Supported by Greenhaven Road Capital, finding value off the beaten path. This seems a good point to recap some decision-making advice. 1/ Check your ego at the door. Good decision making means always learning.  “Humility,” wrote Tariq Farid, “is never a sign of weakness. Rather, it is a sign of willingness. Unlike seventh-grade history, the world…

Brace yourself. According to various media sources we now have at least 14 bubbles:

“The key to making money is not just proficiency, but also finding games where you can be the best player. In investing, it’s giving a great deal of thought as to why you are on the correct side of the trade. As Napoleon was reported to say, ‘Ability is nothing without opportunity.’”

“….Finally, when things are not going so well in the existing business, the call of a new business model can become more powerful than it should. Many a person has allowed the excitement of a new relationship to destroy their stable, if less exciting, married lives. Similarly, the prospect of launching a sexy technology-based business is tantalizing. The allure of digital can become all-consuming, causing executives to pay too much attention to the new and not enough to the old. Sears’ investments in analytics were not a bad idea, but the company’s facilities and service needed investment more. Although Nike’s executive team was derided for shrinking the digital unit in 2014, the move allowed them to focus their continuing digital investments on higher-value activities. The company’s recent decision to cut staffing and product variety in the existing business, while continuing to improve digital sales channels, appears to be an effort to optimize across both.”

The American Customer Satisfaction Index recently announced the results of its annual survey, and for the 8th year in a row customers ranked Amazon #1.

“Yet there is no place in financial accounting for the concept of network effects, or the increase in the value of a resource with its use. This actually implies negative depreciation expense in accounting parlance. So the fundamental idea behind the success of digital companies (the increasing returns to scale) goes against a basic tenet of financial accounting (assets depreciate with use).”

The Great Northern Expedition was one of the largest exploration endeavors in human history. The grueling state sponsored trip, which lasted ten long years (1733-1743) and covered thousands of miles, cost one-sixth the annual income of Russia.

In my old job I spent a lot of time monitoring our stable of money managers. This meant having a deep understanding of their investment process, tracking performance, combing through their portfolios and understanding their risk exposures.

I spit what I feel
Like a n*&^@#! reading Braille
Am I rappin’ or talkin’ s$&^)!t
I can’t even tell
—Kinfolk Kia Shine, Swag Music

A group including family and friends each got 1 per cent of Bezos’ firm in return for US$50,000 - and an astonishing 14 million per cent return now makes each of those original shares worth US$7bn

Tomasz Tunguz is a venture capitalist at Redpoint and writes about startups, fund raising, SaaS companies, and best practices for founders.

How an aging workforce, technological change, and income inequality fit together.

Americans may be factoring the cost of property taxes into their home buying decisions more, causing shifts in migration around the country.

As affordability continues to be a growing concern, more segments of the population, especially Baby Boomers and Gen Xers, are showing less interest in buying a home, according to Freddie Mac Multifamily’s Profile of Today’s Renter report. About 67% of all renters say renting is more affordable that owning a home, the report showed. And about 73% of Baby Boomer renters said renting is more affordable. And 67% of renters also said they will continue renting for financial reasons, up from 59% two years ago… .

Zillow Group will start buying and selling homes for the first time later this month, expanding its real estate business and creating new competition for real estate agents and companies like Opendoor and OfferPad. Starting in the Phoenix and Las Vegas markets, Zillow announced today that it will…

Supporters of squashing Costa-Hawkins Act say they have enough signatures to make the vote.

David Brickman, head of the GSE’s multifamily mortgage business, offered his 2018 industry outlook at MBA’s CREF/Multifamily Housing Convention & Expo in San Diego.

A California voter measure that expands a property tax break for seniors could help ease the state’s chronic housing shortage.

The Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety examined building policies in 18 states and found that despite the increasing severity of natural disasters, many of those states have relaxed their approach to codes. or have yet to impose any whatsoever.

Even though your first deal won’t be perfect, you don’t want it to be so bad that it will knock you out of the game. Stay afloat by avoiding these mistakes.

Food, water, and shelter are basic human needs, but 1.2 billion people in the world live without adequate housing, according to a report by the World Resources Institute’s Ross Center for Sustainable Cities. At SXSW, an Austin-based startup, ICON, will unveil its approach to combat that deficiency by using low-cost 3D printing as a potential solution.

Americans are increasingly choosing to live among like-minded neighbours. This makes the culture war more bitter and politics harder

Swipe right for inequality.

People who say yes to everything have a lot of speed. They’re always doing stuff but never getting anything done. Why? Because they don’t think in terms of velocity. Understanding the difference between speed and velocity will change how you work.

The Declutter Experiment In late 2017, as part of my research for a book I’m writing on digital minimalism, I invited my mailing list subscribers to

As an investor interested in leadership development and as a father of two   small children, I am fascinated by how the childhood environment and, more specifically, the relationship with one’s close family members, can have a long-lasting impact on character development. Coincidentally, I was reading “Cradles of Eminence” as Ian posted his article “Nurturing the Intelligent Fanatic in our Children“.

Cisco announced a $50 million commitment to Destination: Home, an organization dedicated to providing permanent housing to Silicon Valley’s homeless community.

North Korea doesn’t have much the world wants to buy, but one very successful export has been its art.

A brutal email sent by a staffer at Moelis & Co, an investment bank, shows how tough it can be for young Wall Streeters.

We are a values-driven investor with the goal of fostering long term growth and continual business practice improvement in our portfolio companies.

Mar.05 – Nassim Nicholas Taleb, distinguished professor of risk engineering at New York University, discusses his new book “Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmet…