What I'm Reading 03.23.15

1. Emily Nussbaum on The New Yorker "Candy Girl"

In case, people don't know, I love TV comedies (a problem caused by severe insomnia). I just finished watching an entire season of Unbreakable Kimmy Schimdt, a Netflix show that recounts a girl who navigates New York City after being kidnapped for 15 years by a doomsday cult. Kimmy's optimism is so effervescent, and this piece perhaps capture what I believe is the essence of the series. We are more than our worst days, in fact surviving is more than just existing - it is a freedom within ourselves.

2. Aswath Damodaran on Musings on Markets "Illiquidity and Bubbles in Private Share Markets: Testing Mark Cuban's thesis!"

The valuation guru has spoken! This time, he talks about the tech bubble, specifically the one that Mark Cuban (Shark Tank dude) believes come from the private market due to the absence of liquidity. I think Damodaran is completely spot on with regards to the private market taking a discount of liquidity. Just think about PEs and VCs all aiming to get IPOs. Why in the world would they do it, if they do not believe in the value of liquidity premium? In fact, the private market limits the impact of the bubble, by limiting the effect to only institutional players. We would be protecting many of the passive and/or retail investors. Props to the valuation guru for using good data to come to this conclusion.

3.  Seth Mydans on New York Times "Lee Kuan Yew, Founding Father and First Premier of Singapore, Dies at 91"

Through my interactions with many Singaporeans, I have learned to garner respect for the founding father of Singapore. I am still amazed by how much of an improvement he brought to Singapore: the political stability, the economic development, the human capital investment, and the social security structure. I won't say his reign was perfect; at times, he could be authoritarian especially with regards to gay rights and freedom of press. But indeed, the efficient, developed Singapore of today only existed due to his founding contributions, and for that, I think it is high time we pay our respects.

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On another note, Kygo and Ke$ha is headlining this year's Spring Fling (which is Penn's big annual concert tradition - we had Tiesto & David Guetta last time - YEAH, BE JELLY PEOPLE). So yeah, here's my favorite song by Kygo to celebrate:

Firestone | Listen for free at bop.fm

Why I Write?

Man in The Mirror (Acoustic) | Listen for free at bop.fm

If you ask me a year ago, would I ever be writing a novel in my life?, I would have answered with a straight no. I am impatient, wanting to see results; the opposite of what is required of a novelist, a patience to wait for a story to grow and weather through writer's block.

So why write now? Because, as F. Scott Fitzgerald says, "you don't write because you want to say something, you write because you have something to say." I write, because I wake up at 5 am, sweating about my characters and their fates. I write, because simply keeping the words in won't suffice. Like a river that can't be put in a dam, my feelings require an outlet. I write, because when I go to the gym, all I'm doing while on the treadmill is think "gee, I should totally flesh out that character, he seems too thin on paper." I write, because perhaps written words say what I am incapable of saying in words, the agreeable introvert in me not wishing to disturb the fabrics of society. 

I'm still about a third into the story, but I'm so excited to continue writing, to breathe life into a romance of two young college students united by their love of music. I'm sad, whenever I have to write scenes of them fighting (yes, I've cried hysterically once or twice while writing at 4 am... sorry for waking you up, Gatsby*). I'm happy, whenever they share their love and steal kisses under the stars in New York City. Oh, what a roller coaster it has been to write. But so far, it's what keeps me alive and excited for my future. 

I hope that I'll be done with this by the end of April, but until then, I'm afraid that this blog will be under hiatus. Anything I will post during that period are old posts that I've started, but haven't finished yet. I will be more active on my Ask.fm to compensate, so send me any questions there.

Cheers, Aly

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* Gatsby is my neighbor's dog. He's a super cute beagle that likes to jump at me in the elevator!

What I'm Reading 02.05.15

Sorry for the long hiatus! I guess this is what happens once school starts rolling in, and you're trying to do a million things at once. I'm currently back in Philadelphia, and working on lots of exciting new projects. Here are some things that I've been reading recently!

1. Adam M. Grant (New York Times) on Raising a Moral Child

I have nothing but praises for my organizational behavior professor, Adam Grant. This op-ed is about how to raise caring children, and what research says about it. We know a lot about how to raise successful children, but not as much about how to raise caring children. To summarize, here are some of his practical advice: 1) praise children's good character rather than behavior, so they internalize the values as part of their moral identity, 2) parent's anger cause two emotions in children - shame (a bad reflection upon character) & guilt (a bad reflection upon behavior) - and it is better for children to feel guilt so they are willing to fix the mistake, 3) modeling works better in the long run than preaching the choir. Amazing piece of parenting advice, backed with scientific research and data.

2. Scott Long (The Paper Bird) on Why I am not Charlie

In light of the Charlie Hedbo massacre, I have nothing but my condolences to the victims. However, turning Charlie Hedbo through the hashtag #JeSuisCharlie into a propaganda for freedom of speech is a different matter. Journalism is free (especially the right to communicate satire, or shall we say, estee de la bourgeouis), however when a satire is directed towards a religious minority that is already prosecuted by the mass, that is when it is no longer an appropriate medium to poke fun and discriminate against. Long talks about it better than I do, criticizing the movement arising from the massacre.

3. New York Times List on 52 Places to Go in 2015

I like to travel, so finding new places to go is always an exciting thing for me. While I'm surprised at the number of "exotic" locations that the New York Times have chosen this year, I'm still quite happy with outcome. Adding quite a few places to my travel destination list (yikes!!)

4. John Cassidy (The New Yorker) on Why Greece And Europe Can Still Reach A Deal

I'm a big nerd, so when I saw that the new Greek finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, plays DOTA, I admit I gave a little cheer. In addition, I love how he made a comment on how reviving the Greek economy is like playing a losing game in DOTA (pwned gg). In this article, John Cassidy talks about how "there still is room for a deal that benefits Greece and the rest of Europe, Germany included". There is no scenario in which Greece is kicked out which benefits anyone, but on the other hand, the problem of interim financing and Greek austerity is another thing to be handled. It's all a matter of time, and with Greece's new rock star finance minister settled on pwning the economy... Well, let's just say this may be a good game for the win.

What I'm Reading 01.04.15

First one of 2015! I have been in Singapore this week on a family holiday, but thank goodness for Internet. Also, some of you may be wondering on why I've been reading lots of Financial Times. It's because the hotel we were staying delivered Financial Times every morning to our room, so conveniently many of the articles ended being really good. Here are things that I have been reading this week:

1. Erik Holm and Anupreeta Das (WSJ Moneybeat) on "Buffett Reminds His Top Managers: Reputation Is Everything"

It's no secret that Warren Buffett is one of my favorite value investors. In this article, Buffett sends a note to his top Berkshire Hathaway managers on the importance of reputation. As he puts it, "we can afford to lose money - even a lot of money. But we can't afford to lose reputation - even a shred of reputation."

2. Saadia Zahidi (The Financial Times) on Muslim Womenomics

Women in the Muslim world are often missing from the narrative - both in the stories of Muhammad (check out Khadijah, one of Muhammad's spouse, and her flourishing business) and today's stories. Many progress in education, and workforce equality are discounted, but they have been contributing to the development of the area.

3. John Cassidy (The New Yorker) talks about Twelve Lessons For 2015

Here comes another BuzzFeed-style list of things that happened in 2014 and what we learned. Except, this one does it with refreshing candor (in a liberal bias, duh, it's the New Yorker). Take it with a grain of salt, but it does summarize major political & economic events in the year well.

4. Monavar Khajav (The Financial Times) on Iranian women drug addicts

We often stereotype drug addicts as the scary, rough, violent men that we often see portrayed in television. The truth is very far removed from that stereotype. Take for instance, the young educated women of Iran. Trapped in between of increasing opportunities and conservative Muslim strictures, they have taken refuge in the use of drugs as an escape. This hits pretty close to home for me, since I have seen numerous people my age using drugs as a means of escaping - be it tedium, lack of parental attention, academic pressure, or social enforcement. The funny thing is that the people you would think are drug addicts (or users) are highly educated people from good social standing with enough money to spare. It's time that we break that stereotype and realize that drug addicts are not a marginalized community separate from us - they are part of our community and a result of our society's side effects.

Side note: This just represents the articles I've been reading. I've also been reading some books on the side too, amongst them:

• Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky (still slowly making progress... At this rate, I might take a couple of months to finish this book)
• The Shifts and The Shocks: What We've Learned - and Have Still to Learn -  From the Financial Crisis by Martin Wolf
• Thinking with Type by Ellen Lupton

New Year Resolutions

Happy New Year 2015 everyone! Starting the new year, we embark upon a new journey. And with that new journey, I think this is a good time to write down our resolutions, set new goals, and go out and achieve them. Here are my resolutions for the upcoming year:

1. Start my own YouTube channel, and publish a video bi-weekly on accounting, investing, finance, and economics. The plan is to have it launched by the end of January.
2. Make time for reading. I'm setting a goal of finishing 1 book every week, unless I'm reading something like Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky  (great book, but incredibly dense).
3. Be more responsive with emails, and get to inbox zero ASAP. I've been trying to implement David Allen's Getting Things Done system, but I've had trouble getting started because of my emails.
4. Limit eating out to 3 times a week. I need to stop getting sashimi delivery all the time.
5. Revamp my wardrobe. I honestly dislike shopping (yes, this is a girl saying she hates shopping), but I realize what a difference clothing can make to your professional image. I promise to make time this semester to go shopping every month, and read more fashion blogs. Some of my favorite fashion blogs include: Extra Petite, The Brooklyn Blonde, Song of Style, and Wendy's Lookbook.

Cheers to all of you. Looking forward to an amazing 2015!