Hyperbole and a Half

By Allie Brosh

Is this a graphic novel? It is a lovely set of short stories illustrated by Brosh's distinct drawings.

Brosh ultimately realizes that she is just sort of naturally shitter than what she wants to be, and she had to trick her self to keep herself from finding out and making her disappointed. This trickery is the cause of many weird and unfortunate behaviors behind many of Brosh's  hilarious stories.

Aren't we all.

Brosh's story about her depression is very deep and touching.

I read this book for a second time in May 2017. I close friend of mind had just told me that he just doesn't feel anymore. From our conversation I gathered that he was deeply depressed. He didn't use those words though. I thought of gifting this book to him, maybe to cheer him up. First I reread it to ensure it was as relevant as I had thought.

This is not a book to help depressed people. This is a book for friends of depressed people. I think I've realized that I can help him. Even worse, helping him may be counter productive. As the author said, "Telling a depressed person to cheer up is like telling an armless person to keep punching him self until his arms grow back-- That plan is just fundamentally wrong."

Instead I can keep in touch with him as he goes through this journey and perhaps double check that his decisions to go off into the weeds.

The Upside of Irrationality

By Dan Ariely

We are irrational far more often than we'd like. We are often unaware of than this because e don't fully understand our behavior. Irrationality isn't all bad. It can give us meaning and purpose, so it's not all bad.

To protect your self, make decisions based on testable experiments.

The (Honest) Truth about Dishonesty.

By Dan Ariely

We all are dishonest, just a little. But not so much so that we think we are bad people.

Honest goes way up when in situations where people think you can double check on them. So, if you want more honesty around you, then politely do so. Trust but verify.

A Random Walk down Wall Street

By Burton G. Malkiel.

Buy and hold low expense index funds. Everything else in this book tells you why. Malkiel asserts (and I agree with him) that no investment expert can consistently beat the market in he long run. Especially when you consider expenses and tax.

Many investment strategies eat themselves up. Take the dogs of the Dow for example, the idea that you invest in the highest yield Dow stocks and regularly adjust your portfolio accordingly. If you think about it, if enough people doe this this, then low yield stocks never drop price enough (which boots yield) to make the strategy work.

Diversifying according to the market size (which an index fund accomplishes) is self reinforcing. It doesn't fail because many people do so.

But that's not the only reason to invest in low expense index funds. Read the book if you want all the details.