Happy Friday

Best wishes for your weekend!

David

Featured Articles: 

• NYMag – Inventing the Perfect College Applicant  For $120,000 a year, Christopher Rim promises to turn any student into Ivy bait.
• TheFreePress – Opioids Decimated a Kentucky Town. Recovering Addicts Are Saving It.  After the collapse of coal mining and the rise of the opioid epidemic, Hazard, Kentucky, seemed finished. Then locals started to rescue it.
• The Atlantic – Lab Diamonds Are Too Perfect for Their Own Good.  The traditional diamond industry is thought to be under threat from lab-grown stones. But that’s not how luxury works.
• WSJ – The World’s Smartest Young Minds Just Cracked a 2,000-Year-Old Mystery.
• TheFreePress – Economist Roland Fryer on Adversity, Race, and Refusing to Conform  This is an excellent podcast interview

Business / Markets:

• Musings on Markets – The Seven Samurai: How Big Tech Rescued the Market in 2023!
• Stratechery – The Apple Vision Pro
• AQR – Why Not 100% Equities  (Or “I Can’t Believe We Are Doing This One Again”)
• RogerMartin – Is or Is Not The Opposite Stupid on its Face?
• WSJ – A Texas Oil Driller Banks a $26 Billion Deal, With Regrets  The windfall from Endeavor’s sale is poised to make Stephens and his family among the 100 richest people in the world. When asked how he planned to use the proceeds, the billionaire was surprised by the question. “I just haven’t thought about it,” he said.

Others…

• WSJ – Men Used to Have Wives. Now They Have Stylists  It’s never been more complicated to pick a pair of pants. White-collar guys are paying thousands to professional stylists for dressing guidance.
• Slate – Let Me Tell You About the Best Way to Read Books
• NYMag – I’m eating raw chicken every day for 100 days — or until I’m hospitalized – feel like this guy is a strong candidate for a Darwin award
• WSJ – The Hottest Beer in America Doesn’t Have Alcohol  Founded by a hedge-fund trader and a brewer, Athletic Brewing has become the king of nonalcoholic beers. So what’s all the buzz about?