NYTimes: “Sonja Lyubomirsky has been a leading researcher on the science of happiness for decades. And for just as long, people have asked her: What is the secret? Dr. Lyubomirsky, a distinguished professor of psychology at the University of California Riverside, has always chafed at this question. The secret to happiness? How ridiculous and reductive. When pressed, she told me she tends to say something along the lines of: “Connection and relationships. Positive thinking, which includes gratitude. And a sense of control in your life.” But if she really had to choose one thing, she said, the secret to happiness is “feeling loved.” That’s the premise of her latest book, “How to Feel Loved,” out today, which she co-wrote with Harry Reis, a professor of psychology at the University of Rochester who studies close relationships.”
WSJ: “Cellphones and online sports betting were made for each other, because you now have a casino in your pocket. The problem is that casinos always stack the odds in their favor. This built-in profit is the vig, or vigorish. Bet a dollar on an even game and you can only win 90 cents. In props and parlay bets, the vig might be 25% or higher. Prop bets are made on a team’s or player’s individual statistics in a game, like whether LeBron James will score more than 25 points, while parlays combine multiple bets—that four teams will all win their games, for instance—into one bet. Both are attractive. Casinos appreciate the higher vig and gamblers love the prospect of a big payout on a small bet. Never mind that the odds amount to a tax on people who can’t do math.”
FT: “The rise of software in private equity can be traced to two once little-known specialist buyout firms, Vista Equity Partners and Thoma Bravo. The leaders of both firms emerged as prolific acquirers in the wake of the 2000s dotcom bust as they acquired mid-sized software companies selling cyber security, or services to niche industries such as hospital systems, car dealerships or parking meter networks. Many of their targets had been abandoned by public investors but came with steady growth and reliable customers who rarely pushed back on annual price increases. Vista and Thoma earned large gains from their early funds, generally in excess of three times investors’ initial investment after fees. Within the PE industry, the two firms’ returns trounced those of larger, established funds that participated in a mid-2000s bubble of mega-sized takeovers of companies that quickly collapsed.”
TheMaxSource: “The International Software Benchmarking Standards Group analyzed thousands of software projects and found that teams of nine or more are significantly less productive than smaller teams. This isn’t a small effect. The data shows a clear inflection point. Below nine people, productivity holds steady or improves. Above nine, it drops. Analysis of software projects shows teams of five to seven people had the highest productivity with approximately nine percent less variation than teams of three to five, and 12 percent less variation than teams of 1.5 to three people. The five-to-seven range delivered the best schedule performance and lowest development effort. Larger teams translated directly into higher costs and longer timelines.”
