Blog – Value Investing Almanack – Safal Niveshak

Bookworm: 21 Lessons for the 21st Century

March 11, 2019

Longtime readers of Value Investing Almanack know that I am a huge fan of Yuval Harari’s work. His first book, Sapiens, turned my world upside down. Technically, it was a book on human history but the insights were anything but ancient. It was jaw dropping from the first word to the last. Sapiens ranks among the five best books that I have read, ever!

His second book Homo Deus was equally gripping and lived up to the expectations created by his first masterpiece Sapiens. In Sapiens, Harari explained how homo sapiens came to be the planet’s dominant species. Homo Deus was a historian’s perspective of what the future could look like for humans.

The first and the second book covering the past and the future respectively, Harari’s reader were waiting to hear his views on the present state of the world. Fortunately, the wait wasn’t long. In his latest book — 21 Lessons for the 21st Century — Harari confronts today’s 21 big questions dedicating one chapter to each of those questions.
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Special Report: The Upside of Accepting Our Ignorance

February 28, 2019

One of my college professors who guided me during my final year BTech thesis often said —

If I ask you something and you don’t know the answer then you may look like a stupid for that moment. But if you don’t figure out the answer then you remain stupid forever.

At that time, his statement didn’t seem anything more than a witty remark. But as years have passed, I have slowly come to realize that it was a piece of deeply profound advice.

Being ignorant is okay. Everyone is ignorant about something or the other. However, once my ignorance is shown to me and then I don’t do anything about it, then it’s pure stupidity.

Humans have been in existence for hundreds of thousands of years. If you take the homo sapiens from 100,000 years back and compare his anatomy with that of a modern-day human, it’ll be pretty much the same. Even their brain structures wouldn’t be much different. But compare the progress mankind has made in terms of development and scientific know-how about nature’s secrets, the world we live in today is unrecognizable from the world a few hundred years back.

Sample this —

Wasted Hours and Saved Years

February 28, 2019

Andrew Carnegie and Henry Ford are considered among the handful of capitalists who played a defining role in building America. The early 20th century skyscrapers in the US stood on Carnegie’s steel and Ford revolutionized the automobile industry with his low-cost cars.

Carnegie became the richest man in America when he retired and sold his company to JP Morgan for a sum that was equivalent to $400 billion in today’s money. Sadly, Andrew’s billions were amassed at the cost of factory workers’ sweat and blood. Literally.

The working conditions in steel mills in the late 19th century and early 20th century were inhumane and unsafe. Some estimate that the rate of serious accidents (often leading to death) was as high as 10 percent. Twelve to fourteen hours a day and six to seven days a week was standard at that time. There was no extra pay for overtime. Not only that, the hourly wages were squeezed so the hilt to drive profitability. And any resistance from labour unions was often crushed ruthlessly with the help of private armies like Pinkertons. (Trivia: at one time Pinkertons had more armed personnel in their squad than the entire US national army.)

Investor Insights: Abhinav Mansinghka

February 26, 2019

Abhinav Mansinghka is a full-time equity investor managing his family wealth since 2010, when he quit his job with a local mutual fund to pursue his passion for managing money independently. He resides in Mumbai with his wife and son.

In this interview, Abhinav shares his evolution as an investor, the key lessons learned, his investment process, and how he tries to minimize decision making mistakes.

Behaviouronomics: Chartist’s Illusion

February 20, 2019

A picture, they say, speaks a thousand words. There’s something magical about colourful shapes and lines that make them attractive to human eyes. Homo Sapiens’ love for pictures dates back to the time when our ancestors lived the life of hunter-gatherers.

Below is a painting from Lascaux Cave. It’s estimated that it was created by our ancestors 15,000–20,000 years ago.

The lizard brain inside our skull — that part of our mental machinery which has remained unchanged for millions of years — is pretty acquainted with pictures, images, and colourful shapes. The ability to recognize shapes, lines, and contours gave our ancestors an evolutionary advantage to survive in a hostile environment.