There is one book I recommend more than any other, and I'm ashamed to share the name...

I swear to god, this is an incredible, well-written, thoughtful book.

It's called 'How To Get Rich' 🤦‍♂️

It was written by a magazine publishing magnate named Felix Dennis in 2008...

Ignore the title. Seriously. It's great.

He is a character. In the 90's he blew $100MM+ on alcohol and crack cocaine, then become a full-time poet in the early 2000's.

It encompasses most of the important lessons of starting and operating a large business.

Here's a few bits:
Fish where the fish are:

“If you wish to become rich, look carefully about you at the prevailing industries where wealth appears to be gravitating. THEN GO TO WHERE THE MONEY IS!”
Hire smart people and leave them to it:

“When you come across real talent, it is worth allowing them to create the structure. In nine cases out of ten, by inviting them to take responsibility and control for a new venture, you will motivate them to do great things.”
Delegate:

“If you want to get rich, then learn to delegate. Don’t learn to pretend to delegate. Delegation is not only a powerful tool, it is the only way to maximise and truly incentivise your most precious asset – the people who work for you."
Fight to hire the best:

“Stupid people are easy to hire.”
Ideas > Execution:

“If you never have a single great idea in your life, but become skilled in executing the great ideas of others, you can succeed beyond your wildest dreams. Seek them out and make them work. They do not have to be your ideas. Execution is all in this regard.”
Retain ownership:

"Every single percentage point of anything you own is crucial. It is worth fighting for, tooth and claw. It is worth shouting and banging on the table for. It is worth begging for and grovelling for.”
Money ≠ Happiness:

“Happiness? Don't make me laugh. The rich are not happy. I have yet to meet a really rich happy man or woman—and I have met many rich people. The demands from others to share their wealth become so tiresome, that they nearly always insulate themselves."
I first read this back in 2008 and have read it annually since then.

In reality, while it is about how to get rich, it's REALLY about why you probably don't want to get rich and the myriad ways it messed up his life.

Really great. Worth a read: https://t.co/hSk6KlC1jE

More from Culture

One of the authors of the Policy Exchange report on academic free speech thinks it is "ridiculous" to expect him to accurately portray an incident at Cardiff University in his study, both in the reporting and in a question put to a student sample.


Here is the incident Kaufmann incorporated into his study, as told by a Cardiff professor who was there. As you can see, the incident involved the university intervening to *uphold* free speech principles:


Here is the first mention of the Greer at Cardiff incident in Kaufmann's report. It refers to the "concrete case" of the "no-platforming of Germaine Greer". Any reasonable reader would assume that refers to an incident of no-platforming instead of its opposite.


Here is the next mention of Greer in the report. The text asks whether the University "should have overruled protestors" and "stepped in...and guaranteed Greer the right to speak". Again the strong implication is that this did not happen and Greer was "no platformed".


The authors could easily have added a footnote at this point explaining what actually happened in Cardiff. They did not.

You May Also Like

https://t.co/6cRR2B3jBE
Viruses and other pathogens are often studied as stand-alone entities, despite that, in nature, they mostly live in multispecies associations called biofilms—both externally and within the host.

https://t.co/FBfXhUrH5d


Microorganisms in biofilms are enclosed by an extracellular matrix that confers protection and improves survival. Previous studies have shown that viruses can secondarily colonize preexisting biofilms, and viral biofilms have also been described.


...we raise the perspective that CoVs can persistently infect bats due to their association with biofilm structures. This phenomenon potentially provides an optimal environment for nonpathogenic & well-adapted viruses to interact with the host, as well as for viral recombination.


Biofilms can also enhance virion viability in extracellular environments, such as on fomites and in aquatic sediments, allowing viral persistence and dissemination.