The Sunday Drive - 01/01/2023 Edition
👋🏻 Hello friends,
Happy New Year! Greetings and welcome to 2023 from Saratoga Springs, NY!
Let's take it easy and enjoy this New Year's edition of our leisurely Sunday Drive around the internet.
Reflections
If you count the Independent Study class I did my senior year as an undergraduate student at the University of Denver, I have been in the investment management arena for 35 years. For that class, I was tasked with creating a spreadsheet version of the Black-Scholes option pricing model in Lotus 1-2-3. Yeah... I did that. It was just about one step above computer programming with a soldering iron.
What did it yield, beyond an 'A' to pad my GPA? A job. First with a tiny boutique investment management firm in Denver, then an opportunity as a quantitative investment analyst at Phoenix-Home Life Insurance Company in Hartford, CT.
From there, I landed a job as an equity research analyst at what is today, Columbia-Threadneedle, which ultimately led me to the place where I spent the final 22 years of my corporate career - Eaton Vance in Boston, MA. In my opinion, given the culture, colleagues, and history we had at Eaton Vance, it was - hands down - the finest firm in the land. I am honored to have spent the vast majority of my career there.
As I reflect on the experiences that have brought me to where I am today, and contemplate what 2023 is to bring, I couldn't be more excited. I look forward to bringing the crystallized learnings of a 35 year career to investors in the coming year. I look forward to sharing more with you over the coming weeks about the evolved version of New Lantern Advisors - the independent investment management firm I founded in 2022 to more directly serve financial advisors and their clients with innovative solutions to real world problems. Let's get it started...
Vibin'
It's a new year. I gladly welcome 2023 and say good riddance to 2022! The Vibe of the Week is of a slightly newer vintage than you'd typically expect from me, but I thought it an appropriate kickoff to what I hope is a better, more sane and tame year than the one we just came through. Please enjoy 2004's Let's Get it Started by the Black Eyed Peas.
Fun Fact: Growing up in Texas, we always ate black-eyed peas (and cornbread) on New Year's Day for luck and good fortune in the coming year.
💡 Quote of the Week
"Every year you make a resolution to change yourself. This year, make a resolution to be yourself." - Unknown
📈 Chart of the Week
I guess inflation was on a lot of folks' minds this year.
Interesting Drive-By's
🤔 20 Life Lessons from Byron Wien That Will Make You a Better Person - Byron Wien has a career that spans decades on Wall Street, and has built himself a prestigious reputation in the process. Born in the Depression era, Wien became a teenage orphan when both of his parents died before he was 14. But, he didn’t let life’s bad breaks defeat him. Wien would go on to attend Harvard University, where he graduated with a Master’s Degree.
He first entered the financial industry by working for Morgan Stanley in 1984, and eventually became the company’s top investment strategist. Today, he is the Vice Chairman of Blackstone Advisory Partners.
💡 The Eight Metaphors of Organization - An excellent summary of Gareth Morgan's seminal book on organizational management, Images of Organization. The book is based on the premise that almost all our thinking about organizations is based on one or more of eight basic metaphors.
🤓 The Era of Fast, Cheap Genome Sequencing Is Here - Illumina just announced a machine that can crack genomes twice as fast as its current version—and drive the cost down to $200 a pop.
🤯 The 10 Most Promising Breakthroughs of the Year - Pictures of the beginning of the universe, medicine that can (kind of) reverse death, and other leaps of human ingenuity
Housekeeping
Beginning next week, we are moving The Sunday Drive from our current provider to the Substack platform. This will provide more flexibility and visibility for the newsletter. Please keep an eye our for TheSundayDrive.Substack.com.
If you have any cool articles or ideas that might be interesting for future Sunday Drive-by's, please send them along or tweet 'em at me.
I wish you and yours a happy and prosperous New Year. See you next Sunday...
Your faithful financial provocateur,
-Mike
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