In no particular order, five of the best meals I have had in 2018:

1. Nostalgia, Margao, Goa.
2. Berthillon, Paris, France.
3. La Jacobine, Paris, France.
4. Agashiye, Ahmedabad, Gujarat.
5. Les Delices de Capoue, Marseille, France.

If you know me, you should have realized just how good Agashiye must have been.

Happy New Year, everybody!

1. The efficient market hypothesis.
2. Small is beautiful, 2.0. (Award yourself brownie points if you found yourself enraged by the reference)
3. “The opportunity cost of preservation is future greatness“
4. Measuring inflation is hard.Via @unbolteconomics.
5. Life inside the Tesla factory.

1. It is useful to think of Facebook (and others) as data factories.
2. Peak Manas Chakravarty.
3. Depressing reading for the future of Myanmar. Also see, via @insoupciant, this.
4. FT Alphaville is less than impressed with Bitcoin.
5. Is boring stuff underrated?

1. Homework: assign a probability to something like this happening.
2. How lobbying actually works in practice.
3. Can you name all thirty brands in the Marriott stables (or is it swim lanes)?
4. Is a bank always a bank?
5. A good survey of the Bangladeshi economy.

1. Via Tyler Cowen on Twitter: a Russian view of Eurasia.
2. Not quite as guilty as charged – but worth reading.
3. Ignore the urge to be outraged (for or against, this applies equally), and reflect on the picture that has been painted. Also read Behind the Beautiful Forevers.
4. How well do you know the octopus?
5. On riding a motorcycle.

1. Reluctant hawks and disillusioned doves.
2. Whatsapp and violence in India. Here’s the money quote: “This focus on privacy brings many benefits, though as with all technology there are tradeoffs,” the company said. “And for WhatsApp, that’s the inability to see problematic content spreading through private conversations on our app.”
3. On trying to understand quantum mechanics. I happily admit to knowing nothing, even after reading the essay.
4. Researchers find out that laughter helps in long-lasting marriages. Whatever will they think of next, I wonder?
5. The yin, the yang and the vision gang.

1. Devon Zuegel.
2. Michael Nielsen.
3. Fermat’s Library.
4. Scholar’s Stage.
5. Dan Wang.

No arguing, no ranting, no controversy. Consistently interesting, curiosity inducing – all the time. What better gift to hope for on Christmas, eh?

I’ll say it again: Twitter, when used properly, is just magnificent.

1. In search of the least bad Brexit.
2. Harry Potter and the Portrait of What Looked Like a Large Pile of Ash.
3. It is sometimes necessary to punch back.
4. Facebook, PR and privacy. (I cannot improve upon the headline!)
5. Phones are now good enough.

1. …if something looks too good to be true, it usually is.
2. Making sense of China. Great (if somewhat hastily edited) read.
3. Trying to make sense of India.
4. “Blockchains are NOT about cutting computational costs (at least relative to centralized servers). Blockchains are about incurring a sacrifice in the form of INCREASED computational costs to achieve a *decrease* in *social costs*.” It is worth your while to read this tweetstorm.
5. Moneyball 2.0.

1. On why inequality matters.
2. Macro is hard interesting.
3. On the continued success of Abenomics.
4. Carbon pricing from a global perspective.
5. What are people saying about immigration?