Containers for Exploration

Part of risk management is creating limits. Self-imposed limits. Investment managers will disclose their investment restrictions. The things they do, and the things they don’t do. Warren Buffett calls this the “Circle of Competence”. We have a nasty societal habit of thinking that a smart person can do anything. That when someone has proved themself in one area, we should take their opinion seriously in areas far removed from that because of the Halo effect. 

Creating limits helps you form little containers for your exploration. I am a creature of habit. I am at my most productive when I have made up some rules. Often very arbitrary rules.

When I was studying, I would take a very structured approach to learning. I would do 50-minute study sessions, then 10-minute breaks. I would have budgeted total time required, time available, and allocated by priority to the various subjects. I would record my actual learning, relative to the plan. Allowing for disruption, and breaks. 

These rules were self-imposed. I could, and did, break them. No one else was making me do it. The rules provided a structure that worked for me. I was also glad to eventually put that kind of structure behind me. It worked for a period, and then that period ended. “Everything in moderation, including moderation.”

Winning the Debate

If you have ever had a fight with someone you care deeply about, you will know that often the fight is not about the fight. Whenever you speak, you know the words come out almost fully formed in a gush. What we see and what we hear is based on what has come before. Unless we are very careful, our battles end up being against our own projections rather than what is before us. Pre-scripted wars. Inherited. One technique I am practicing to combat this bias is shorter questions, and shorter answers. Answering the specific question that was asked. Without huge caveats. Without answering the objections I expect to receive in advance. This is hard. I am deep soaked in the Oxford style debating system. Trying to find holes in arguments. Trying to win. Most of the people in my bubble, including me, don’t seem to have the tools to explore issues. The arguments we are having are with the ghosts of our scars. With the defensive goal of convincing the other person that we aren’t evil. That we are quite clever. That we are good enough to keep around.

Winning the Debate

Arriving in France

“If you want to learn a language, you have to give it life”, explains Gabriel Wyner of Fluent Forever. When I was playing poker, my friends and I would have endless analogies of life situations and starting hands. We called Ace-King, Anna Kournikova (looks good, never wins). I am more convinced that both Wealth Creation and Prejudice are like languages. You can’t just dive into a conversation about Money or Race in the same way as you can’t just land in France and speak French. You have to build up a vocabulary. To do that, you have to train your mouth to say the words. To do that, you have to train your ear to hear the words. Everything we hear, see, say, and think is deeply connected. So deeply, we aren’t even conscious of why we think what we think. Even though we are good at adding defences or explanations to justify. Giving life is a slow process of paying attention, absorbing, and gradually reconstructing your reality in a richer way. That starts by relaxing your automatic responses. Noting them, but letting them pass. Creating space to explore rather than debate. Space to give life.

First trip to France (1999)