The Monday Read

Summer is here edition

I’m actually enjoying the weather at the moment, weirdly. It feels a lot less humid than it did last week, and it’s nice to see the sun. Having a fan nearby almost constantly helps too!

We wrote a guide to beating the summer heat a long time ago, and although it doesn’t address the mask issue most of it still works.

I’m still wearing my mask all the time when I am out of the house and in a room with other people, and it really does make things feel much hotter. I’m seeing other people becoming more relaxed about it, but so far it is bearable so I will continue. If it gets a lot hotter I will consider taking the government’s advice not to wear masks outside when away from other people.

Here are this week’s links

  1. Please don’t test this with real cats: The Ugly Scramble
  2. What are your practices? It’s Not About Routine, but About Practice
  3. I believe global air travel will never ‘recover’: Global air travel won’t recover till 2024, says airline body
  4. This ‘program’ should be burned to the ground and replaced with something that doesn’t exploit, lie to, and abuse vulnerable migrants: Chinese trainees describe harsh realities of Japan’s technical intern program
  5. Better hurry up with that self-driving tech: No. of drivers in Japan aged 70 or older tops 10 million
  6. This is the real crisis: What the Covid-19 Pandemic can Teach Japan about Climate Change
  7. There are no good options: Undead economies are the price of mini-lockdowns
  8. Feels like decades already… World will be feeling the effects of the virus for decades, WHO says
  9. I was cynical at first, but these pictures are really good: Pictures of Japan
  10. How the Kindle was born: twitter thread
  11. Japan was lucky/competent in April/May, then threw it all away in July: Japan Acted Like the Virus Had Gone. Now It’s Spread Everywhere.
  12. Come on Japan, you can do it too: Norway’s New Dual Citizenship Law Attracts 26,000 Applicants
  13. I am looking for these hours too: Where to find the hours to make it happen
  14. I drive a really crappy 15-year old kei car (sadly not really rich though): No Expensive Cars Thank You, We’re Really Rich
  15. This girl seems really well-adjusted: Sky Brown: ‘Sometimes you fall but I wanted to show me getting up again’
  16. I really enjoy his email newsletter: The Cult of Prof Scott Galloway
  17. A few good reasons: Why Would Anyone Own Bonds Right Now?
  18. Never seen this written quite like this before: Stop Telling Me What to Do
  19. Bit of a change in tone from MMM: The Sweet Spot
  20. This will make Covid-19 look like a minor inconvenience: Rising temperatures will cause more deaths than all infectious diseases – study
  21. Good news for renewables, but I’d like to see more ambitious targets: Langley Esquire Policy Radar August 2020
  22. Hopefully this will result in price drops like we saw with solar: China poised to power huge growth in global offshore wind energy
  23. COMIC Would that life were so easy: Approximate (Penny Arcade)
  24. VIDEO I’ve been impressed with Chris’ content recently, and this is in my neck of the woods: What Driving in Japan is REALLY Like
  25. I bought a few Apple shares when they started paying a dividend, at $96. Should have bought a lot more! Concentrated Performance in the Stock Market
  26. Derek Sivers is great. I actually bought a bunch of the hardcovers to give away on the site later in the year… stay tuned! $250K books sold. $250K to save lives.
  27. ‘Weigh future’ is right: Japan eases reentry ban as stranded foreign residents weigh future

Phew! That was a bumper issue and a half… anything good in there? I enjoyed #15, #16, #24, and #26. All the less newsy/serious ones. Maybe there’s a message in there somewhere.

This week’s books

I went on a bit of a comic reading binge this week, picked up some of the The Boys sequels (read the original books first if you are interested, or watch the series on Amazon Prime), and Punisher Soviet. Both of these are by Garth Ennis and are quite violent and unpleasant.

8 Responses

  1. #27 – my English skills must be deteriorating because I can make sense of the latest travel policy. This policy seems oriented towards the past and I don’t see any mention of the future (can I travel out of Japan next week and return?). It’s another policy the govt has erected to dissuade foreigners from coming (the new exit tax is another). It’s terrible I think and unfair to the companies that are trying to bring in foreign talent to help their companies grow and expand. About 100% different than Singapore’s stance.

    1. Typing skills are definitely deteriorating. That should say I cannot (can’t) make sense blah blah blah.

  3. #17. While the long-term performance of long-term bonds was surprising, gold outperformed them and silver blew them away this year. Given all the money printing going on right now, I think gold is the safer space to preserve wealth, and silver is the space to make some money over the next year (especially the mining stocks).

    2. Gold’s returns have been incredible over the past couple of years, and especially the past few months. Personally, I’m holding off for now on the fear of buying high. I’m likely to miss out, but I think it’s important to acknowledge that it’s a historically volatile investment compared to index funds.

      1. Someone put together an interesting chart of long term trends here. https://www.longtermtrends.net/stocks-vs-gold-comparison/ The volatility really depends on your baseline. For the last 30 years, you could argue that gold has been much less volatile than the S&P. You can also see how long the gold up trend was during the 2008 money printing efforts. While the current price is high you may not be too late to enter based on this and if you believe all the money printing is affecting the price of gold.

    3. If you believe inflation is coming, you might want to take a look at adding some copper as well.

      I have a growing affection for bonds; they limit volatility which helps me make better decisions.