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💡 Random bits

Here's what I've been reading, watching, and listening to:

• Weather forecasts have become much more accurate (ourworldindata.org)
  
  2024-03-17

  A four-day forecast today is as accurate as a one-day forecast 30 years ago.

• CPS students’ reading gains rank among top 3 large districts in the nation, study finds (chicago.suntimes.com)
  
  2024-02-19

  Research by Harvard and Stanford universities found Chicago’s 3rd- to 8th-grade students outpaced most similar districts in reading growth from 2019 to 2023, while Illinois was one of only three states whose reading achievement now exceeds 2019 levels.

• S&P finishes above 5000 for the first time (bloomberg.com)
  
  2024-02-10

  The equities benchmark closed at 5,026.61 to notch five straight weeks of gains. It briefly breached the round-number threshold minutes before the close Thursday.

  It took 719 sessions for the index to set its latest 1,000-point milestone, a gain of 25%. The 50% advance from 2,000 to 3,000 needed 1,227 trading days, from 2014 to 2019, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. To double from 1,000 in 1998, it needed 4,168 sessions to get to 2,000 in 2014.

• NFL owners consider outside investment (nytimes.com)
  
  2024-02-10

  I’m interested in seeing if the NFL owners vote to allow outside investment from private equity firms. My guess is no, given there’s no burning need to do so. On the other hand, MLB, NBA, and the NHL have already opened the floodgates, and ownership succession is a real challenge (in particular, the tax on inherited investments).

• When you choose to focus your energy on something you can’t control, you choose not to focus it on something you can (podcasts.apple.com)
  
  2024-01-29

• The road to self renewal (gsb-courses.stanford.edu)
  
  2023-12-19

  Meaning is not something you stumble across, like the answer to a riddle or the prize in a treasure hunt. Meaning is something you build into your life. You build it out of your own past, out of your affections and loyalties, out of the experience of humankind as it is passed on to you, out of your own talent and understanding, out of the things you believe in, out of the things and people you love, out of the values for which you are willing to sacrifice something. The ingredients are there. You are the only one who can put them together into that unique pattern that will be your life. Let it be a life that has dignity and meaning for you. If it does, then the particular balance of success or failure is of less account.

• A conversation with Charlie Munger and John Collison (podcasts.apple.com)
  
  2023-12-05

  Exceptional. Rest in peace, Charlie.

• What is Liquid Net Worth? [And Why It's So Important] (ofdollarsanddata.com)
  
  2023-12-05

  Good read on calculating your liquid net worth (vs total) with some median benchmarks by age range

• Speed cameras work (wuft.org)
  
  2023-11-17

  Speed cameras reduced accidents resulting in injury or death by an average of 30% in Portland, Seattle, San Francisco, and Chicago.

• Unserious Debates for an Unserious Primary (theatlantic.com)
  
  2023-11-10