augustabound

I use Firefox extension to save myself a few clicks: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/refcontrol/ I created a rule for wsj.com to set the referring URL to google.com. Chrome has a similar extension. Awesome. I had no idea.

You can read it online free. Just read the "In today's paper" any articles you're interested in, highlight the name of the article, right click > click the search Google for (the article name) option and then click the link in the Google search page. It unlocks the article.

For all the space program fans like myself. http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B013H3MHAM?redirect=true&ref_=docs-os-doi_0

Serious question: why did you start this thread? You're questioning a thread that you're contributing to. I never understood why people insist on posting to thread they don't have interest in. Sometimes these are the types of threads that can be the most interesting for a variety of reasons.

Yeah, thanks for that. My wife, brother in law and a couple of friends work for or have worked for Microsoft partners and hopefully in a year or two this will include me. The money to be made is absolutely disgusting. There is so much to be made in all aspects of software development that closing off something like Microsoft because they're not open source is closed minded. If that's what interests you. But you did say your opinion is biased. ;D So is mine.

Looks like you and I may be on a similar path. Needs more of a life balance but more reestablishing those good friendships lost through the years. Also looking to work from home since my last career had me all over Ontario at times. My tennis partner is in Alberta and I haven't played in years. And I desperately need to get back in shape. Playing old guy slo pitch just doesn't cut it. Learning Karate has always been something I've wanted to do. Being a lifelong contractor/custom home builder, surprisingly I also have a list of DIY projects around our house needing to be complete. Also helping my wife get back into singing in some way is something I'd like to help her with. She essentially gave that up when we had our first daughter. Transitioning to my 2nd career (hopefully) requires C#, .NET, SQL. Advice from someone a couple of month into it, you need an endgame in sight. Learning to code was useless for me without a desired outcome other than just learning to code. My wife is in software and her lead developer helped me put a plan in place (somewhat) to become a Microsoft Dynamics developer. Learning with that in mind has made it much easier to wrap my head around. Making apps or programs for yourself to learn is a good idea though. I've heard from many sources to code every single day without fail. Even just 10-15 minutes.

Not dying is a good one. Going full steam into my second career is the main goal. By this time next year I want to be ready to start working in the field. My wife and I have two daughters, 3 and 6 years old. We haven't traveled anywhere yet. Disney is on the list for next year. We went to a resort an hour away this summer and that was the litmus test.

Boeing is supplying a crew vehicle to NASA for missions to the ISS. http://www.boeing.com/space/crew-space-transportation-100-vehicle/index.page And Lockheed is supplying the vehicle for NASA to go to Mars. http://www.lockheedmartin.com/us/ssc/orion-eft1.html

Chris Hadfield said in an interview that the shuttles were just getting too old. He said they decided after the 2003 Columbia accident that they needed to finish the space station with the shuttles and retire them.

I think it was a dig from Bezos to Musk. Bezos first ever tweet was about using a used rocket that lifted off and landed. "The rarest of beasts", was the term used. Musk replied basically that Space X has done it multiple times before and it's not so rare. Musk tweeted multiple times after that about it. He even said that Jeff may not know the difference between orbit and space.

Exactly right. Great point about the float of insurance companies and Amazon. It's funny, every now and then I go back through my old notes. At one point I had an almost obsession with learning the insurance industry. I believed that all successful investors find the diamond in the rough that have almost endless float combined with a fantastic investor behind that float. Notes on old watchlist companies (back when I had a watchlist), JNJ KO PG WFC............. Then a bit of my own reflection and some help from bloggers like Geoff Gannon and Nate helped me realize this way of Buffett following wasn't for me (It's really not for most people, those same people who should heed WEB advice and put their money in an index ETF). The key point that made me refocus my thinking was a post of Geoff's about his investing philosophy. He chooses the small, obscure stocks in industries he knows because he said he's not smart enough to know a great business like the ones Buffett talks about. And in his opinion (and mine too), most people aren't smart enough. Nate posted about loving the small annual reports from small and microcap stocks. At that point I realized I had a really hard time with long annual reports and the short ones were like heaven to read. That combined with few moving parts of a small cap. Small individual investors with a career and family couldn't possibly know all the moving parts of GE or JNJ and if they could it would take far too long to understand. <insert Buffett or Munger quote on opportunity cost here> Take Buffett's advice and apply it to your own framework. Like Munger's mental models. Don't make his framework yours because it won't work the same way. Deify is right. I always find it funny how upset people get if you say anything negative about Buffett.

He adds a new chapter every year from the events of the previous year and releases the new book if I understand it right.

I thought it interesting when I read Mohnish Pabrai had put old stock certificates of his biggest failure(s) by the water cooler in his office so he's constantly reminded of them. I forget where I read this though............

I thought the same thing. Staples upside down as not to scratch the desks?! Can't afford a haircut? Well here you go, take more money and get yourself cleaned up............

I found that this morning saying the certificate was out of date. I went anyway, so far my laptop hasn't exploded........... ;D

I liked this book, definitely a different perspective than I'm used to reading Same here. I love the idea of aiming for a monopoly. Not the usual, "If we can gain 2% of that $2B market share........", along with the other dozen competitors doing the same thing.

Sorry to hijack your thread. I have yours on my iPhone and will listed tomorrow morning. I'm starting to listen to more podcasts than anything else in the car now. ;D

I have to say you do a fantastic job Nate. Nothing against Fred but his style was more about having a set few generic questions and that was kind of it for the first few podcasts. At the end when he always says, OK, great........got it............" It sounds like he really hasn't been listening. But you've added a ton to the podcast. It's nice you engage the guest and think about good follow up questions to dig deeper. You also seem to build a rapport with the guests rather than it just being a regular interview Q and A.

Not directed at your podcast (I haven't listened to it yet) but I get frustrated listening to podcasts where you can hear the host clicking away at a mouse or keyboard. I know some research happens during the podcast as some answers illicit new questions or fact finding but it needs to be edited out. I listened to one last week and the guests phone kept dinging for a text. I remember an episode of the Value Guys podcast where one of them was eating.................... Sorry, my rant is done. ;D

I wouldn't recommend this. Kiyosaki is a fraud Amen to that. I shudder every time I see someone recommend him. Some of his theories are sound though, particularly having an asset work for you and starting your own company.

Wow, you read 44 books in 6 months! I am envious. Thanks for listing your top 7. I am always looking for a good read. He read 161 in 2013. https://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2014/05/remembering-what-you-read/

That's how I read it also. It's one thing for investors to compare companies using certain multiples but something entirely different when management uses it.

Russian fighter jets fly over the arctic fairly regularly from what I've read. Each and every time they're met by Canadian and American fighter jets and warned to turn back. One story about them doing it twice in one week close to Alaska was thought to be a test of our response time. From a quick Google search of "Russian fighter jet incursion", lists many stories of similar incidents over Europe.

I haven't but I've taken a few others on coursera. There's a big push on their specialization courses now for them to monetize traffic to the site. But the individual courses are still free.

This vote was as much an "anybody but Harper" vote as much as a vote for Trudeau. Harper's campaign was painfully awful from day one. His attack ads at Trudeau were extremely tame compared to previous years. The ads ended with the apparently undecided voters sitting around a lunchroom table saying he's not ready. Then one lady would say, "I'm not saying no forever, just not now". A conservative ad against a liberal implying he would be ready in the future to govern? My wife laughs that I remember the ads against Stephane Dionne, "Not a leader" with the soundbite of Dionne saying in parliament with his heavy French accent, "Do you think it's easy to make priorities?!" Or Michael Ignatieff, "Just visiting". For those in the U.S., Dionne was leader of the party while they transitioned between (real) leaders. He bought them time until they could fly in Ignatieff from Harvard and find a solid riding for him to win. Trudeau didn't take the bait like (I assume) the conservatives thought he would. He ran a clean campaign focusing on a couple of key issues and staying on message. Some say the conservative message played right in the liberals hands. The 11 week campaign was by design since the conservatives had the most money. The liberals spent wisely it seems and made a push the last couple of weeks. I'm not sure if it's the same in the U.S. but in Canada, conservatives vote every election and vote for conservative no matter the issues/past. Liberals vote when they absolutely need change and are tired of the current government. This vote got 68% of eligible voters out. That's the most since '93 when the country voted out then 3 term conservative PM, Brian Mulroney.