What We’re Reading

Questions to ask before starting a business:

1) Are you ready to fully own the ambiguity of a new initiative?

2) Is your spouse fully on board?

3) How will you accelerate the process of building trust with new partners?

4) How will you protect the climate within your skull?

5) How are you going to source enough good ideas?

6) What are you compulsive about? Is it possible to put that at the center of the platform’s activity?

7) Are you really focusing on what you’re going to value over the long term?

Mortgage risk:

A growing number of homeowners face debt payments that amount to nearly half of their monthly income, a threshold many experts consider too steep.

Roughly 30 percent of the loans Fannie Mae guaranteed last year exceeded this level, up from 14 percent in 2016, according to Urban Institute data. At the FHA, 57 percent of the loans it insured breached the high-risk echelon, jumping from 38 percent two years earlier.

Wealth of the world:

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College acceptance:

More than 40% of white Harvard admits are “ALDC”: athletes, legacy, Dean’s interest (donors’ kids), or children of faculty Researchers find:

1. 70+% of such admits would be rejected w/o preferences.

2. Without ALDC preferences, total admits would be more diverse.

Anti-literate:

Roughly a quarter of U.S. adults (27%) say they haven’t read a book in whole or in part in the past year, whether in print, electronic or audio form, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted Jan. 8 to Feb. 7.

Nature/nurture:

Children of divorced parents are less honest than children of non-divorced parents. Psychological counseling improves honesty of children of divorced parents. Psychological counseling fails to improve honesty of children of non-divorced parents.

Have a good weekend.