Can someone explain to me in minimally technical terms how scientists can determine the molecular composition of an exoplanet's atmosphere? It boggles my simple mind.
You can thank the Fed. Pensions and their consultants publish an assumed rate of return, which is increasingly difficult to obtain in a sustained low interest rate environment. They have been increasing exposure to private markets to compensate for low returns in fixed income("yield seeking"). There is additional pressure since public and private pensions are typically underfunded, and overly aggressive return assumptions give cover to the states and companies that don't fund them to the extent they should.
I'm sorry you're having a hard time with this. My life is your counter factual, maybe it will provide a different perspective.
I was identified as highly gifted around that age as well, but my parents prevented me from participating in my schools' GATE programs. It is not hard to see how that decision cascaded through my life and led to a lot of avoidable painful outcomes.
I was so far ahead of my peers that school was unbearably tedious by grade 7 and I became a "bad kid". I did the bare minimum in high school so I could pursue my interests away from class. My GPA reflected that level of engagement.
Because my academic record screamed "truant, not motivated, difficult", I was locked out of top quality universities and scholarships I should have easily obtained. I graduated from a mediocre college with avoidable student debt and access to lower quality career options than I would have had through a better school.
I course corrected in my 30s and have had a nice career and family life, but there were 10-12 years of missed opportunities and unnecessary suffering.
Access to opportunity is like compound interest in that early success leads to more opportunity. Invest early and your life will more likely have positive social and economic outcomes. Missing opportunities early can be very costly.
I don't know if gifted kids are being pushed too hard or not. Sometimes, in an effort to provide early opportunities, parents lose sight of what it means to be a kid. That is sad, no question, but challenging gifted kids is important, because not doing so can lead to avoidable personal and professional difficulties. My life is proof of that.
I worked at GS but not in investment banking. I had a really positive experience and rarely went over 60-70 hours.
It all depends on your role. IBD is definitely the most demanding, but they all made a choice, with basically perfect information, to accept that job. I promise you, they knew it would be like that. It's hard for me to feel too sympathetic.
If you are 18-25, there is a HORRIBLE principal-agent problem here. Total misalignment of interests.
Owing to the fact that, on average, young people will have more years of exposure to a set of policies, they should have voting power to shape them. One person, one vote leads to this misalignment.
Democracy with an inter-generational focus should allocate votes based on duration of policy exposure. I.e. max(1, (Avg US Life Expectancy - age)) votes.
"When you acquire some customers and they start yielding revenue that behavior sounds an awful lot like buying a fixed income instrument..."
This is so intellectually dishonest. He even goes on to equate recurring revenue with cash flow. Not the same! So often companies point to ARR as success without acknowledging other structural cost issues in their businesses.
"It's basically AAA debt. Now give me a 30x revenue multiple." -SaaS investor who wants it both ways
SaaS is just one of many recurring/contractual revenue categories, but VCs talk about it like its a revolutionary business model that should yield some extra reward from the capital markets. Recurring revenue has been around forever in more traditional industries.
Yes, reliable recurring revenue (with +FCF) can support leverage, but claiming that it looks and acts like debt is either ignorant or deceptive. It is 100% equity risk and that kind of magical thinking is just vulture bait.
> feed us garbage like how they create value through “liquidity.”
Nobody values liquidity until they absolutely need it. Transfer of liquidity risk IS value creation, and absolutely necessary for a well functioning economy.