investing etc. 0003
Algorithms, Yoga, James Halstead, Renishaw, Bloomsbury Publishing, Christmas
Welcome to edition 3 of investing etc. There are now 149 of us strolling into the future together.
Since investing etc. 0002, I have rounded up the shares I cannot fathom and dumped them in the “too hard pile”. It feels like failure, but removes the temptation to take a punt.
Mostly though I have been pondering algorithms, automated processes that do work for us. Algorithms can be real time savers.
Simple Algorithms power my Decision Engine spreadsheet. Recently, I scored vinyl flooring company James Halstead and fed the result into the Decision Engine. I explained how it uses scores to calculate how much of each share to hold, and how it nudged me to add more Renishaw shares to the Share Sleuth portfolio.
These algorithms do not make decisions, though, I do. Renishaw was the Decision Engine’s second choice. I rejected the first.
Algorithms influence much of what we do, from the information we consume to the products we buy. If we are not careful, we can unwittingly cede too much control to them.
To explain why that might be a bad thing, let me tell you a story about yoga.
Yoga story
If you had asked me a few weeks ago to list my favourite phone apps I would have put Down Dog near the top of the list. I have gladly paid for it every year since 20 September 2016.
Yoga practice consists of poses (asanas) strung together in routines (vinyasas). Most yoga apps I knew before I found Down Dog required users to select prerecorded routines and follow along, like watching YouTube videos.
The problem with that is you don’t really know what you are going to get.
Down Dog is different, it strings together poses using an algorithm that flows well. You can influence the routine by choosing the type and level of yoga, how long it lasts, and ten other variables.
Down Dog puts you in control at the outset but, like YouTube, once it’s running there is no room for creativity. We are slaves to the algorithm.
Not long ago, I realised I could not even do a Sun Salutation, the simplest routine, without instruction. Seven years of following the algorithm mindlessly hadn’t taught me much.
That’s wrong. Yoga is all about mindfulness. I should have been more attentive. Apparently, I’ve just been going through the motions.
Resisting our algorithmic overlords
I want to remember routines, and change them mid-flow. I want to do them mindfully. I want to figure out better ways of stringing poses together.
So I have ditched the algorithm.
Instead, I have turned to a book. It’s Strong, Calm and Free by Nicola Jane Hobbs.
Using a book requires me to remember routines and think about how fluidly I am progressing through them. I can linger in difficult poses to figure them out. I can freestyle.
Finding Strong, Calm and Free made me doubly happy because it is published by Bloomsbury Publishing, and I am a shareholder.
I was reminded again about Bloomsbury when I walked into Waterstones earlier this week and bumped into a table almost blocking the entrance. It was piled high with the Waterstones Book of the Year.
“Impossible Creatures”, featured in my favourite bookshop, is published by my favourite publishing company.
That also made me doubly happy.
Impossible Creatures, Waterstones Book of the Year, is published by Bloomsbury Publishing, owned fractionally by me.
Happy Christmas
Thanks, as always for reading. I’d love to know what you think. My email address is richard@beddard.net.
Back in edition 0001, I declared that investing etc. would be irregular. I have let myself down. Instead of being erratically human, I have cranked out the first three editions fortnightly, like a machine.
The rot is going to stop with investing etc. 004. Christmas is coming, and I am planning some down time.
My work will still be published. Taking a fortnight off, just means working twice as hard the fortnight before!
But if you want to know what score I gave to Focusrite or Keystone Law, the next companies in my pipeline, what my choices for investing book of the year and annual report of the year were, and other delights as yet un-dreamed of, give it a few weeks and go directly to my author pages on:
That’s it. From my desk to yours, Happy Christmas. Next time you hear from me it will be 2024.