Episode · Invest Like the Best · 2017-03-21
Patrick O'Shaughnessy & Jim O'Shaughnessy: books mentioned on Invest Like the Best #29
Jim O’Shaughnessy - Premeditated Success - [Invest Like the Best, EP.29]
My guest this week is my father, Jim O’Shaughnessy. He was a pioneer in quantitative equity research, part of an early group of explorers who combed through data to find factors which predicted future stock returns.
Jim O'Shaughnessy recommended Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu, Adventures of a Bystander by Peter Drucker, Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! by Richard P. Feynman, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig, The Complete Poems and Plays of T. S. Eliot by T. S. Eliot, The Complete Plays of T. S. Eliot by T. S. Eliot, Cloud Atlas by David Stephen Mitchell, The Misbehavior of Markets by Benoit Mandelbrot and others, When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi, On Writing Well by William Zinsser, How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie, and The Daily Drucker by Peter Drucker. Patrick O'Shaughnessy discussed The Snowball by Alice Schroeder.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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Tao Te Ching
Recommended“The one I would start with would be the Tao Te Ching, The Way of Life by Lao Tzu. Taoism is one of the major philosophical lines of thought in Asia.”
Where to get it
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Adventures of a Bystander
Recommended“Another one would be a fun one, Adventures of a Bystander by Peter Drucker. Now, Drucker is best known for his consulting work and the GM story and all that.”
Where to get it
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Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!
Recommended“Surely you're joking, Mr. Feynman. Feynman was the physicist who solved the Challenger problem by taking the material and putting it in a glass of ice and it disappeared.”
Where to get it
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Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Recommended“Another book that I've read probably five or six times, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Love the book. Taught me a lot about how to think”
Where to get it
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The Complete Poems and Plays of T. S. Eliot
Recommended“I love poetry, poetry. So I would include the complete poems and plays of T.S. Eliot, probably one of my favorite poets. The Love Song of J. Alfred Pufrock, I think, is one of the greatest poems written in the last 150 years.”
Where to get it
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The Complete Plays of T. S. Eliot
Recommended“I love poetry, poetry. So I would include the complete poems and plays of T.S. Eliot, probably one of my favorite poets. The Love Song of J. Alfred Pufrock, I think, is one of the greatest poems written in the last 150 years.”
Where to get it
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Cloud Atlas
Recommended“An author who I love, but I'm going to recommend the book that I love the most, Cloud Atlas, by David Mitchell. It is a tour de force and it's written in a very unique way, but it works.”
Where to get it
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The Misbehavior of Markets
Recommended“I would say The Misbehavior of Markets by Mandelbrot. The chapter alone on the destruction of the efficient market theory is worth the entire book.”
Where to get it
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When Breath Becomes Air
Recommended“One last one, which was one where I'm not a crier, but at the end of the book, I did have tears in my eyes. It was written by a young doctor who died. And it's called When Breath Becomes Air.”
Where to get it
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The Snowball
Discussed“That section of snowball that gets into that Solomon brothers scandal is so incredible. Amazing. It shows the power of just owning up to something, a proud moment for him.”
Where to get it
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On Writing Well
Recommended“So, I think you can get better at being a communicator. I think that I was lucky enough, like you, to have a natural talent for communicating and for convincing people of things. But I think you can get a lot better at it.”
Where to get it
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How to Win Friends and Influence People
Recommended“You know, for example, How to Win Friends and Influence People, I never read that book until recently, because I always thought, oh, man, that sounds so corny. You know, that sounds so 1930s.”
Where to get it
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The Daily Drucker
Recommended“And so, I read a lot that the Drucker book, I recommend it. And, but then I read some other books on, you know, what kinds of qualities did people who were really great managers”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (1) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
“Got a call from a guy up in Canada, which resulted in the his name was Dave Chilton is is Dave Chilton. He wrote a book called The Wealthy Barber, which actually has outsold the Bible in Canada.”