Weekend Reads for Finance Pros: Cybersecurity, Investing, and Mindfulness

I recently read something that jumped out me. It was in a blog post by Shane Parrish (of Farnam Street fame) titled “How to Think”: “Two of the guiding principles that I follow on my path towards seeking wisdom are: (1) Go to bed smarter than when you woke up; and (2) I’m not smart enough to figure everything out myself, so I want to ‘master the best of what other people have already figured out.’”

It was (1) that really stood out, given that it’s January, a time when many people are trying to stick with their (oftentimes) vacuous New Year’s resolutions. What a great daily resolution: to go to bed smarter every day than when you woke up.

But it’s not as simple as it sounds. As Parrish reminds us, thinking is hard work. So how can we teach ourselves to be better thinkers? Probe other people’s thinking (ask questions); slow down; and probe yourself. (For those of you in the investment business, this is an essential task. See: “Advice on How to Become a Research Analyst” by the sage Jason Voss, CFA.)

Speaking of hard, did you read the story about Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson reaching the summit of El Capitan’s Dawn Wall? If you didn’t, here’s why it made headlines: “It was the first ascent of the 3,000-foot Dawn Wall in a single expedition with the use of only hands and feet to pull climbers up — a challenge long considered impossible. Ropes were merely safety devices to break the occasional fall.”

Wow.

Incredible photos from @coreyrich of the historic El Capitan climbs. Just, wow: http://t.co/lX0fmFYW1C pic.twitter.com/UGKCyjpM6a

— Lauren Hansen (@myLaurenHansen) January 15, 2015

I loved what Jorgeson said of their feat: “I hope it inspires people to find their own Dawn Wall, if you will. We’ve been working on this thing a long time, slowly and surely. I think everyone has their own secret Dawn Wall to complete one day, and maybe they can put this project in their own context.”

Do you have a Dawn Wall?

Here are some other interesting reads, in case you missed them:

Cybersecurity

• Last year, cyber attacks were front-page news: Sony, Target, JP Morgan  Chase, and Home Depot, to name but a few. This week,  US Central Command’s Twitter feed was hacked by supporters of Isis. Time to start panicking? Perhaps. If Byron Wien’s predictions for 10 surprises in 2015 come true, No 2 is: “Our luck runs out on cyber terrorism.” (Blackstone)
• Cybersecurity is “a combination of prevention, detection, and response.” All are required, none is perfect. (Enterprising Investor)
• “Seven Cyber Resolutions Every Company Should Make in 2015” (Fortune)

Investing

• “Hey 54-year Old Boomers, Stocks Are Still the Best . . .” (What Works on Wall Street)
• “What We ‘Know’ about Investing — But Can’t Prove with Stats” (Mark Santoli’s Tumblr)
• Curious about the table below? The magic happens when you click on the hyperlink below:

Updated: International Stock Market Performance • Novel Investor http://t.co/SO9PkmcEHZ pic.twitter.com/uUvBkYocGu

— Novel Investor (@NovelInvestor) January 5, 2015

•  Ditto for the table on emerging markets performance. (Novel Investor)

Financial Advice

• “When Judging Financial Advisers, Look Beyond the Annual Return” (New York Times)
• “How Can Financial Advisors Be the Next Disruptors?” (Kurtosys)
• Financial advisers use their preferences, not their client’s needs, to allocate portfolios. (AAII Journal)
• A big test is looming for traditional wealth managers. (Wall Street Journal)
• “How Financial Advisors Are Courting Millennials” (US News)
• A deep-dive into “robo-advisers”:

What exactly do online investment advisory services offer? (p.s. and don't call them robo-advisers) http://t.co/wvVQ9vWGmi via AAII Journal

— GaryGG (@podRetired) January 8, 2015

• More on the “robos”

have the robos "exposed inherent weaknesses in the high-cost model of brokerage houses and RIAs"?http://t.co/ySyYtTFNo8

— The Investment Ecosystem (@Inv_Ecosystem) January 14, 2015

Women in the Workplace

• Speaking While Female: Why Women Stay Quiet at Work” (New York Times) And in a similar vein: “How to Get Ahead as a Woman in Tech: Interrupt Men?” (Slate)
• Boardroom diversity is not the sole barometer of equal opportunities for women. Case in point: Turkey. (Fortune)

And Now For Something Completely Different

• The power of stories: “How Reading Transforms Us” (New York Times)
• Mindfulness should no longer be considered a “nice-to-have” for executives. It’s a “must-have”. (HBR)
• “What a Great Place to Work Ought to Look Like” (New York Times)
• “How Google ‘Translates’ Pictures into Words Using Vector Space Mathematics” (MIT Technology Review)
• Pico Iyer writes an appreciation of the adventures of Paddington Bear (New York Times)
• Michael Pollan (“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.“), in the forward to The Pollan Family Table, writes about the importance of sharing a meal together, as a family: “. . . when people eat from the same pot or platter, they share something more than the food. Eating the same meal helps put everyone on the same emotional page . . . eating together . . . is essential not only to a family’s health and well-being but also to our society as a whole. Because at the dinner table we literally civilize our children, teaching them how to take turns, to share, to listen to other people’s points of view, and to argue without insulting. The family meal is the nursery of democracy.” In a similar vein: “The most important thing you can do with your kids? Eat dinner with them.” (Washington Post)

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All posts are the opinion of the author. As such, they should not be construed as investment advice, nor do the opinions expressed necessarily reflect the views of CFA Institute or the author’s employer.

Photo credit: ©iStockphoto.com/JLGutierrez