Battery Myths (marco.org)
Top Angel Investors (Acc. To BusinessWeek)
Businessweek.com published its ranking yesterday of the top angel investors in tech.