Monthly Bookmarks –
147th Edition – August 21, 2022
Stocks, shares and all that garbage are just claims to future value. So if money is fiction, finance capital is the fiction of a fiction.
Trust, by Hernan Diaz, page 216
1. The Penultimate Reading List?
Am I the only person stopped in his tracks when he comes across a reading list online? And what happens when those recommendations are on McKinsey’s website? Forewarning, this list is addicting.
Out of curiosity, I counted the books published before 2000. There were only seven of those titles. Of those seven, my favorite is Maverick by Ricardo Semler (1998).
2. One More Time, A Blast from the Past
If you listen to the podcast, you’ll know that one of my favorite books this year is Built to Fail by Alan Payne. Accordingly, I enjoyed reading this piece by Fox 8 last week where Payne is also quoted:
It’s interesting to note that Blockbuster was really a broken company in dire financial conditions before Netflix ever started streaming.
Alan Payne, A blast from the past: See inside the last remaining Blockbuster, August 14, 2022
3. The World Excel Championships on ESPN, Seriously?
I had never heard of this competition until a week ago through a post on LinkedIn. I have one suggestion–let’s get Tony Romo to be the TV analyst.
4. The First Business Author Interviewed by Seth Meyers?
I’m about three-quarters of the way through the novel Trust by Hernan Diaz. The story structure is the most unique I’ve ever seen in fiction. For those business readers who were put off by the immorality of Frank Cowperwood, in Dreiser’s, The Financier, Benjamin Rask is not much different in Trust as he is beholden to one thing only – money and the multiplication of it day and night.
By the way, great interview by Seth Meyers –
By the way, props to Mary Childs for recommending this book in a recent interview.
5. Should Every Financier Be a Polymath?
A fictional autobiographer in Trust states that finance, “Is the thread that runs through every aspect of life.” He calls, “Business the common denominator of all activities and enterprises.”
He is the true Renaissance man. And this is why I gave myself to the pursuit of knowledge in every conceivable realm, from history and geography to chemistry and meteorology.
My years as a student gave me a solid foundation for this sort of disciplined curiosity.
Andrew Bevel, Trust, pages 149 to 150
Chalk up one more score for the humanities for lifelong learners.
Recent Bookmarks – 146 | 145 | 144
Recent CFO Bookshelf Podcast Playlist:
The Bond King with Mary Childs
Revisiting Worldcom’s Financial Statement Fraud
Should Your Business Have a Hall of Fame?
Negotiation Simplified with Jim Reiman
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Always be learning and growing.
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