When I read an article that I think is especially interesting, enjoyable, provocative, or useful, I often tweet a link to the article on one of my four Twitter accounts: @sonniebailey, @nzwealthandrisk, @personalrisk, @chchlawyer.
Below is a non-exhaustive list of articles from my year that were especially memorable.
Miscellaneous
- “What if the future is better than we think?”
- “Cheeseburger ethics” (“Are professional ethicists good people? … not especially.” But: learning and researching ethics is still valuable and important.)
- “Status Malfunction” and “Strategic Apathy“
- “Erasing yourself from the internet is really, really hard”. (Or: a primer in doxing.)
Good news and bad news
- “The sunniest climate-change story you’ve ever read”. (“This is the year humans finally got serious about saving themselves from themselves.”)
- “The most predictable disaster in the history of the human race.” = pandemic disease. Fascinating conversation with Bill Gates.
- The mothers of all disasters. “Meet the ‘maximums of maximums’ that keep emergency planners up at night.” Related: “The really big one”.
Parenting
- Most parenting advice is worthless. So here’s some parenting advice.
- Parenthood, the great moral gamble. “The decision to have a child is more ethically uncertain than you might realise.”
- “I’m just not that into toddlers, including my own”
- “How American parenting is killing the American marriage”
- This isn’t an article, but it fits so well with the theme: Bryan Caplan’s conversation with Julia Galef on the Rationally Speaking podcast, “Does parenting matter?”, is provocative.
- I’m also compelled to mention Jennifer Senior’s thought-provoking book, All Joy and No Fun: The Paradox of Modern Parenthood. An excerpt(?) published in New York is here.
Building and managing wealth
I read a lot of dry stuff about investment in 2015. But I also read many entertaining articles directed at a more general audience.
- Some articles highlighting the value of having a high savings rate: “6 reasons to have a high early savings rate” and “The shockingly simple math behind early retirement”. (The latter article may be hyperbolic, but you’ll get the point.)
- “Living rich means being poor”. (If you want/need this point emphasised in more detail, you might be interested in Thomas J Stanley’s book Stop Acting Rich.)
- With respect to residential property:
- And low-cost index-based funds:
- “What is index investing and why does it work?”
- “Passive index investing feels wrong”
- “Don’t play the loser’s game”. (“The global active trading game is like a big poker game.”)
- “The surprising investment experts who use index funds”. Related: “Warren Buffett’s most personal bet yet on index fund investing”
- “Donald Trump isn’t rich because he’s a great investor. He’s rich because his dad was rich.” (“He could’ve put his inheritance in index funds and still wound up a billionaire.”)
Special mention
- In terms of specific blogs or resources from 2015, special mention goes to:
- Australian journalist Adele Honin’s profound and wise blog, Coming of Age, about the challenges of ageing. I was saddened to hear of her recent death.
- Ben Carlson’s blog, A Wealth of Common Sense.
- Dr James Dahle’s blog, The White Coat Investor. Dahle, himself a practising medical specialist, writes about personal finance and investing. It is targeted towards medical professionals (“white coats”) but is relevant for most people generating a high income.
Finally, I tip my hat to Wait But Why. I discovered this blog in 2015. It has some amazing articles. I’m inclined to divide them into two categories – heavy duty substantive articles:
- With respect to artificial intelligence: “The road to superintelligence” and “Our immortality or extinction”
- “How Tesla will change the world”
- “How (and why) SpaceX will colonise Mars”
And fresh perspectives on the everyday and important:
- “Your life in weeks”
- “Life is a picture, but you life in a pixel”
- “10 types of odd friendships you’re probably part of”
- “The Tail End”
I hope you enjoy this list! And if you’re interested, feel free to follow this blog or any of my Twitter accounts, @sonniebailey, @nzwealthandrisk, @personalrisk, @chchlawyer.
All the best for 2016!