And This YEAR’s Bawldy’s Go To…
Posted @ 9:36 pm - Filed under Check This Out, Sez Me, Financing, Bawldys, Economy
There are three categories of Best Bawldys. From those three winners will be chosen the Bawldy of the Year.
General
Jared Sanberg’s excellent post on the foolishness that is multitasking hit the nail on the head. If those who insist their multitasking skills are worth more than a used Snickers Bar realized how often they have literally hung themselves, they’d never do it again. It’s my view multitasking is one of the biggest myths accepted by the general American culture in the last decade. I know many who have convinced themselves of their ‘efficiency’ via this excuse for mediocrity.
I catch myself doing it all the time and it irritates me no end. Bottom line? Humans simply aren’t wired to analyze three different investments comparatively while listening to talk radio, and talking on the phone. It’s a joke, isn’t it? Yet we all do it. It’s an infection. 
I’ve even been ridiculed for doing one thing at a time. The world screams for excellence. How has multitasking survived at all? It’s beyond me. If there was ever a practical joke on all of us this has to take the blue ribbon.
Multitasking is a recipe for mediocrity at best, and abject failure on multiple levels at worst. And Jared puts it far better than I.
General Economy
Max Whitmore is one of those over night success stories that took a few decades. Actually, that’s probably not quite accurate. He’s been pretty dang successful for over 40 years now. He’s been a partner in a successful venture capital firm, and an S & P Trader for decades. In fact, as a trader there he found himself often ranking as the No. 1 trader out of a very select group of over 35 S&P traders nationwide.
In his post More On The Dropping Dollar Max showed why he’s respected nationwide as not only an astute investor and trader, but a a tutor for his readers who are legion.
In this brilliant post Whitmore exposes the Emperor completely, while maintaining a G rating. When all the smoke clears, nobody can touch the dollar, most peg their own currency to it, and since it’s been falling like a rock, they’re now complaining about having to compete with our quality products — now at prices making their inferior goods look like what it often is — overpriced and overrated.
Real Estate Related
This one was especially difficult, as most of what I read is obviously RE related. Duh.
I read very good to excellent writing on real estate blogs daily. Kris Berg is not only insightful, but often hilarious as she sneaks in her daily bit of education. Athol Kay who I swear comes from a galaxy far, far away, is an incredible photographer. His daily take on bad MLS photos of the day is a favorite all over the country. BloodhoundBlog, sporting about a million contributors these days, informs, critiques, and generally dominates the real estate room these days, should be required reading. (I don’t say that just cuz I’m a Bloodhound contributor.) Then there’s Agent Genius which also offers many contributors. Their take is different from many of the group blogs, in that they couldn’t care less what readers think. Their readers count on that. I could go on and on, but you get the point. There are some pretty smart folks writing about real estate on a daily basis.
Picking one post of the literally 2-3,000 I’ve read this year as ‘best’ is a direct result of BawldGuy subjectivity gone amuck. Then I nearly gave up.
However, Brian Brady’s HARD MONEY: Buy at Eight. Sell at Twelve. Repeat. managed to make an pretty dry and BORING subject easy to grasp. In essence, Brian shows the average home owner how to be his own bank. After all, if you borrow at X% and lend the cash out at X+3% yer probably gonna come out ahead.
I’ve been on every side of hard money lending, and gave up long ago trying to explain it. It’s one of those subjects surrounded by misunderstanding so deep and wide, it’s scary. Brian cuts through all that arriving at the jackpot — without any pain whatsoever.
Arbitrage is not a dirty word — it’s what’s made some families incredibly wealthy for centuries. Brian explains it in a way folks get quickly. Check it out and see what I mean.
The 1ST Annual Bawldy of the Year Award goes to…
Max Whitmore’s More On The Dropping Dollar hit on why I think is the real untold (under told?) story of the year. Not only that, but his explanation of why it was actually beneficial to us was deserving of a public service award. Max sometimes makes the so called ‘expert’ talking heads appear like the, well, talking heads they are. Blah blah blah, with little meaning, and often very little conclusive value.
You’ll never find yourself shortchanged by Max Whitmore — whether you agree with him or not.
I love his plain spoken style, founded upon slam dunk knowledge, supported by 40 years of mostly being — RIGHT.
2008 will see an increase in Bawldys posts. Daily won’t be happening, but once to twice weekly is in the cards. At least that’s what it says right here.
Happy New Year!!
This entry was posted on Monday, December 31st, 2007 at 9:36 pm and is filed under Check This Out, Sez Me, Financing, Bawldys, Economy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.