Welcome to all our new subscribers! But What For? is about anything — because anything can be interesting. History. People. Ideas. Investing.

We have all almost survived another week! Go us! On my end, the little one got sick, and on top of a hectic workload with a couple portfolio companies in need of quick financing solutions, survival is the best I could hope for.

As to these emails, I got some feedback last week that more succinct emails would be preferred. I re-read last week’s email and agree — I went a bit overboard on length — oops! You will see me try to keep commentary valuable but more targeted going forward. Additionally, as opposed to treating the “Long” section as being a longer written section, I will revert back to linking to longer-read articles / books while keeping commentary efficient.

Finally, I was surprised to have another newsletter — much larger than me at 250,000 subscribers — reach out and ask if they could place a paid link in BWF this week. As far as I can tell, everyone here is more engaged — thank you! — than the average email community. Because of that, we stood out on Beehiiv, the newsletter platform I use.

I was torn on how to respond, so I spent a while going through their posts and subscribed myself. If you are interested in picture-based general business news (I found an email from the 8th interesting for picture-based coverage of the Alaska Airlines 737 MAX story), I think it is worth subscribing. Thus, I felt comfortable putting the ad in here, which generates revenue based on the number of clicks. In exchange, I removed the Supporting section from the email this week to not also ask you to become a Supporting subscriber.

This is an experiment, so please shoot me a note if you have opinions on ad placement like this — I would like to know if you find it valuable as long as I ensure good quality or if you have any issues with ad-based approaches.

Thank you!

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ButWhatFor? Four for Friday

1. One Quote: I Feel Attacked

2. One Long: Steal This Article

3. One Short: Christopher Hitchens’ Bookshelf

4. One Poll: History. People. Ideas. Investing.

One Quote

Last week, I mentioned that I struggle to retain much of what I hear in any podcast. A BWF reader wrote in to share the same reaction — while it isn’t fun to accept, it sounds like I am not the only one who enjoys listening to something only to find my brain deleted everything it heard shortly after the audio stopped.

But as the reader points out, it doesn’t mean that it is worthless to listen to a podcast or audio book. You just have to know what you are getting into — you are signing up to forget more of the details than you would retain if you sat down and actively read something.

That can be ok — and remembering less of something is better than not having the chance to remember it at all — but I think I am going to try to carve more dedicated reading time out going forward and ratchet back on podcasts unless it is a topic worth only partially remembering.

One Long

Steal This Article (Link)

There has been a lot of talk about plagiarism recently — and at least in my Twitter feed, Bill Ackman’s tweets on the topic are ever present. I think we have all learned a lesson about angering a billionaire with a platform.

I don’t think it is all that interesting to jump into the very public debate and fairly vitriolic banter going back and forth on the topic. So I won’t.

However, more interestingly, back in 1996 Christopher Hitchens (see One Short below for more) wrote an article on plagiarism for Vanity Fair, a magazine where he regularly contributed. By taking a look at multiple examples of what some might call plagiarism — personal examples from his own life and diving deep into a few questionable phrases borrowed by Martin Luther King Jr., Julian Barnes, T.S. Eliot and more — he explores an interesting concept: when does a reference become plagiarism?

For example, last week I wrote the phrase “like an Odysseus lacking bonds fastened tight to a mast” and definitely didn’t add a footnote reference crediting Homer for the concept. Was that plagarism? Sounds silly to say so.

One of my favorite of Hitchens’ examples points to how too strict a view of what constitutes plagiarism can also be a negative for the author theoretically being harmed by the plagiarism, in the passage:

And that, I think, is a beautiful way to think about it. Part of the reason people write is to add something new into the world. Usage of their writing lets it live on far longer than it might otherwise, and it is hard to think of that theft.

One Short

Christopher Hitchens’ Bookshelf

Following Charlie Munger’s bookshelves shared last week and the week before, I thought I would continue the theme. It was a bit fun tracking down all the different titles — and I have already added at least one new book to my library!

So, for this week, I thought I would take a look at a completely different kind of reader — Christopher Hitchens, a British-turned-American journalist, author, and public debater. Most famous, potentially, for his atheistic views in the mid-2000s, I’ve always enjoyed reading his writing on topics as far ranging as plagiarism (above), Henry Kissinger, Mother Teresa, Agent Orange, etc.

Unfortunately, he passed away in 2011 following a battle lost with cancer.

I have always been impressed with how well he could write. And his eloquence with words didn’t disappear when he was standing in front of audiences answer questions on the fly — just an incredibly educated, well-learned, well-practiced writer.

While I may not agree with everything he wrote — and it wouldn’t make sense to read much from someone if that was the case — I think we should see what we can find here — and as always, please feel free to let me know what I have missed as there is much I cannot identify.

I am also going to consolidate bookshelves here — BWF Famous Bookshelves — and add to it if we keep the trend going.

One Poll

Results from last week’s poll:

If you made it all the way down here, please take a moment to forward it to someone that might find it interesting — I appreciate your support greatly!

Want to start writing online? I use Beehiiv and highly recommend it.

Have a great weekend,

— EJ

See here for a full archive of But What For? articles

But What For? Because anything can be interesting