Blogs to watch (part 30): The Flying Frisby

Authors of blogs mostly don't fit into existing categories, and Dominic Frisby is a perfect example.

Dominic is a self-made professional investor – but also a stand-up comedian, song writer, book author, musical producer, documentary maker, and all-round inquisitive mind. Even this list only scratches the surface of his far-spanning career.

Dominic also happens to be a mate of mine, and is currently staying at my house in Sark while I am soaking up the sun in Spain.

Today's feature of The Flying Frisby is a service to my readers, a favour to Dominic, and the ideal way for me to close down "Blogs to watch". As previously announced, following my reader survey in February 2022, this series is coming to an end – and, as I'd like to think, with a bang!

A surprise outcome of my writing

With "Blogs to watch", I didn't just want to point my readers to interesting content offered elsewhere. I also intended this column to kickstart collaboration between bloggers who write about investments, in a way that benefits all parties involved (including, of course, the readers).

This ambition was fulfilled to a good extent. There are now a handful investment bloggers with whom I collaborate in some fashion on a regular basis. Some of them have even become personal friends.

One entirely unexpected outcome of this series was my catalysing several other investors to start their own investment blog. Dominic is one such case, and he openly credits me with inspiring him to start The Flying Frisby – whose idea was born over a few beers in a working man's pub in South London.

Within a few months of starting his blog, "Dom" was among the top 20 finance-related writers on Substack.

He is worth following for quite a few reasons. Here are my top three.

1. Enjoyable, insightful investment writing

Pure and simple, Dominic comes up with ideas for equities that can help your own investment and potentially make you a lot of money.

He has personally landed a few home runs by investing in relatively obscure stocks, especially in mining and technology. These stocks are speculative, but if you are looking for ways to potentially land a multi-bagger, then Dominic's equity research is worth keeping an eye on.

He also has a real talent for commenting on some of the issues that are making the financial news, and doing so with an edge.

"How high are rates going to go?" explained how the very definition of inflation has changed through a so-called "semantic shift".

"The inevitable future of energy" looked at the renaissance of nuclear energy and how it might benefit the bombed-out stock of Rolls Royce (ISIN GB00B63H8491, UK:RR).

"In Defence of Fossil Fuels" explained that "without the cheap, reliable and abundant energy fossil fuels have provided, we'd be lost". Nine months after this podcast was published in December 2021, it needs no explaining why this was a timely assessment indeed.

The Flying Frisby is only six months old, but its author is both prolific and hard-working, so there is already a lot such content on there. If you try the monthly subscription for GBP 25 / USD 29, you can download all of Dominic's past writings.

2. A 21^st-century polymath

With Dominic, I have found a friend who has a similarly inquisitive mind.

He shares my beliefs that personal interests should never be limited to any particular category – nor should the writing on a blog. A one-man publication should always offer the reader the opportunity to accompany the author on their entire journey of learning and discovery.

For Dominic, this approach results in a wide range of topics.

"Why do we use the weights and measures we do?"

"Why our instinct for gold is primal"

"On the beauty of redheads"

Who knew the following?

"Redheads are just 1% of the global population. … Ireland has the most red heads per capita at around 10%, but the highest density of red heads and thus the red head capital of the world is actually Edinburgh."

Had I known this earlier, I would now be in Edinburgh rather than Malaga.

And there is yet more to Dominic, on other platforms.

"Adam Smith: Father of the Fringe" is a documentary that Dominic produced, and which explains how the father of capitalist thinking influenced the way today's biggest comedy festival in the world – the Edinburgh Festival – is run. Watching it, I wondered if Dominic, whose voice and British accent count among his natural assets, could yet become the David Attenborough of capitalist documentaries.

"Daylight Robbery: How Tax Shaped Our Past and Will Change Our Future" is a 281-page book that Dominic published, a highly-readable pièce de résistance about the tax madness in the Western world. You are less likely to become a successful investor if you aren't knowledgeable about subjects such as this one (I've reviewed the book in my three-part article "Understanding your 'lifetime tax bill'").

Someone with such a broad set of interests is exactly the kind of author I like to follow. You can also do so through Dominic's Twitter account and his personal website.

If you are anything like me, you probably like to get a personal impression of the people whose content you follow.

YouTube videos are one way to do so. Meeting someone in person at events is another.

Dominic can regularly be found at events across the UK, as well as on YouTube where 25,000 people follow his channel "Money, Markets & More". His song "17 Million F*ck Offs", which Dominic created to celebrate the Brexit referendum, even appeared in the UK's hit charts, when opposing sides of the referendum competed in pushing their favourite songs to the top of the charts.

Source: British Comedy Guide, 30 January 2020.

I last saw Dominic in person at "Before I'm Deleted... Again", a full length comedy cabaret show in support of the Free Speech Union in London. It was so brutally good that I nearly wet myself laughing! It was also nothing short of brutal in terms of those the evening was designed to mock. So brutal, in fact, that much of it wasn't suitable for putting it on the Internet as video. This was the best evening out I have had in 2022 so far, hands-down.

Farewell to "Blogs to watch"

Publishing this series has broadened my own reading, because it forced me to regularly look out for blogs that I hadn't come across before.

While many readers also found it useful, my reader survey earlier this year clearly showed that "Blogs to watch" was the least favourite part of my Weekly Dispatches.

Which is why today, "Blogs to watch" is riding off into the sunset. My free eBook "The world's best investing blogs" has been updated to include all 30 blogs that I've featured as part of this series. If you haven't done so already, please do feel free to share this free copy with your contacts to introduce them to the fringe of investment writing.

By finishing Blogs to Watch, I am freeing up space for other ideas – such as my recent popular Weekly Dispatches about Nicholas "Nick" Roditi, Karl Ehlerding, and Pinelawn Cemetery. Watch this space!

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