General

Books I Read in 2018

Posted on January 1, 2019January 1, 2019 by Sam Kornstein in Books, General

Here’s my list from last year, roughly grouped by how much I enjoyed them (as I did in 2016 and 2017). I found some great ones, and compared to 2017, I read fewer baby books, despite having a new baby (none!). Highly Recommend Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss: This was unlike any negotiation book I’ve read. Written by a former FBI hostage negotiator, it takes a practical real-world approach to successful negotiation, rather than the more common academic frameworks I experienced again and again across a range of classes in undergrad and business school. Not that those frameworks aren’t useful, they just aren’t always useful. This book fills the gaps, and then adds quite a bit. It was

Music from 2018

Posted on January 1, 2019January 1, 2019 by Sam Kornstein in General

Happy new year! Here’s some of my favorite music from last year. Most of them were new, but a few were just new to me.

Citrasaurus Homebrew Recipe

Posted on March 26, 2018March 26, 2018 by Sam Kornstein in Beer, General, Homebrew Recipe

My latest brew. I the tweaked my previous Sorachi Magnum recipe by scaling back the Sorachi Ace and finishing it with Citra. Delicious. Will make this one again. Here’s the recipe:

Hawaii

Posted on January 24, 2018January 24, 2018 by Sam Kornstein in General

Source: Hawaii

4 Thoughts on the Crypto “Bubble”

Posted on January 14, 2018January 15, 2018 by Sam Kornstein in Current Events, Economics, General, Markets

There’s been a lot of talk about whether Bitcoin, or crypto overall, is a bubble. Some say absolutely. Many suspect it’s likely, but argue that as with most bubbles, it’s difficult to know for sure. After all, the Economist called Bitcoin a bubble in 2011 when it was at $2.50 and again in 2013 when it was at $1,000. And Tyler Cowan used to think it was a bubble, but now isn’t so sure. I’ve had many fun discussions about this with friends and family, and have been increasingly reading and thinking about the topic. So I’d like to share a few thoughts. 1. The total market capitalization of all cryptocurrecnies is $740B – this is a bubble The market cap

Bloomberg View

Posted on January 7, 2018January 7, 2018 by Sam Kornstein in General

I’ve followed Tyler Cowen’s blog at Marginal Revolution for many years (highly recommended), and recently saw his post “Why I write for Bloomberg View“. I hadn’t previously realized he contributed there, and he explains that one of his main motivations is that they have “assembled the most talented and diverse group of opinion contributors out there, bar none,” and that “Bloomberg View tends to hire reading-loving, eclectic polymaths, with both academic knowledge and real world experience, and whose views cannot always be predicted from their other, previous writings.” I was intrigued, and found that contributors include writers I have followed over the years — such as Cass Sunstein, Justin Fox, Michael Lewis, Barry Ritholtz — and many many more I

The Books I Read in 2017

Posted on January 1, 2018January 1, 2018 by Sam Kornstein in Books, General

Keeping with my new tradition of sharing the books I read throughout the prior year, here’s my 2017 list (my 2016 list is here). These are roughly grouped by how much I enjoyed them, with a new section for baby books at the end. Highly Recommend: Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari: The best book I read this year. It’s the history of humans, and other now extinct sapien species, covering our evolution, and the related rise of tools, language, culture, agriculture, philosophy, politics, religion, and very interestingly, companies and other non-living entities and institutions we’ve created. I learned quite a bit, and it got me thinking. Chaos Monkeys by Antonio Garcia Martinez: My father in law was reading this when he visited

When do you go to the hospital after labor begins?

Posted on May 6, 2017May 6, 2017 by Sam Kornstein in Charts & Data, Data Visualization, General

Two weeks ago Laura gave birth to our first child, Mason West Kornstein. Everyone’s doing really well, and it’s been a blast so far. As soon as Laura went into labor at 2:00 am early Thursday morning, she began tracking her contractions so that we could tell how things were progressing and decide when it was time to go to the hospital. By 8:00 am we were curious to better understand how quickly things would advance. The doctor had told us to wait until contractions were five minutes apart for an hour before coming to the hospital. That was fairly straightforward guidance, but we had no clue whether that time would come in a few hours or a few days. And we didn’t know

Laura & The Moose

Posted on April 18, 2017April 18, 2017 by Sam Kornstein in General, Photography

We’re in the final stretch. Due date is today, so any time now. Here’s one last pregnancy shot, featuring The Moose:

Happy Passover

Posted on April 10, 2017April 11, 2017 by Sam Kornstein in General

This year we held our 13th consecutive friends seder, now a long running tradition. We started at Chester Street in 2005, had a great run at D Street from 2007-2013, did three years at Athens Street from 2014-2016, and this year Mike and Tina held it down on Gold Street. While the format has evolved quite a bit, one thing that has remained consistent is that we never actually have it on one of the first two nights of Passover, when you’re “supposed” to seder. We originally would to wait until the 3rd or 4th nights, so that we could steal family leftovers. That led to the brisket showdown of 2006. Later we would hold it on the 7th and 8th nights,