Ok, I’ve told this story a few times, but maybe never here. Here we go. 🧵👇

I was about 6. I was in the car with my mother. We were driving a few hours from home to go to Orlando. My parents were letting me audition for a tv show. It would end up being my first job. I was very excited. But, in the meantime we drove and listened to Rush’s show.
There was some sort of trivia question they posed to the audience. I don’t remember what the riddle was, but I remember I knew the answer right away. It was phrased in this way that was somehow just simpler to see from a kid’s perspective. The answer was CAROUSEL. I was elated.
My mother was THRILLED. She insisted that we call Into the show using her “for emergencies only” giant cell phone. It was this phone:
I called in. The phone rang for a while, but someone answered. It was an impatient-sounding dude. The screener. I said I had the trivia answer. He wasn’t charmed, I could hear him rolling his eyes. He asked me what it was. I told him. “Please hold.”
After a few minutes, I was taken off hold. Rush picked up and told me I was on the air. He asked me what the answer was. I told him. He asked me how I knew the answer. I told him the truth... that I just... did? He started to goad me.
This is the first time I can ever remember this happening, btw. It was very confusing. “Come on, your mind told you the answer.” “No! She didn’t even know it!” I told him. He stays on this bit for a minute, then he switches gears.
“What are you doing out of school?” He asks. I’m excited to say why! “I’m auditioning for a tv show!”

This was a mistake. I shouldn’t have told him this.
He asks to speak to my mother.
At this point, my eyes kind of start to glaze over. I realize this guy is going to give my mom a hard time for letting me do this, and I probably should’ve kept my mouth shut about the trivia answer.

He’s now berating her for being a psycho parent.
After she speaks with him for a few incredibly uncomfortable few minutes, we get off the phone.
But the show has changed course.
They’re talking about me and my mom. And then in general about how insane it is to let your kids have hobbies like acting or whatever. I
It was incredibly surreal. We kept listening in silence. The whole show was now about this topic.
I don’t think we ever even spoke about it.
Anyway, maybe he was right. My mom was kind of a psycho parent, and maybe I shouldn’t have been an actor?
So, RIP Rush. Thanks for the good story. You’ll always be the first grown man I remember gaslighting me for being smart. 🥰

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What an amazing presentation! Loved how @ravidharamshi77 brilliantly started off with global macros & capital markets, and then gradually migrated to Indian equities, summing up his thesis for a bull market case!

@MadhusudanKela @VQIndia @sameervq

My key learnings: ⬇️⬇️⬇️


First, the BEAR case:

1. Bitcoin has surpassed all the bubbles of the last 45 years in extent that includes Gold, Nikkei, dotcom bubble.

2. Cyclically adjusted PE ratio for S&P 500 almost at 1929 (The Great Depression) peaks, at highest levels except the dotcom crisis in 2000.

3. World market cap to GDP ratio presently at 124% vs last 5 years average of 92% & last 10 years average of 85%.
US market cap to GDP nearing 200%.

4. Bitcoin (as an asset class) has moved to the 3rd place in terms of price gains in preceding 3 years before peak (900%); 1st was Tulip bubble in 17th century (rising 2200%).

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I just finished Eric Adler's The Battle of the Classics, and wanted to say something about Joel Christiansen's review linked below. I am not sure what motivates the review (I speculate a bit below), but it gives a very misleading impression of the book. 1/x


The meat of the criticism is that the history Adler gives is insufficiently critical. Adler describes a few figures who had a great influence on how the modern US university was formed. It's certainly critical: it focuses on the social Darwinism of these figures. 2/x

Other insinuations and suggestions in the review seem wildly off the mark, distorted, or inappropriate-- for example, that the book is clickbaity (it is scholarly) or conservative (hardly) or connected to the events at the Capitol (give me a break). 3/x

The core question: in what sense is classics inherently racist? Classics is old. On Adler's account, it begins in ancient Rome and is revived in the Renaissance. Slavery (Christiansen's primary concern) is also very old. Let's say classics is an education for slaveowners. 4/x

It's worth remembering that literacy itself is elite throughout most of this history. Literacy is, then, also the education of slaveowners. We can honor oral and musical traditions without denying that literacy is, generally, good. 5/x