“The text was written in either a code that has not yet been cracked or a natural language and cipher that haven’t yet been identified. Its numerous illustrations of plants, astrological signs and women in thermal baths might point to its meaning—but for the fact that none of the plant species has so far been identified and the astrological signs correspond to none that we know. The women seem to be engaging in a sort of therapy common to many parts of Europe in the 15th century, but where they are precisely, and why they are bathing together in vast waterworks connected by strange tubes and ducts, is anyone’s guess.+

Justin E.H. Smith, Wall Street Journal, Sept. 25, 2021

“For awhile, scholars suspected that Voynich created the manuscript himself as a hoax. The book dealer’s larger-than-life biography, which included a stint in a Russian prison and a trek across the Mongolian desert, seemed to lend credence to such theories”

WSJ

The manuscript is currently in the possession of Yale University’s Beinecke Library.

“Recent scholarship has generally disputed the Friedmans’ findings [that it was an artificial rather than a natural language], suggesting that the manuscript’s ‘word entropy’ indicates a natural language written in cipher.”

WSJ

Last year, however, German Egyptologist Rainer Hannig from the Roemer -und Pelizaeus Museum in Hildesheim, believes “he has cracked the code to translating the work, and found the manuscript’s language to be based on Hebrew.” –The Art Newspaper, June 18, 2020.

Scholars, cryptographers, physicists, and computer scientists can’t figure it out, or they think they do until they don’t….

Seems that we have a problem of communication with folks from 500 years ago…

More to come…

About book reviews: a lot of people charge for book reviews which they sell in packages. We’ve never done that. Some people with popular blogs don’t even write book reviews, which they consider “below” them. Others write bite-sized “buy this book” reviews which aren’t really reviews, only recommendations. Needless to say, on this blog I don’t do that. I believe in reading books as a main source of knowledge and whenever possible I buy paper books. (just to keep me away from the damn digital space). Reading a book is a process that I enjoy, it is one of my “keystone” habits. If you don’t have the habit, and you open your phone and tablet every time…you know what you’re doing. Good luck wasting your life away. (and get off my blog).

Dr. Thorp need little introduction. He wrote The Beat the Dealer, Beat the Market, Elementary Probability. He had bridge with Buffett. He ran the very successful hedge fund Princeton Newport Partners and Ridgeline Partners (18% YOY return in 25 years). Although I’m in finance, I dab in games of luck, so I was very interested in the blackjack and roulette technique Thorp develop in the ’60s.

Thorp thinks the ordinary player can still beat the game of blackjack. “For instance, never play at a table where the payoff for getting the two-card 21 has been changed from the original 3:2 to lesser amounts like 6:5 or 1:1“. Or course, casinos changed the rules when people like Thorp showed up, and many times he was declared non-grata. How do you play it? Do you stand when the dealer shows an upcard of 4, 5 or 6 ?

On roulette, as we know, the winning bet on a single number pays 35:1 meaning you get back your stake plus a profit 35 X you bet.”

The author tells us the childhood game of Rock, Paper and Scissors is a simple example of a nontransitive rule. How ? Rock beats (breaks) Scissors, Scissors beats (cuts) Paper and Paper beats (covers) Rocks. Wow !

Thorp muses on the distinction between “satisficers” and “minimizers” which he likens to something called the secretary or marriage problem:

“Assume that you will interview a series of people, from which you will choose one. Further, you must consider them one at a time, and having once rejected someone, you cannot reconsider. The optimal strategy is to wait until you have seen about 37% of the prospects, then choose the next one you see who is better than anybody among the first 37% that you passed over. If no one is better you are stuck with the last person on the list.”

A Man for All Markets

Thorp pioneered the STAR or “STatistical ARbitrage” and his portfolio was market-neutral by “constraining the relation between the long and short so that the tendency of the long side to follow the market is offset by an equal but opposite effect on the short side.”

Thorp brings compound interest into the discussion and “The Rule of 72”:

“If money grows at a percentage R in each period the, with all gains reinvested, it will double in 72/R periods.”

He makes the interesting observation that “we typically put less value on each successive $1,000 increase into our net worth, and that we feel that way about all scarce useful items, so called economic goods.”

The author discusses the Financial Crisis of 2008 in his “Financial Crises: Lessons Not Learned” Chapter. Does he ever touch on the subject of executive over-compensation, that we talk about so often on this blog ? Yes ! He quotes Mosher Adler’s article “Overthrowing the Overpaid”:

“Over 200 years ago, economists David Ricardo and Adam Smith concluded that what a person earns is determined not by what that person has produced but by that person’s bargaining power.”

Gee, no wonder you read this blog instead of the dozens of bullshitters out there.

You’re being fucked ever time and time again…I don’t mean it properly.

It’s your life in their casino.

Care to change it ?

1. Why are there movies (or miniseries) and not just books ?

The list consists of 7 books and 3 movies. To be sure, books are a learning experience unequal to watching movies. Watching a movie, or a movie based on a book is not a substitute for reading a book. However, since the visual imagery is so rich and video is so emphasized these days, I needed to include at least some movies.  Of course, I could have gone full force and get you two lists (10 books and 10 movies).  Due to time constraints I put them all in one short list. For sure this list is very limited, there are so many good books (and movies) I did not include. I stand ready to face your critic for missing out on great titles.  I am sure I am redundant and my list crossed your lists, after all my list came out of the most popular titles and authors. I  don’t pretend to have put together a list you’ve never seen before. Most of you, if not all of you have heard of Friedrich Nietzsche, most of you have read The 50th Law, and most have watched Wall Street. My goal was not to surprise anyone, although I hope some of you will get a jolt by at least one book title. If you’ve never read that one book before, then in perspective, it’s a win.

2. If I’m over 40 years old, am I just wasting my time ?

You’re absolutely not wasting your time. You’ll derive a benefit from perusing this list. Even if you own all of the titles, these books will set you up for another set of books. These authors are not one-time writers. You’ll be able to get suggestions for new material. The underling is not just somebody that’s young. The underling can be anybody that’s making progress in his career, changing careers, taking on a new career, a new responsibility, a new identity. As long as you’re progressing, as long as you have not plateaued, as long as you find inspiration and you’re driven, you are an achiever. Even if you are a CEO or the owner of your business, you need to seize the moment. You need models of achievement when Silicon Valley puts out retarded symbols like this. You can then define your own model of success.

3. I’m a lazy bum and I didn’t sign up for your mailing list. Next week I have a job interview. Give me, give me, give me.

Stop being so damn lazy and get on my mailing list. Here’s a video for you.

Folks, these are the video clips included in that download. Watch, watch again, digest. Repeat. Repetition is the mother of all skills – Max Cantor maxim # 70