Today’s suggestion is a lighter note: a funny article on Slate about how to maximize value in giving presents. The Atlantic had also published a few days before “the behavioral economist’s guide to buying presents“. Great reading when waiting in line to exchange gifts this week

Before we poke some fun at Facebook, here’s a thought: we do make fun of what’s relevant to us the more mainstream it gets, yet it doesn’t necessarily mark the end of an era. Think of Microsoft Windows, the OS we all have loved to hate for the last 25 years or so and it’s still there. The “winner takes all” aspect of the network effect in Facebook’s case is a fragile argument – what network are we talking about, and why will we have to interact with it the Facebook way? Just because we can’t see today what could topple Facebook, it doesn’t mean something – or likely a combination of “things” – won’t.

The 56-min interview on Web 2.0 Summit:

OK, here it is: when Mark Zuckerberg makes the cover of Time Magazine as “Person of the Year”, is this the peak for Facebook (via Big Picture blog)? Plus, two videos depicting one’s life story on Facebook in two very different ways – both sometimes funny, sometimes endearing but always interesting.

Facebook, the BOOK (1:11)

When Facebook becomes a book from Siavosh Zabeti on Vimeo.

A Life Told on Facebook (2:52) – this one is a little dark and has strong language, but it’s brilliant.

If Facebook existed years ago – the cockroach saying “whatever” to the meteor shower that supposedly killed the dinosaurs is worth the click.

Video: Quantitative Easing Explained – via The View From the Blue Ridge. The monotone voices in the dialogue start off irritating but contribute to the overall surreal feel of the video – content and looks-wise. Exaggerated as most (good) comedy is.

Back to seriousness: Business Week had a cover article by Alice “Snowball” Schroeder interviewing CEOs who have had Buffett in their boards, as advisor, friend, whatever. Interesting read. There was an entire book on the subject a few years ago, but it focused on Berkshire subsidiaries and frankly wasn’t all that great, although nowadays it does help to evaluate some potential successors.

By the way, the Business Week section included this article by Peter Buffett, Warren’s musician son, about how his father handled money with him. Nothing new, but always interesting.

The videos, as promised:

1) The Business Week video on Warren Buffett:

2) Buffett as Axl Rose (the ballad of customer service)

3) Buffett the hip-hop artist (from GEICO’s sales reps annual meeting, Buffett is on around 4:00)

As an extra exercise suggested by a reader, try imagining someone writing this text 30 years from now.

And as we always stress: view it critically, play with the idea, try to contradict it or apply it in some other field(s). In this particular case it may be hard to do so, because Mr. Pogue’s delightfully terrible songs can really stick in one’s mind.

The Market Tells Us The Market’s Down

Motley Fool, April 29th, 2002
Looking at recent market action, we saw some pretty violent drops and rises. Investors started the morning buying Nasdaq companies, due in no small part to the buying that was going on in Europe. Then the buying stopped in Europe and the Nasdaq began to drop. It took some time for market participants to figure out that the reason buying stopped in Europe could be blamed on the fact that the European markets had closed for the day. Panic-selling ensued, as people became uneasy about the fact that everyone else in the market appeared to have no common sense whatsoever.

At the open the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose rapidly on the news that the S&P 500 was rising rapidly. Then investors simultaneously began to doubt that the economic recovery that has been happening was apparently not really happening. Many market commentators expressed bewilderment that something like economic prospects would have anything to do with the market action. “People are selling just to sell,” said Moe Aggressive, market analyst for Gruntal and Disgruntal, “It’s like everyone got worried about earnings at the same time. Heck, we’ve known that the economy was in the tank since 1999!” He then quickly corrected himself by saying, “I mean, since 2001.”

Market analyst polls suggest that we should expect the unexpected through the remainder of the trading day. “Our expectation for upside surprise is limited. But we do expect that expectations will improve once the expected jobs data comes out, expected to be higher than expected”, said one analyst.”