3 Articles Worth Reading #31
Warren Buffett, LeBron James, and sheep
On Saturday, Nadia and I went to see the Men’s Free Finals at the World Figure Skating Championships.
We actually have a pretty good setup for getting to TD Garden for games and events - I park my car at my office in Cambridge for free. It’s just a five minute walk to the Lechmere green line stop, which is only three stops from North Station. Takes about 20 minutes, but it’s safe and convenient, and a lot easier to drive to and from Cambridge compared to getting in and out of downtown.
Nadia wisely suggested that we skip the first 10 or so skaters1 and have a few drinks at the Tavern in the Square instead. Great decision. We were fortunate enough to find some space at the bar even though the place was packed with skating fans, and we ended up next to a friendly older couple involved with the skating scene in Cleveland.
As an outsider, my big takeaway is that the figure skating community is extremely supportive and enthusiastic. People from all around the US were there to cheer on both the American performers and athletes from around the world. Men from Kazakhstan, Latvia, and South Korea clearly had huge followings. Even when foreign skaters were making mistakes, you could tell that the fans were on their side and wanted to see them do their best.
If you ever have the chance to go to a high-level figure skating competition, I highly recommend it! The truly great routines were electric. Ilia Malanin, the reigning world champ, happens to be an American teenager, and the crowd was losing its mind as he effortlessly nailed quadruple axels and even (shockingly) a backflip.
With that, onto the articles!
Berkshire Hathaway 2024 Annual Letter - Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway, Inc.
Typically, companies’ annual reports are fairly dry presentations of the previous year’s earnings, with a couple of positive (but not too positive) comments on the business’s activities thrown in for good measure. Of course, Buffett has built a reputation for dispensing some truly valuable wisdom in his reports. In this one, he discusses the mistakes that he and his board have made over the previous decades, eulogizes a deceased manager of one of BH’s portfolio companies, and proudly discloses the almost $27 billion BH paid in taxes in 2024.
I’ve read about Buffett before,2 and I have a deep and genuine respect for his accomplishments. Buffett creates values by identifying good companies and good people, then using his vast cash reserves to help them become reach their potential. I think that a lot of the dissatisfaction with capitalism broadly stems from greed; profits are a suitable reward for creating something useful, until a company cuts corners and mistreats people in pursuit of said profits. Buffett preaches a humility and an awareness which, I think, represents the best of capitalism.
Ten points at a time: Inside the incredibly high-risk, low-reward LeBron James bet - David Purdum, ESPN
Did you know that LeBron James has scored 10 or more points for 1,285 games in a row? That record is much, much crazier than it seems. The last time James scored in the single-digits was in 2007! I was in elementary school. George Bush was president. James’s eldest son Bronny, who now himself plays in the NBA, was three years old! There are a few records in sports which are truly unbreakable, and this is absolutely one of them.
Of course, this means that people are now betting on it. The Purdum article features a few bettors who exist on both sides of the streak - some are betting a couple bucks on a nightly basis, in the hopes of catching James on that one off night. Others are betting enormous sums. The article references David J., who frequently bets numbers like $10,125 to win numbers like $562. You might argue that this is a great bet, as long as you have the funds to spare. You might also argue that this is how American IRAs are going get diverted into DraftKings dividends. Only time will tell.
Be a hero. Be a sheep. - Celeste Davis, Matriarchal Blessing
Davis is my favorite feminist writer. She has a way of making me just a little bit uncomfortable as she asks questions about gender relations and the patriarchy, but she always takes a positive, productive approach. Davis genuinely believes that men and women can still come together to break the bonds of toxic masculinity by questioning the machismo represented by quotes like this one:
“If you have no capacity for violence then you are a healthy productive citizen, a sheep. If you have a capacity for violence and no empathy for your fellow citizens, then you have defined an aggressive sociopath, a wolf. But what if you have a capacity for violence, and a deep love for your fellow citizens? What do you have then? A sheepdog, a warrior, someone who is walking the hero’s path.” - On Sheep, Wolves and Sheepdogs
I won’t spoil too much about the article, but let’s just say that Davis and I agree that a “capacity for violence” is not a good thing. Men should have the option to be peaceful, productive, and empathetic without being referred to as sheep.
There were 24 in total.
I highly recommend his biography Tap Dancing to Work.
The Davis article is really thought-provoking! The macho dad movie stereotype is so true. They give men the comforting fantasy that they don't need to be emotionally present — because they *would* go through extreme lengths in hypothetical situations that will likely never happen.