A little conference / trip to Nashville tour diary post I wanted to write and share. Brought to you by Jared Dillian, who started writing a newsletter when he worked at Lehman all these years ago. Which means, if nothing else, I’m re-upping (according to my phone notes) on inspiration for what happens when you share your creativity and let a scene form around it, like he’s done. Inherent to that practice is a reminder that you also have to be a little weird. It’s the only way you’ll stand out. Which is as good a segue as any into the sub-theme of this adventure, including my delight and amazement around how I ended up talking about literature at a finance conference. Life, man.

First, flights are for reading. Nothing stretches my brain out like fiction, and I cherish dedicated reading time like I can't even tell you. My flight books for this trip were a pair of Charles Portis classics I've been meaning to read forever. I did The Dog of the South on the way down and True Grit on the way back. Portis's ability to inhabit the worlds of these characters and let you see life through their eyes is almost unparalleled. He's Denis Johnson crossed with Larry McMurtry and I clearly need to read everything he's ever written now.

So we got into Nashville late on a Wednesday, flight delays and all that, and after managing to lie in bed for a few hours (I can't call it sleep), I took the walk around the block to the Virgin Hotel, where Dirtcon 7 was taking place. What a location. After saying hi to the staff and people I'd previously only talked to over email, my immediate thought was that this was a packed room, and everyone had shown up early. You love to see that.

Jared opened it up with some remarks and a chart book that can only be described as the kind of chart flipping and saving that explains his process. You need to take in 1,000 things to find 100 decent bits, let alone 1 or 2 pieces of gold. The presentation was his 100 things, and sometime I need to ask him about his process for doing this because it's a finance/research skill I think is underdiscussed.

Peter Boockvar did his macro tour, followed by some deep and distressed value ideas, which I am an absolute sucker for and had to talk myself off the ledge of adding some shares while he was presenting. I've been a fan of him for a long time. It was great to finally be introduced.

Jan Van Eck and Marcin Zdunek joined Jared next. Jan is a character (we've had him on Excess Returns) and I made a note to introduce Marcin to Bogumil Baranowski at some point. The Polish energy had me hungry.

Tony Greer directly trolled me with music references in his presentation. I got a good pic of what I assume is Dave Grohl, but would gladly claim it was me if somebody didn't already know it was Dave Grohl. Next time I'm in Nashville it'll be with Tony and I'm very much looking forward to that.

Vincent Daniel and Porter Collins were up next, and I love how much they love financials. They're also almost too good at the media/talking/presenting game in the fireside chat style format. They can speak in soundbites. Someday I'll get better at this skill.

Meb Faber was another person I was happy to finally meet in person. His latest book is outstanding (here’s us talking about it, too), and he's an excellent presenter. Jokes and serious info, and then jokes about serious info - pretty much exactly what you'd expect.

Sticking with the not your average finance conference theme, Jared ended day one by threatening everyone's life if they didn't come to the DJ night he'd arranged (at The Night We Met), and also said if the club didn't say his private event had the best tippers they'd ever seen we'd all be in trouble. Talk about libertarian paternalism.

Most of this crowd has probably (re: definitely) not seen a DJ set, let alone one at a finance conference, so I was very interested to see how this would go down.

Before the gig we were going to get a quick bite, and when I realized Hattie B's was on the corner, I can't say no to that. I know I'm very basic sometimes, but my wife supported it, and despite my flashbacks to the time Ben Hunt, Rusty Guinn and I did our Hot Ones style conference chat with all their levels of heat, I got into a sandwich and sides. It is a good thing they aren't national. I want all of their sides, all of the time.

The gig was awesome. Jared's buddy opened up, we got to meet a bunch of other conference attendees and hear their stories. Great music and great hang, all around. Plus, Jared's great. He did an up-tempo set with a lot of throwback electronic and house (going on memory here), and for a crowd that I suspect hasn't been to a lot of clubs for DJ sets, it was perfect. Obligatory hangin' with Tony pic here:

Day 2 followed on the heels of night 2 of me not sleeping well, but copious amounts of coffee and adrenaline later, Mark Lapolla got on stage first and gave everyone an existential crisis. In a good way, for those of us who like that kind of thing, and I made a note to reach out to Ben Hunt and Tom Morgan about it. Heavy talk, but deeply thought provoking.

Somewhere halfway through Mark's crisis of meaning pitch I realized I was up next with Jared on the agenda. I don't do bleak on stage. It's the music/entertainer part inside of me. I realized the reversal we were going to need to pull off. Literature was about as far from the finance-heavy day 1 as it gets, and Mark had left us in full Sisyphean, the rock just rolled back down the hill and you better go get it, energy (again, I say this as a compliment, I loved his presentation). My brain started going crazy.

I think the key to the audience enjoying themselves is you have to enjoy yourself. I'm giving myself credit for making Jared laugh on stage more in our hour than any other hour of him on stage. I don't know if we turned anybody in that room into a writer or a deeper reader, but I do know between covering the literature industrial complex, the serendipity of Us3, and why he feels constipated when he's not being creative, you can see the fun on our faces, reflecting the energy coming back from the audience. Sisyphus got the boulder back up the hill!

Eric Balchunas was up next and kept the energy rolling. His ETF market updates are second to none online and in writing, and seeing it live was even better. Lots of tucked in comedy and pop culture references in his slides. He also told me about a zine I've been obsessively tracking down (a DC hardcore guy who is obsessed with the Gin Blossoms? Talk about a pitch geared for my heart).

Ethics professor Chris Freiman was up next. I love this guy, and not just because he's a Philly sports nut. He does simple and approachable work that, like my love of ethics and moral philosophy, I wish everyone was exposed to. He's also got the wit and preacher/teacher energy of Joseph Moore (I'll need to intro them).

John Burns joined Jared on stage to talk about coaching high performers. This was sneaky good. John's got a crazy background professionally, but this second chapter he's on, with the level of self-awareness he possesses, he is my people. I also loved finding out later we share a love for Ocean City, NJ. That's serendipity for you.

Barry Knapp closed out the guest speakers for the day. Barry is old school with new school insights, and he reminds me of my favorite research people from when I was starting out in the industry at Merrill. You just want to hang out with him and have him explain various indicators to you, how they work and more importantly how they've evolved in importance over time. He's got the wisdom of years in him. We coincidentally ended up having a drink with him and his wife after the conference and I can say he's done a wonderful job on the personal side too. I loved knowing that. I can't wait to get him on an Excess Returns episode.

Jared closed the conference out and there was a collective sigh of not believing how fast it flew by. A lot of people had flights to catch and there were a ton of quick goodbyes and me apologizing for not having cards with me, but "hey you can find me on the internet" hand waves. IRL networking, it's something else.

My wife scored us bucket list tickets for Friday night, so we grabbed a quick bite from Hattie B's again because we could, and then headed to the Ryman to see Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit. I wish I could say here's a picture or a video of the show, but I can't because the venue has a strict no phones or cameras policy that I absolutely loved. The room is better than I can tell you (seriously, go see a show there, the sound is unreal), and for the first time in seeing him multiple times he did "Vampires." Both my wife and I quoted that in our wedding vows. It was special. As an extra bonus, the first song of the encore was "I'm in Love with a Girl" by Big Star. Alex Chilton covers at the Ryman by Jason Isbell. I didn't see it coming at all. One of my favorite semi obscure songwriters covering one of my other semi obscure songwriters. Life is too perfect sometimes.

After the concert we passed out. The next morning we got up, got breakfast, and hit the Johnny Cash Museum. As a Cash lifer, since I fell in love with his songs on 45s, and marveled at how "A Boy Named Sue" was on a record AND in a Shel Silverstein book we had ("you can do that?!"), and when I used to joke around and cover Cash songs between sets in high school, and of course loving when the movie came out and other people finally seemed to care about more than "Hurt" (which is great, but you know how it goes), we just had so much fun there. Great photo booth too!

We ended the day with an early dinner at one of our favorite Nashville steakhouses. You know when you go to a place and then want to go back, but you also want to try someplace new, but then you think - but if it's not as good as the first place, I'll be upset - so you just cave and go to the spot? That's Kayne Prime. I'm telling you so you can go there and they can stay in business. I'm only not worried about telling people it exists because I am happy to get a reservation right when they're open like the inner senior citizen I am.

The alarm went off at 3am and we headed to the airport to fly back home. True Grit is a great no-sleep plane read, if you're wondering. I thought, more than once, that Jared Dillian and Mattie Ross, the fourteen-year-old who sets out to avenge her father, have a lot in common. Portis again blew my mind with how he creates worlds in worlds like nobody else. The opening paragraph is burned into my mind. "People do not give it credence that a fourteen-year-old girl could leave home and go off in the wintertime to avenge her father's blood but it did not seem so strange then, although I will say it did not happen every day. I was just fourteen years of age when a coward going by the name of Tom Chaney shot my father down in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and robbed him of his life and his horse and $150 in cash money plus two California gold pieces that he carried in his trouser band." MAGIC.

Jared and Mattie share a certain type of gall. Nobody gives credence to the person who decides to go do the thing anyway, with complete irreverence for everyone else's assumptions and an internal confidence that runs up hard against all of them. Then the thing gets done, and everyone else is left explaining how it happened. A newsletter from a Lehman desk turns into a room full of people in Nashville, a DJ night, and a literature hour at a finance conference. I have to ask him if he's read much Portis.

The flights were good and the layover in Philly was a highlight - I love that at the end of the trip. As soon as I saw which terminal we were heading out of I got excited because I know it's near a Tony Luke's. Roast pork, broccoli rabe, and sharp provolone for lunch? It's not DiNic's but it's close enough and pure welcome back to PA comfort food. We ate it while my wife worked through this Brian Eno book that I still need to read, too.

Getting home is the best. Not just because the dogs go wild and it was the middle of the day, so true Sunday energy could be let out, but because you have to go away and experience things to come back and reflect, like I'm finally getting to do here.

Life's fun. I am so fortunate to be surrounded by so many good people, so much opportunity, and a world full of curious adventures.

Ps. In a bus, rolling past Allentown, I started thinking about what I’d write about this. Digger got stuck in my head (it’s either them or Weston when I’m staring at a highway sign in that part of PA), and this is the song that I’ve been singing ever since, hence the title of this post: