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TIPS ‘n’ STRIPS

I am not a big fan of Fish ‘n’ Chips. But give me tips and strips and I am very happy! Having grown up vegetarian in India, I came to the United States when I was 18. The only on-campus job I could get was flipping burgers at the Red Door Café at Caltech, where I was told by the café boss that I “had to flip ‘em, not eat ‘em ”. Adapting to the times, the Red Door now offers “smoked tofu”, hummus, grain salad, and other vegan menu items.

Hard work at the burger joint paid off, and I was sort of promoted to be waiter at the Caltech Athenaeum, where I had the distinct pleasure of serving (and once spilling soup on) the Richard Feynman, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist. Working in a student cafeteria gave me “optionality”; i.e., come whatever, I knew I was going to be able to at least survive on my own, and this resulted in “convexity” — i.e., large gains from small but important decisions at the right time. Lots of upside potential with limited downside.

The full note on this important topic can be downloaded at this link: LTA Thinking – TIPS-n-STRIPS