Carlos Fentanes
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Classifieds
Classifieds: everybody is selling, everybody is buying; an slogan in Mexico said: “Somebody has what you are looking for and somebody is looking for what you have”… Is just like love! It’s funny the stuff that you can find on it. From real garbage at high rise prices to real work of art for free…
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Life of Pi
“To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation.” Martel, Yann. “Life of Pi.”
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Bargain Books
Last week I visited the bookstore and I found a bargain almost impossible to refuse: a beautiful lobster cookbook: over 100 beautifully illustrated pages with all kinds of recipes about lobster: lobster lasagna, lobster clam chowder, lobster thermidor … exquisite photographs and just for CDN $ 2.00 (about USD$ 2.00). We had it in my…
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Graceland
There is a girl in New York City Who calls herself the human trampoline And sometimes when I’m falling, flying Or tumbling in turmoil I say WHOA [not oh], so this is what she means She means we’re bouncing into Graceland And I see losing love Is like a window in your heart Everybody sees…
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Merry Christmas
When I was a Child, each year when the Winter solstice became closer, you could see in the business and shops: Merry Christmas… In the last years this has changed and now we can see the politically correct euphemism: “Happy Holidays”. This week the transit service in my town (Saskatoon, SK), receive complain about the…
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I don’t know what you mean by ‘glory’
“I don’t know what you mean by ‘glory,’ ” Alice said. Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. “Of course you don’t—till I tell you. I meant ‘there’s a nice knock-down argument for you!’ ” “But ‘glory’ doesn’t mean ‘a nice knock-down argument’,” Alice objected. “When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means…
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What is art for?
How a lithograph can be worth 100 times more just because it is signed? What was the main function of that work of art? Is it for the joy of the senses? Is the emotion that makes us feel? Decorating a wall? No, because then it would not matter if it was signed. Who cares…
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The Illusion of Stock-Picking Skill
“In 1984, Amos and I and our friend Richard Thaler visited a Wall Street firm. Our host, a senior investment manager, had invited us to discuss the role of judgment biases in investing. I knew so little about finance that I did not even know what to ask him, but I remember one exchange. “When…
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Thinking, Fast and Slow
“For some of our most important beliefs we have no evidence at all, except that people we love and trust hold these beliefs. Considering how little we know, the confidence we have in our beliefs is preposterous—and it is also essential.” Daniel, Kahneman. “Thinking, Fast and Slow.”
Carlos Fentanes 