I am reading a book called the “The Secret Life of Fat - The Science Behind the Body`s Least Understood Organ and What It Means for You” - For those who want to understand complex adaptive systems this book is as good as any to understand how fat is connected to many bodily functions and trying to control it creates more problems that it solves. An excess of it creates problems and a lack of it can be life threatening. The direct parallel of this to investing is debt. Debt is much maligned just like fat and many investors view it with cynicism. But just like not all fat is created equal, not all debt is created equal. As the book brilliantly showcases fat is an organ and secrets hormones that keep us alive. A little bit of debt keeps the managers of the company from doing stupid capital allocation decisions that harm the shareholders. As the Prof has said many times in the past , a debt free company is a actually a company that has an embedded high quality bond in it (think Wonderla). There are innumerable parallels to draw from this book to the world of investing. For e.g did you know that bone cells and fat cells share the same mother - they are created from the same stem cells in the bone marrow. Just like debt and equity. This book will challenge all your concepts about fat and if you can make to connections to investing about debt as well. I highly recommend it
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