Good reads #221- 13th July 2026

Dear Reader,
Welcome to the 221st edition of the Good reads newsletter by Malpani Ventures. Sharing your weekly dose of articles for this week’s reading!

• Capital vs. Sweat

• A few programs and fixes we could try.

Harvard’s undergraduate class size has been static at 1,600 for almost half a century, while its endowment has grown nearly 500% — after inflation. When your asset base is up sixfold but you purposefully do not increase production, you are no longer a public servant but a Chanel bag. Single-digit admissions rates are the ultimate vanity metric, something deans and donors brag about at cocktail parties, when they should be a mark of shame. As I’ve proposed before, we should offer higher ed a grand bargain: Redirect the money earmarked for bailing out the one-third of America that has attended college to increasing freshman seats and reducing costs. The Biden administration’s proposed student loan bailouts shrink the tumor, but don’t address the underlying cancer — declining affordability and accessibility.

• A song that lasts for seven days?

• His work ought to be taught in the Department of Music.

No Hollywood movie can adequately convey this kind of tradition, no matter how many superstars are in the cast or how much money is spent on special effects. What we learn from Avdo Međedović is that works like the Odyssey are ritualistic and trance-inducing. They are propelled by music and driven by rhythm. They cross a border beyond literature, and enter something more transcendent and metaphysical.

You won’t find any of that in a book, because it can’t fit inside a book. It’s too large for books. And if Hollywood could ever figure out how to transfer this type of creative ritual on to a screen, they would change the entire course of cinema. But is there a single director today capable of that degree of boldness?

• What storytelling actually is and how to do it

• How to become a better writer, and how (not) to use AI

• The value of a personal brand and how to build one

Until next time!