Building Better Reading Habits and Why It Matters for Investors, with Mick Dillon

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min.

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min.

[This episode will also be available on all major podcast platforms as of Oct. 28, 2022. Follow the podcast to get notified as soon as new episodes drop: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts]‍

My guest on this episode is Mick Dillon. Mick is a London-based portfolio manager in the global equity team of Brown Advisory. He joined Brown in 2014 from HSBC Global Asset Management in Hong Kong where he was the co-head of Asian equities. Early in his career, Mick worked as a management consultant at Logica and an equity research analyst at Lehman Brothers and Arete Research.

I got introduced to Mick by Clare Flynn Levy, CEO of Essentia Analytics and a previous guest on this show. Clare thought our interests overlapped and we would get along. She proved to be a great matchmaker. Over several conversations, I got to know Mick as a highly energetic, passionate, and disciplined investor with an incredible growth mindset.

Mick Dillon is a London-based portfolio manager in the global equity team of Brown Advisory.

In fact, we had so much to talk about that we decided to record two episodes. Today I’m airing a relatively short one on reading habits. And two weeks from now, Mick will be back for a longer episode to talk about how to become more productive through effective management of time and energy. It’s a great conversation, so please follow the show in your podcast player to get notified as soon as this episode goes live.

An impromptu episode

Today’s episode basically came out of nowhere. We were getting ready for our big conversation about energy management, when Mick started riffing about email, distractions at work and how loss aversion plays a role when reading books. We decided to record it. And I must say, it turned out to be one of the best improvised episodes I’ve ever done. You’ll learn about Mick’s reading habits, his ideas on expiring versus compounding knowledge, the system his team relies on to differentiate between information, time management, the value of book clubs, the burden of experience and how reading helps you become a better investor.

Links to people, resources and concepts mentioned:

Mick's LinkedIn profile and his bio on the website of Brown Advisory.
The books we discuss (via Amazon): Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker, Money Men by Dan McCrum, The Price of Time by Edward Chancellor, The Art of Execution by Lee Freeman-Shor and The Influential Mind by Tali Sharot.
I find Shane Parrish' ideas on reading very helpful. Here's a great article he wrote on the topic, which also includes tips on how to take better notes while reading.
And finally, my gratitude goes out to Clare Flynn Levy for introducing me to Mick. Here are links to her LinkedIn profile, the website of her company Essentia Analytics and episode 3 of this podcast, in which Clare talked about the importance of journaling, reflection and feedback loops.