Chetan Phalke is the founding partner at Alpha Invesco, an investment advisory firm based in Pune. Chetan is actively involved in the financial markets for the last 13+ years. He prefers to look at undervalued investment opportunities that offer a reasonable risk-adjusted return over a period of time. Chetan received his masters in Economics from Fergusson College, Pune.
Archives for October 2019
The Orangutan Theory
I am a big fan of Calvin and Hobbes comic strip. According to me, it’s the greatest comic ever created. Sadly, Bill Watterson, the creator of Calvin and Hobbes, developed an interest in other creative pursuits and stopped making Calvin and Hobbes after 1995.
For the uninitiated, Calvin is a 6-year-old boy who is a little too smart for his age. But judging by his performance at school, one would think of him as a slow learner. However, Calvin’s genius is revealed when Watternson lets you peek into the little boy’s life outside the classroom. The kid may not know basic mathematical operations like addition or multiplication but he can outsmart any adult when it comes to imagination. And let me remind you what Albert Einstein said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.”
[Read more…] about The Orangutan Theory
Behaviouronomics: Neomania
The first iPhone was released on June 29, 2007. Steve Jobs, dawning his showman hat, unveiled Mac’s revolutionary device with much hype and media coverage. The first iPhone had a touch screen, wifi and Bluetooth connectivity, a music player, a camera, an on-screen keyboard, and a browser to surf the Internet. In the first week, 300000 iPhones were sold.
Fast forward 12 years. Apple recently came out with the iPhone 11 Pro Max which is the 16th version since the first iPhone.
[Read more…] about Behaviouronomics: Neomania
Scaling Fallacy in Investing
December 17, 1903, was a momentous date in the history of human transportation. On this day, Wright brothers — Oliver and Wilbur — made the first controlled, sustained flight of a powered, heavier-than-air aircraft.
We all know, Wright brothers weren’t the first to attempt human flight. For centuries curious adventurers had been trying to decode this puzzle — how to fly. They looked at nature and noticed that birds fly by flapping wings. So do insects and butterflies.
But mimicking nature can be dangerous — this was a painful lesson that was learned by many early pioneers of human flight. There’s a long list of men who plunged to their death when they jumped from towers wearing large artificial wings.
Bookworm: Factfulness by Hans Rosling
A few years back, I wrote an essay on the mental model of Redundancy. In that article, I mentioned how Bill Gates reasoned using Redundancy that saving lives in Africa will contain the country’s population growth over the longer term. One reader pointed out that Gates’ insight originally came from another guy named Hans Rosling.
A little bit of research revealed that Hans Rosling had a decisive impact on how Bill Gates thought about his philanthropy work in African countries. No wonder, when Rosling’s book came out, Gates was among the first to publish a review. He wrote —
Hans, the brilliant global-health lecturer who died last year, gives you a breakthrough way of understanding basic truths about the world—how life is getting better, and where the world still needs to improve. And he weaves in unforgettable anecdotes from his life. It’s a fitting final word from a brilliant man, and one of the best books I’ve ever read.
Small Steps to Change Your Life, Simplicity, and Living with Acceptance
Every Saturday, I send out this special post with a few ideas I am reading and thinking about. Plus, a question I am meditating on.
If you wish to receive this post – apart from others I write regularly on investing, decision making, behavioral finance – please sign up below.
Book I’m Reading – One Small Step Can Change Your Life
“Go big or go home,” is a glorified adage. To change a habit, most people believe that they must take drastic steps. Like an austere lifestyle to get out of personal debt, quitting an addiction “cold turkey,” removing all their favorite foods from a diet. In most such cases, either the task is finished or they are. (often, it’s the latter.)
[Read more…] about Small Steps to Change Your Life, Simplicity, and Living with Acceptance
Forces Shaping Our World, Fixed Vs Growth Mindset, And Handling Failure
Every Saturday, I send out this special post with a few ideas I am reading and thinking about. Plus, a question I am meditating on.
If you wish to receive this post – apart from others I write regularly on investing, decision making, behavioral finance – please sign up below.
Book I’m Reading – Mindset
Tolstoy and Darwin were considered as ordinary as children. Iconic photographer Cindy Sherman failed her first photography course. Amitabh Bachchan got rejected by All India Radio. What differentiates them from other people who encountered similar setbacks was their mindset.
[Read more…] about Forces Shaping Our World, Fixed Vs Growth Mindset, And Handling Failure
Special Report: 27 Ideas on What Doesn’t Work — Part Seven
This is the seventh and the last post of the multi-part series based on Peter Bevelin’s book — All I Want to Know is Where I’m Going to Die, So I’ll Never Go There.
My favourite author Nassim Taleb is not very generous when it comes to praising other authors but when he does, you can be sure that Taleb means it and not doing it out of politeness. And this is what Taleb says about Bevelin —
Peter Bevelin is one of the wisest people on the planet.
[Read more…] about Special Report: 27 Ideas on What Doesn’t Work — Part Seven
Three Types of Management
People come in different shades, and managers are people.
Here are three different types of management (there may be more, but let’s go with these three for now), and my thoughts on how you may want to deal with them when it comes to investing in the businesses they manage.
Most of us overlook the human aspect of operating a business, yet, in most cases, the future success of a business is directly tied to the quality of the people managing its affairs.