An impatient world
“It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste much of it… life is long if you know how to use it.” - Seneca
A five-minute course on corporate finance
"I’d compare stock pickers to astrologers, but I don’t want to bad-mouth the astrologers." - Eugene Fama
A short note to close the year
“Nobody checks on a man to see if he’s okay, they check to see if he is still useful.” - anonymous
Not all of us wants to outrun a ghost
When you have been brought up most of your life learning how to game the system, the metric for success becomes defined as beating someone rather than curating the life you actually want.
How the good stuff gets killed
"Don’t use a typewriter. The noise will destroy your sense of rhythm, which still needs years of training." - CS Lewis
Some things that kinda make sense
No one grows up thinking: "I'm passionate about tax law", but the best tax lawyers fly private jets and have a much broader selection of mates than they deserve.
Escape velocity
Every new venture has to overcome an initial resistance to achieve a breakthrough.
The shortfalls of conventional wisdom
Lessons on getting educated, unhealthy comparisons and staying humble.
A good day to take a walk
“If we stop world trade and the Swiss have to make their own pasta and the Italians have to make their own watches, the world will probably, maybe arguably, people in both countries will be a little worse off.” - Howard Marks
“Use the difficulty”
…the importance of being “pigs”, the wisdom of Pooh bear, and other anecdotes from a few interesting people.
Reality and limitations
Do not believe anything, time to slow down, no more executive roles after your fifties.
Random stuff that I have thought about recently
Herd instinct, selling stories, living by IFRS 16 and learning how to think.
The current state of affairs
Competitive rivalry in the VC world, recession and tech jobs, a banker's pipe dream and how to legitimately lose money.
Value sits with the beholder of cash
Deriving an accurate discount rate is a fool's errand. Value sits with the beholder of cash in his pockets, who are you to say otherwise?
Be it ever so humble
When I arrived in Hong Kong in May 2021, I spent over two years of living out of a suitcase in a serviced hotel.
Doing the things you don’t like to do
“The freedom to make my own mistakes was all I ever wanted.”
A unique window of opportunity
If we play our cards well today, Singapore’s equities market might have a fighting chance.
A great way to fly again
SIA ends an interesting chapter of its history with redemption of its last remaining MCBs.
The good money comes later in life
Once you reach the onset of the forties, it will take just 10 years to recover everything that you had earned in the last 16 years.
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