Weekend reading: Get a model education courtesy of Stanford University (for free)

Good reading from around the Web.

I had no sooner published this week’s article questioning expensive university degrees when the emails and comments started to arrive.

That’s gratifying if you’re a writer, and most were very nice. One or two weren’t happy, and thought I was suggesting everyone had to start a business. (I’m not! I’m really not!)

Equally, it also turns out I have more entrepreneurial subscribers than I knew about before I wrote that article. Apparently more millionaires, too.

Several doubters asked where all this free learning I alluded to could be found.

I’m not quite sure how they managed to email me – what with them not having had access to a computer and the Internet since 1993, presumably 🙂 – but anyway, it’s out there, on the Web.

It’s everywhere!

Just this week I discovered (from the Simolean Sense blog) an upcoming free lecture course from the top table of US academia on model thinking.

This kind of model thinking isn’t: You can never be too rich or too thin.

Rather it refers to the mental frameworks extolled by Charlie Munger, the sidekick of Warren Buffett.

From the course outline:

We live in a complex world with diverse people, firms, and governments whose behaviors aggregate to produce novel, unexpected phenomena. We see political uprisings, market crashes, and a never ending array of social trends. How do we make sense of it?

Models. Evidence shows that people who think with models consistently outperform those who don’t. And, moreover people who think with lots of models outperform people who use only one.

Why do models make us better thinkers?

Models help us to better organize information – to make sense of that fire hose or hairball of data (choose your metaphor) available on the Internet. Models improve our abilities to make accurate forecasts. They help us make better decisions and adopt more effective strategies. They even can improve our ability to design institutions and procedures.

The lectures come from Coursera, a new initiative from Stanford University.

Yes, that Stanford. I’ve already signed up.

I appreciate this isn’t everyone’s cup of tea on a Saturday morning – and that it’s not got much to do with saving for a rainy day.

But my point is this is the tip of the iceberg of what’s available on the Internet (it’s just one of many courses from Coursera alone) if you’re willing to do some self-directed learning.

(Or – as one wag lampooned the Internet to me – if you want to know a lot more about iPhones, naked women, and the funny things cats do 😉 ).

From the blogs

• Must read: Your money can work harder than you – Mr Money Moustache
• Economics, a space-opera – Kaminska / FT Alphaville
• The problem with the for-profit motive in finance – Fox / Harvard BR
• Startup lessons from 17 hard-hitting quotes in ‘Moneyball’ – OnStartups
• A feckless family fruitlessly frittering future away – Simple Living in Suffolk
• Will actively-managed funds ever go away? – Canadian Finance Blog
• The $100 billion Facebook IPO – Investing Caffeine
• Limit orders, on the crumbling edge of behavioural finance – The Psy-Fi blog
• How to clean up a portfolio [US specifics, but same gist] – Oblivious Investor
• How to stop chronic dog barking [Not finance, but fun!] – Len Penzo

Deal of the week: In celebration of filthy lucre Valentine’s Day, Amazon is offering 20% off Kindle covers.

Mainstream media money and investing

• The silliness of the Dow Jones Industrial Average – Roth / CBS
• Why the Facebook IPO should not excite you – Swedroe / CBS
• Is Facebook really a good business? – Slate
• Hedge funds have grown too big and need pruning – FT
• Same subject: Are hedge funds worthwhile investments? – Miyanville
• Meet the ISA millionaires – Telegraph
• Investors lose faith in equities [Silly billies!] – Telegraph
• The pension fund guaranteed to lose money – Telegraph
• Financial advice could cost £500 per hour after commission is scrapped – FT
• Buy small companies for long-term gains – FT
• Merryn: Water has the potential for conflict and wealth – FT
• Lee: Building links on the golf course – FT
• Dirty tricks in divorce can cost you big time – Independent
• Why I’ve quit buy-to-let – The Guardian
• The future of books is the stream – The Atlantic

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