It’s a blog.
It’s educational.
It’s hopefully entertaining.
It’s not investment advice.
How to think about investing.
Mopping Up
Is there a return on cleanliness? How clean does an investment need to be to make it worthwhile? How to find opportunities in the cleaning business.
Monet Stuff
How was Monet as an investor? Do his artistic innovations add anything to a financial toolkit? How to frame an investment facing the innovator’s dilemma.
Make the Case
Does the economy fit into a box? What shape of economy fits into a company’s prospects anyway? How to find opportunities where the economy isn’t the most important thing for an investment.
Paint by Numbers
Can you create a masterpiece painting by numbers? What does painting have to do with investing? How to find investment opportunities when numbers paint a bad picture.
Would You Rather
When should you invest in an ice cream machine? What if you get someone else to pay for it? How to evaluate a company’s expansion plans.
A Pound of Feathers
How many feathers does it take to get a pound? How do weights and measures mix up investors? How to evaluate the different ways a company earns money.
The Accountant 2
Was 2016’s The Accountant the best accounting/action film crossover? Was it the only one? Do blockbusters have anything helpful to say about how to look at companies? How to find useful investing tools for questions that aren’t obvious.
Mechanical Turk
What do luxury bags have to show us about financial companies? How many people does it take to run a financial service company? How to stich an investment from a business built on people.
Don’t Panic
What would aliens say about financial markets? Can investors learn from absurd science fiction? How to keep your head and your money.
Elf Poaching
Do fantasy creatures make good investments…or movie characters? What do Will Ferrell and James Caan have to teach us about investing? How to think about managements’ role in an investment.
Growing Places
Who invests better: Sequoia or Oaktree?. What kind of trees should investors look for anyway? How to follow branches to find investment opportunities.
A Rock and A Hard Place
What happens if you don’t invest? What happens when you play it safe? How to look at the risk of not investing.
2-bit Tournament
Should investors play soccer or get into jousting? Which one makes a better investment? How to find opportunities when a game changes.
Waffles
Do waffles make a good investment? What happens when another company’s decisions can make or break your business? How to iron out investment opportunities from indecision.
Extinction
What does paleontology say about digging for investments? How long does it take businesses to go extinct, anyway? How to find opportunities parsing dying companies from thriving ones.
Break the Cycle
Will memory makers continue to traumatize investors? Has AI resolved the boom and bust cycle that’s stalked the memory market? How to take the shift from a cyclical market to a more stable one.
2025: What Did You Expect?
Some things Lamplighter got right in 2024. Some things it got wrong. What might come in 2025. A reminder of how little we know about the future and how to make that work.
Face Plant
When will you ever learn? What did you mess up this time? What lessons to take from losses and how to use them.
Fire-roasted Returns
What’s the recipe to rescue a flagging business? Can a low-margin, low-growth business offer a decent return? How to evaluate boring businesses.
Origin Story
What came first: the product or the customer? Where do customers come from anyway? How businesses organize and how that can deliver value to investors.