I’m gearing up for a super busy week, then off to Malaysia for a short holiday, here’s this week’s list!
What I read this weekend
I thought the book Boom and Bust felt relevant with everything that has been going on recently. This book takes a deep dive into the rise and fall of markets throughout history, showing how periods of prosperity often give way to inevitable downturns. The book highlights some of the big events in my lifetime like the dot-com and housing bubbles, as well as many more examples further back in history. I was struck by the recurring patterns of humans, and how foolish we can be. One of the key lessons I took away is the importance of maintaining a long-term perspective, looking back at those two big crashes in the past 25 years, the economy and indexes recovered and far surpassed the trajectory they were on. This book was a bit dry, so I’m looking forward to reading something a bit more colorful after this.
What I’m thinking about algorithms this weekend
Specifically recommendation systems. We’re surrounded by them on all social media and media platforms these days. But I’m starting to think they all suck. We know that reach is down a ton on social media like LinkedIn and Instagram, it is really hard to get seen. And yet when I log on to LinkedIn, I inevitably see posts from the same 20 people, probably because I engaged with their post last time, but it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy if I barely see anyone else’s posts. The thing that irks me the most, is if I refresh the feed, I still see some of the same posts. It’s similar on YouTube, I hardly ever find new channels to watch, because I’m always shown videos from the same channels I watched before. For example, I’ve never have had one MrBeast video recommended to me, even though he’s the biggest YouTuber. I know it must be working for most people since that’s how YouTube makes their money, but I really think there’s a lot of room for improvement.
Best app I found this weekend
I’ve been testing expense tracking apps and I think I finally found the best one, at least for people living in Singapore. Created by a local startup, Dobin has everything you need in a budgeting app, and best of all unlike most competitors, it’s free. There’s not even an option for a premium version. Dobin syncs with all of the major SG banks, which many of the popular apps developed in other regions don’t. The automatic categorizing is a bit iffy, I had to manually change around 10% of the transactions, but overall it does a good enough job. The insights sections are pretty good, breaking down your spending, showing trends, and cash flow. They also have a financial health check, which seems far too generous, but at least is something to start with. They seem to make their money from partnerships and affiliations, so you can find some nice discounts and cash-back offers as well. Definitely worth a try if you’re not already heavily invested in another expense-tracking app.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend!