Everything Paul Buchheit has bought from Amazon in the last 3 years • Hacker News Board

Re: Everything Paul Buchheit has bought from Amazon in the last 3 years

#41

Post by nostrademons » Tue, Jan 05, 2010, 7:22 PM UTC

hoggle wrote: post #29

mahmud wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not a job, but it's stuff that keeps the job/company/vision straight. Broke into an industry all on my own with no training, mentor or previous experience.

This is exactly what I am thinking. The problem with it is that I am by far not fast or concentrated enough for doing this parallel to my job. I still wonder if I ever will be able to speed read. Is there a special technique or habit you have embraced or developed? It would be so great being able to read real literature again and not only having time for technical books. Sometimes I feel like turning into a machine m…

2-3 books/week isn't really speed reading, it's just making time for reading. Say that you have 3 hours/day that you can devote to reading. That's 21 hours/week. If you read a fairly average 60 pages/hour, a typical 300 page book will take 5 hours, and you'll be able to read 4 of them a week. At 100 pages/hour, you're at 3 hours for a book and will be able to read 7 (or cut your reading time down to an hour a day and still read 2-3/week).

It's much like programming though - you have to do it in big blocks or you won't get anything done. The first 15 minutes is just getting into the book, your mind wanders, and you don't get much out of it. It's once you've curled up for a half hour or more that you start really getting into it and can get decent reading speeds.

Re: Everything Paul Buchheit has bought from Amazon in the last 3 years

#42

Post by paul » Tue, Jan 05, 2010, 8:02 PM UTC

SwellJoe wrote: post #15

tfh wrote: post #5

93. Rules of the Game I thought Paul was married :)

The Game is a better read. Rules of the Game feels like leftovers.

Agreed. "The Game" was so amusing that I bought "Rules of the Game", but it doesn't have much substance.

Re: Everything Paul Buchheit has bought from Amazon in the last 3 years

#43

Post by paul » Tue, Jan 05, 2010, 8:04 PM UTC

mahmud wrote: post #4

Very little finance/investment reading. I am surprised.

I'm not aware of any good books on investing, other than Taleb. (which isn't to say there aren't any, just that the ones I've started to read aren't very impressive)

Re: Everything Paul Buchheit has bought from Amazon in the last 3 years

#44

Post by mahmud » Wed, Jan 06, 2010, 2:54 AM UTC

paul wrote: post #43

mahmud wrote: post #4

Very little finance/investment reading. I am surprised.

I'm not aware of any good books on investing, other than Taleb. (which isn't to say there aren't any, just that the ones I've started to read aren't very impressive)

Paul,

I don't know about he level of your economic and financial sophistication, but just to get your feet wet, skim the following:

The Handbook of Financial Instruments, Frank Fabozzi, editor. A bird's eye view of what is out there.

The Intelligent Investor, Benjamin Graham. The book the created the Value Investing philosophy, by Warren Buffet's teacher. Buffet was the only student in that class to get an A+.

Financial Statement Analysis, Fridson and Alvarez. How to read corporate reports and papers; whatever the CFOs want you to see,.

The Secrets of Economic Indicators, Bernard Baumohl. How to read the whole economy's report cards.

Hedges on Hedge Funds, James Hedges. Exactly what you need to know before you hand over your money to a hedge fund. Hopefully, the first book above by Fabozzi told you how many baskets you have available to put your eggs in. Hedge Funds rarely outperform the market, but that's not the whole story.

The Vital Few vs The Trivial Many, George Muzea. Good stuff :-) more geared toward active investors (even traders) but it's a good, insightful read. The mindset of "who should I listen to" is excellent. If you make a habit of reading financial statements, and scanning the market from time to time, seeing how movements in a given stock correspond with company news (a fun hobby, btw!) then you will get something from this book, specially on insider trading.

That's it for now.