This week’s highlights: Nature and Kids, Beyond Amazon, and Running with Strava

Fifteen on Friday – 09/08/17 – Issue 252

Food for Thought:

1. NYT – The Urban Revival Is Over.  As it turns out, the much-ballyhooed new age of the city might be giving way to a great urban stall-out.
2. FR – How to Become Insanely Well-Connected.  The best way to be highly influential is to be human to everyone you meet.
3. VF – Meghan Markle, Wild About Harry!  Battered by the tabloids—to the point where her boyfriend, Prince Harry, issued a statement defending her—actress and activist Meghan Markle has largely ignored the media storm. And as Markle tells Vanity Fair about her bi-racial background, her romance, and her hit series, Suits, it seems that this 36-year-old American may be just the woman for Britain’s iconoclastic royal.
4. AOM – How to Get Your Kids to Love Nature (Even if You Live in the Burbs)  “The effects of nature are such an enormous boon to physical, emotional, and mental health that were they offered in the form of a pill, people would be rushing out to buy it for themselves, and their children, even if it was exorbitantly priced. And nature is free!”
5. The Bitter Southerner – This Kitchen Ain’t a Men’s Club – Ask foodies across America about Nashville’s most famous chefs, and Deb Paquette’s might not be the first name you hear. But for more than 30 years, Paquette has trained and mentored countless chefs — and helped women succeed in a notoriously male-dominated industry.

Business/Economics:

1. Oaktree – Latest memo from Howard Marks: Yet Again?
2. CE – It’s not just Amazon’s fault – Credit JC – Retail stocks have been annihilated recently, despite the economy eking out growth. The fundamentals of the retail business look horrible: Sales are stagnating and profitability is getting worse with every passing quarter.
3. NYT – Milestone for BMI: More Than $1 Billion in Music Royalties
4. TM – 7 Lessons from 7 Business Books That Made Me More Money
5. Bloomberg – Why Private Equity Has $963 Billion in Dry Powder

Culture/Tech/Science:

1. MJ – How Strava Became the Only Fitness App That Matters
2. ReCode – We need to stop pretending that the autonomous car is imminent. Perhaps some needed sobriety on the enthusiasm for autonomous vehicles.
3. FCC – How I replicated an $86 million project in 57 lines of code.  When an experiment with existing open source technology does a “good enough” job
4. QZ – Playing board games can make you a nicer person with better relationships
5. NYT – Graydon Carter’s Varied Interests and Influence.  Carter, the long-time editor of Vanity Fair, has announced his retirement.