Horizons Newsletter – week 50 // 2021
As the end of 2021 is approaching, we have asked our colleagues to share some of the sources that inspire them to look beyond the obvious and help them to keep abreast of the news.
Inspiring reading tips
As part of a research-driven investment company, people at Dasym read a lot in order to keep abreast of the news and to be inspired by new developments and insights. While we try to look beyond the obvious and place things in a broader perspective, it is important to be aware of biases, both in thinking (The Art of Thinking Clearly) and in numbers (The Number Bias). Insights of a more ‘technical’ nature can be found in our next tips. In the past year, the metaverse received a lot of attention, with Facebook even changing its name to Meta. In his series, The Metaverse Primer, Matthew Ball tells you all about this virtual universe. Due to a number of high-profile hacks on governments and organizations, cybersecurity was another hot topic. In her alarming book, This Is How They Tell Me The World Ends, Nicole Perlroth reports about the arms race between cyber criminals, spies and hackers fighting to infiltrate essential computer systems. Code breaking, albeit on another level, is also found in Walter Isaacson’s biography of Jennifer Doudna who invented the technique also known as CRISPR-Cas9 (The Code Breaker).
Our other suggestions:
- Bits about Money, a weekly newsletter about the financial industry, with a particular focus on the intricacies of payments (for instance, the Japanese payments ecosystem).
- Digits to dollars, a blog with commentary on all kinds of topics related to the semiconductor industry. We recommend this post on Intel’s struggles and strategy.
- Kees Klomp & Shinta Oosterwaal, Fundamentals for a New Economy, essays from internationally renowned new economic thinkers about new economic approaches that radically break with the current neoclassical economic tradition.
- Christian Grataloup, Atlas of World History (French or Dutch edition), the history of mankind in 515 maps with explanation.
- Land of Big Numbers, a bundle of short stories set in China by Te-Ping Chen, former China correspondent for the Wall Street Journal.
Streaming content for the Holidays
If you prefer watching or listening, we also have plenty of video and audio recommendations. A podcast we would like to recommend is Odd Lots: a biweekly podcast where two Bloomberg reporters interview experts on important topics affecting the world economy. Two business-related podcasts worth listening to are: Business Breakdowns (on what makes a business “tick”) and Not Investment Advice (on business, technology and why it’s all just memes). In addition to listening to podcasts, our colleagues also enjoy recording them. In this (Dutch) episode of the Future Affairs podcast, Freedomlab strategist Jessica discusses our unsustainable way of living. A series that caught our attention was Hulu’s Dopesick, which uncovers the opioid crisis in the U.S. Prefer something lighter to watch, we recommended the Netflix series Drive to Survive. Combined with this year’s sensational F1 World Championship, next spring’s fourth season will be one to keep an eye on. Lastly, some of our colleagues enjoy watching HBO’s SuccessionAlready in its third season, this Murdoch-inspired series about a highly dysfunctional dynasty shows how the grown children continue to battle each other for a company that’s steadily proving itself too big to control.
Dasym wishes everyone a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!
Horizons is a bi-monthly Dasym Research initiative to show you how the Dasym themes have been in the news. We publish the Horizons on our website and as an email newsletter. If you wish to receive the email, sign up here.
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