Cultish Creative Weekly (5/18/2024)

My friend Bogumil Baranowski, aka Polish Batman, joined me for a NEW episode of The Intelligent Investor over on the Epsilon Theory YouTube channel. We talked growing up in the 1980s during the end of Poland’s communist period, his family, and how so many of those life and relationship lessons have shaped the business person he’s become. 

We all are made of the building blocks in our backstories. I made the Batman reference for a specific reason I didn’t end up saying out loud. I’ll write it out quiet here. 

Bogumil, in all his soft-spoken glory (which is less raspy Christian Bale vibes, and more Adam West thoughtful/deliberate) embodies this Alan Moore scripted Batman quote more than most people I’ve met: “If I have to have a past, then I prefer it to be multiple choice.”  From using ration cards to consulting billionaires about investing in their family’s future, here’s Bogumil on the latest episode of The Intentional Investor: 

Over on Excess Returns, Jack Forehand and I did a “10 Lessons” from our careers in asset management episode. It’s more philosophical than mathy, plus we had a lot of fun stretching the meanings away from finance. Also, I wanted to share my first recurring internet troll with you. They’ve been responding to all these episodes via the YouTube comments and their feedback so far is fantastically focused on… tax commentary. People are weird. Especially that person. But, I appreciate the engagement! You should like/subscribe too (and not be weird about it). 

From the Personal Archive this week:

I am so far down a Steve Albini rabbit hole right now. You’ve been warned. It started with this entry, Sunday Music: Remembering Steve Albini. 

What Max Martin did with an indie rock song to make it an all-time instantly recognizable hit, I can’t believe I hadn’t written this post before, Maps, Terrains, And Pop-Songwriting Tips. 

I’m still trying to make sense of if studying the meaning of every line of every song is a good or a bad thing. It’s probably an “meh” thing where you decide. But the Taylor Swift, Kendrick/Drake, new Beyonce stuff has been so (delightfully) inescapable, hence, Modern Music Discourse: Open Questions.

Did you miss the Bogumil story above and skim to this point? Go back and read it, because there’s more Batman references, but I also wrote this, Bogumil Baranowski Is An Intentional Investor. 

Jerry Seinfeld on Neil Brennan’s Blocks is a great watch/listen, but this story was my favorite, David Letterman’s Advice To Jerry Seinfeld.

Do you want to cry in the best way about the love of family and kindness of strangers? I’ve got you. And this story is so, so, so beautiful, Ben Kaplan’s NBA-Bar Mitzvah.