anecdotes

One of my boys has never tasted blood. But he’s so smart, engineer, MBA. 35yrs old, great wife, few kids. His company’s transforming our world. But he’s feeling restless. You see, his boss sucks. Yeah, that happens. Even in Silicon Valley. So we had dinner. Turns out he saw a life-coach who asked what work he’d do to find harmony with just 2yrs to live. I laughed, I mean how f’in California is that? Told him I’d buy

The German Shepherd, a fearsome beast, terrifying combination of nature/nurture. Man has others. The Market is frightening, capricious – your friend one moment, a wildly destructive Mob the next. And once unleashed, both beasts are nearly impossible to restrain. Anyhow, cops train German Shepherds in a remote field near my house. So I watch. Here’s how it goes down: 8 cops, 8 dogs, 900sq/yd field, 10ft steel fe

Geneva’s old-city labyrinth. Buzz. Click. And my son Jackson pushed open the heavy door. Crossed the cobblestone courtyard. Buzz. Click. Pushed the 2nd heavy door. Stepped back in time, into an entry room of solid stone. And there it was. An ancient ivory crossbow, displayed with razor-tipped bolts. He gasped. The menacing weapon projecting power, strength, stopped us dead. We were escorted deeper into the fortress.

I was rocket-sledding down Annapurna the other day. Sunglasses on, tie flapping in the wind, stereo blasting Richard Wagner‘s Flight of the Valkyries on a Maxell XLII90 noise-reducing cassette tape. Got my heart racing and reminded me of earlier days when I would jet-pack through shark tanks. Suddenly a Himalayan mountain coyote jumped directly into my path. It’s hard to tell how you will react to a situation until i

Summertime. Sun. Surf. Friends. Family. Bonfires and books. Glorious books. Got an email Sunday morning. Asked for my list. He wasn’t looking for comics (I love those too), “Which books influenced how effective you are in mkts, business, human psychology, fund mgmt, life generally?” There are lots of ways to answer a question. And ya know, if you want to get to know someone, you gotta first give something of yourself

We got nominated for an award. That stuff’s not really our thing. We’re superstitious – call it a trading injury. But I pulled the short straw amongst my partners and jetted to NY on the off chance we won. Caxton’s Bruce Kovner accepted the lifetime achievement award. He’s a legend. One losing year in 30, fantastic returns, made investors (and his boys) very wealthy. Bruce admitted there’s no secret to making m

Certain days you know you’ll always remember, so I sat dead center. Immersed in the vibe, the energy. Brilliant young scientists from all over the planet packed the room. Mike took the podium. He leads Stanford’s Materials Science & Engineering Department for Solar Energy – no better program in the world. His graduates will power our crowded, hungry planet. Room went silent, he spoke softly, “I’ll never have a st

Oooops. Just slipped out. A squeaker. Naturally, that happens when you get a group of guys together in a room. Sure, most guys intend to – but when caught, they claim it was a mistake. Sometimes though, a fella just gets excited, loses control. This slip smelled distinctly like that latter variety. The Official blurted that Obama’s economic advisors visited the UK – a mission to understand Cameron’s auste

Teddy grabbed me, excited. He’s my 6yr old. Opened his special box. “Snakeskin,” he said, “it’s enormous.” I checked it out, 4ft strip of dusty old translucent industrial tape with a lattice pattern that closely resembled scales. Of course, I admired his newfound treasure, we imagined the viper’s size, fangs, strength, hiss, prey, den, poison-tipped tail barbs. Remember the cool stuff we discovered when we were kids?