Cadence

I have grown deeply attached to the rhythm of my day, getting up early when it's quiet to meditate and read, proceeding through breakfast and the paper to my morning session with notepad and computer, slowly proceeding from topics of very long term nature to those of the day. First something spiritualish, then the paper, focusing on longer-duration stories rather than market news of the day, before checking the futures and email. Easing into the day, as it were. Generally, the exercise is one of attempting to maintain as long a horizon as possible.

Then I get in my car and listen to a book, right now, having finally polished off Kahneman's Thinking Fast and Slow, I am returning to Yuval Noah Harari's Sapiens, which Mary and Graham and I had listened to some of months ago and then I let slide. Then I read more of Harari's stuff in another context and learned that the guy does silent meditation for two months a year (yes, he talks to nobody during that time, and I think consumes no media) which is just freaking crazy but intense and, clearly, fruitful.

A friend and client recently asked that I write a quarterly newsletter outlining my thinking on markets, something I am considering. But I think that the quarter is such a constraining, artificial, and misleading construct that it will warp anything I write. I also think it's too short a time period to be meaningful. (I think in principle that quarterly reporting on the part of corporations is distortive -- but that from a control and compliance perspective it's good because it provides actors within firms with an incentive to keep it tight, and it gives analysts a window into firms to spot fraud).

I'll figure something out.