Just read Malcolm Gladwell’s article on Nasim Taleb in What the Dog Saw.
It basically talked about 2 different investing strategies & psychology behind them. Most people prefer to win a little everyday even if their investing strategy exposes them to lose everything in a day.
Nasim Taleb has figured out how to make money by losing a little everyday but making a fortunate in a day. He is basically making a bet on the world being a lot more unpredictable than predictable.
I definitely prefer second strategy, sometimes I miss bi-weekly paycheck but mostly I don’t mind losing it for much bigger reward.
I think I read in one of Malcolm Gladwell’s books that humans trust stubbornness. Humans don’t like leaders who change their mind often. In fact, humans will continue to trust a leader even if he is proven wrong as long as leader himself doesn’t say that he was wrong.
Humans are strange creatures indeed. I rather have a leader who admits that he was wrong and fix it than a leader who stick to incorrect decision because of his ego. Okay I don’t like confused flip flopping IN-decision maker either but decision made later will always be better than decision made earlier. Simple math here. Later you will have more data than before, hence, better decision.
Okay it is possible that later data is bad or data is not processed correctly. So anyone acting too quickly on new data without verifying it, can make a worse decision than before. Such hasty person is probably a flip flop-er.
I guess you gotta find a happy medium, change or adapt your plans but don’t react to every little new information.
Most people drive like as if they are invincible but spend like like as if they will die tomorrow.
Those long lines of slow moving cars on are usually funeral processions. The right Southern etiquette is to stop and get out of your car when you see one.
Sometimes, it is hard to tell if cars are just moving slow or if they are part of procession, be respectful & take the other street.
I was skeptical of Tim Ferriss‘ The 4-Hour Workweek as it just sounds too ridiculous to me. However, when I saw this book in audio format at my public library, I decided to check it out. (Oh I am in love with audio books). So far I finished 1st CD, and I must say there are a lot of gems of wisdom spread in there. Then I checked Tim’s blog and it is even better. There are so many ideas for outsourcing your life, it’s wonderful.
From the 1st CD, the best advice I heard was that regular people buy stuff for sake of buying or their goals are to buy things like expensive cars or gadgets. Whereas “New Rich” as Tim Ferriss calls people who follow his philosophy, have goals of doing things and in the process if they buy something great. In other words, instead of owning stuff, do stuff. It is more fulfilling.
This philosophy affects me a lot as I am a gadget collector, whenever I see something cool I buy it, even if I know I will never ever really use it or get good at it, like my guitar. Sometimes I even buy books that I know I will not read in immediate future but would like to read sometime if I have free time. From now on I will only buy what I need to do something that I want to do.
