5 Things I Consumed Last Week (you)

a smorgasbord of recommendations by readers

Jul 22, 2022

Dear reader,

I am very happy to announce that now you won’t get any caveats on how I won’t be able to reply in time, how my schedule is packed with studies yada yada cause I am a Chartered Accountant now. All that struggle has finally come to fruition. 🙆

Thankful to everyone who supported me throughout and wished me luck. This issue is dedicated to ‘all of you’ who kept me motivated and gave me a reason to keep reading even when I had all the reasons not to. This one’s to ‘you’.

Note: If my emails end up in the ‘promotions’ tab, please move them to the inbox so you don’t miss out.

The Signal (Daily Business Newsletter)

To avoid noise, follow The Signal.

As much as I love reading the newspaper or good business journalism like The Ken, it’s difficult to keep up with it everyday.

Thanks to short-form content, there are a lot of summaries and morning brew podcasts which gives you a crisp outline of the headlines. Now, I do not promote short form reading but it’s a good start to select among topics that are relevant and deep dive later.

Signal is one of them. They deliver daily news highlights & a detailed weekend story.

I read an issue of their weekend issue ‘The Intersection’ on the subject of specialty coffee including the history behind how peoples’ allegiance towards manual brewing has developed over the years. Very immersive read indeed!

and that's the way the news goes - Google Search | Rick and morty stickers, Rick and morty poster, Rick and morty drawing

Thanks to Malliketh for an engrossing recommendation.

How to Guarantee a Life of Misery by Charlie Munger (Speech)

“If at first you don’t succeed, well, so much for hang gliding.”

James Clear published a collection of best speeches and this one by Charlie Munger, vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, is one of them.

Rather than preaching what to do in order to succeed, he goes the other way around. Full of wit and punches, this speech calls for reading it twice.

The speech is borrowed from an earlier commencement address by Johnny Carson.

What Carson did was to approach the study of how to create X by turning the question backward, that is, by studying how to create non-X.

YARN | Your misery is my pleasure. | Seinfeld (1989) - S04E18 The Old Man | Video clips by quotes | 9c6ca5c1 | 紗

Thanks to Mouli Raj for this riveting recommendation.

Blue Ocean Strategy (Article)

Competing in overcrowded industries is no way to sustain high performance. The real opportunity is to create blue oceans of uncontested market space.

Having worked in Corporate Strategy I have come across this term several times but seldom took the effort to read more about it.

A very immersive read by HBR (much like every other read by them) on how to leverage your business by differentiating. It enunciates how tech is not the only source to ramp up businesses, rather differentiating the cardinal features works better in the long run.

Red Ocean Versus Blue Ocean Strategy. The imperatives for red ocean and blue ocean strategies are starkly different. A table compares the following chief characteristics of red ocean and blue ocean strategy models. 1. While red ocean strategy competes in existing market space, blue ocean strategy creates uncontested market space. 2. The imperative of red ocean strategy is to beat the competition, while blue ocean strategy aims to make the competition irrelevant. 3. Red ocean strategy exploits existing demand; blue ocean strategy creates and captures new demand. 4. Red ocean strategy makes the trade-off between value and cost, while blue ocean strategy breaks it. 5. A company with a red ocean strategy will align the whole system of its activities with a strategic choice of either differentiation or low cost. But with a blue ocean strategy, a company’s whole system of activities is aligned in pursuit of both differentiation and low cost.

Thankful to Nikita for this engrossing read.

The Four Quadrants of Conformism (Essay)

To be a successful scientist, for example, it's not enough just to be right. You have to be right when everyone else is wrong.

I have always admired Paul Graham’s blog for it’s archaic interface and incomparable thought provoking reads. Graham classify personality types into conventional vs independent minded and elaborates on the power of questioning pre-defined beliefs.

An inquisitive read.

Investfest #68: August 2020 – Week 3 - Investorsingh

Thanks to Sapna for this stunning read.

Maestro of more than music (Essay)

Look beneath the surface of Bach’s music and you will find a fascinating hidden world of numerology and cunning craft

Imagine this : You are encountered by an alien who inquires you about what Earth is? How do you reply? (Note : I don’t have the time to deal with this is not an answer)

Apparently NASA has an answer for this.

Guess what The Golden Record includes — Bach’s music!

This essay on Aeon probes further on what makes Bach’s music stand out from every other musician. How he placed cosmic significance in the number 14 and his notation system. Mind = blown!

Thanks to Ananya for this electrifying read.

That’s all for this time folks! Extremely thankful to all those who contributed to this issue :)

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You can write to me on bhumikasankhla12@gmail.com. or connect with me on IG at _i__cook or use the comment section!

With love and gratitude,

The Hummingbird🌺

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