The weekend is here! Pour yourself a mug of Colombia Tolima Los Brasiles Peaberry Organic coffee, grab a seat outside, and get ready for our longer-form weekend reads:
• Is There a Problem with Passive Investing? Passive investing has absolutely revolutionized the investment landscape for individual investors. Not only has it dramatically lowered the costs of asset ownership, but it has done so while delivering strong returns. What began as a radical idea to buy the overall market without worrying about picking the winners now accounts for 57% of all equity fund assets and over $13 trillion. However, with the rapid rise in passive ownership, some investors have begun to sound the alarm. (Of Dollars and Data)
• What’s Wrong with XOVR and SpaceX: There’s a reason public markets exist; SpaceX lack of transparency and liquidity, XOVR’s lack of transparency in pricing policy, and the impact of flow, are (for now) uniquely problematic to this specific ETF playing this specific game. exist (Echo Beach)
• The King of Ozempic Is Scared as Hell: Now that Novo Nordisk is the world’s weight-loss juggernaut, will it have to betray its first patients—type 1 diabetics? (Wired)
• How Athletic Sparked the Nonalcoholic Beer Boom With Brews That Don’t Suck: The company that dominates the market wants to change how we experience beer. (Businessweek)
• The Honorable Parts. Aspects of Payne’s work might be categorized as genre art. He captures moments in everyday time; he captures human intention and effort; he captures the infrastructure required to make stuff. His subjects are often highly engineered (he has photographed ASML’s EUV machines, Boeing’s 787 assembly line, and NASA’s Space Launch System), but just as often they’re highly soulful (Payne published a book about Steinway pianos; he has also photographed Martin’s guitar factory and Zildjian’s cymbal production process). Regardless of what he’s shooting, Payne’s photographs often feel just as carefully assembled as the objects in them. Seen through Payne’s eyes, a motor being built is only surrounded by a factory part of the time; other times, it exists in a field of pure black. (Scope of Work)
• Chronic Pain Is a Hidden Epidemic. It’s Time for a Revolution. As many as two billion people suffer from it — including me. Can science finally bring us relief? (New York Times) see also 5 Things We Know About Chronic Pain: After developing chronic pain, I started looking into what scientists do — and still don’t — understand about the disease. Here is what I learned. (New York Times)
• The Invisible Russia-Ukraine Battlefield: In Russia’s war against Ukraine, electronic warfare, including signal-jamming, anti-drone weapons, and innovative protections for critical military systems, has become a key piece of the conflict. (Wired)
• 35 Simple Health Tips Experts Swear By: What is the one health tip you learned in your work that you swear by? These 35 tricks, life hacks, rules and reminders span nutrition, sleep, mental health, fitness, sex, productivity and more. They all meet Well’s standard for excellence with a little extra credibility — they are practiced by the people who preach them. (New York Times)
• Empire of Blood: How Dana White’s UFC Conquered America: In MMA, almost all of the human body’s weapons are allowed, and a scarce few — headbutts, biting, eye-gouging, and the aforementioned blows directly to the back of the skull — are banned. You can punch, knee, kick, and elbow. (Bend your arm and feel for the little knob of bone beneath the skin at the tip of your elbow. At the right angle and speed, it will cut like a scalpel.) On the ground, there’s a war of grappling, chokes, and limb breaks, and Oliveira is one of the best to ever fight it. (Yahoo)
• The World Sports Photography Awards 2025 Winners: Some of these photos are amazing! (World Sports Photography Awards)
Be sure to check out our Masters in Business interview this weekend with Jonathan Clements. He has been a personal finance reporter at the Wall Street Journal for over twenty years and has written more than 1,000 columns. Last summer, Jonathan received a terminal diagnosis and announced it at his site. DON’T MISS his discussion of why “Dying is hard work” and what we all need to understand about money, life satisfaction, and planning.
The US Household Sector Enters 2025 in Excellent Shape
Source: Apollo
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