Feeling Decisions

Free will exists. It is just incredibly hard work. Free will is not simply deciding. It is training yourself to decide. It is creating the environment where it is possible to decide. Where your decisions are not forced. Where the constraints within which those decisions are made are chosen, dismantled, or changed consciously. 

Computers don’t know what the 1s and 0s mean. They just apply the algorithms, and something happens. If there is a glitch... a coder has to consciously find it and change it. For that to happen, they have to become intimate with the code. Open it up. Unpack it. Understand the steps, consequences, and connections. 

The further decisions are from consequences, the more information is lost because of oversimplification, and the length of time till feedback is felt. 

This is David Attenborough’s case for biodiversity as a response to climate change. Increasing the capacity for local reaction. Feeling decisions. The ability to adapt to conditions rather than the monoculture of distant central decision-making behemoths. Building flexibility and firebreaks for when (not if) things go wrong. 

The unintended consequences of big decisions may have conspicuous results, but they often hide until it is too late. Free will requires you to pay intimate attention, and do the work.

Maintaining Firebreaks

Building Value

We understand things better if we are directly involved. We all have to live somewhere, and so houses are the default big asset we think of people deciding to buy/own. We know our home. A roof over your head is a very easy problem to communicate. 

If someone offers to buy your house, and suggests a price that is less than what you think it is worth... it is easy to say no. Especially if you didn’t even want to sell. A reluctant yes may squeak out if you have no option but to sell, and no one else but that cheeky person to sell to. 

With investments, when the price falls, there is panic! All a price is, is a quote. The last agreed number for which a share changed hands. The lack of real-time knowledge of price (noise) for houses brings some calm. 

The best tool for long-term investing is the ability to choose what to pay attention to. To place your attention consciously in alignment with little actions that add up. 

Fundamental investing is when you get your money a job. Your money becomes a mini version of you (with more flexibility) that can earn on your behalf. “The actions that add up” is the real work the money is doing. 

Why is it making money? What problem is being solved? What is the ask? What is the offer? What is the container? Or the hardest problem of the lot in making money... “How do you get paid?”. Fundamental questions about building value.

Brick Making

Creating Meaning

How you define words matters. What do you mean? Meaning is revealed over time through what we pay attention to, and what relevance we attach. Through the meaning we create. The actions we take. I am a Commitmentphobe, or a Commitmentphile depending on how you define commitment. I believe in Broad Framing. That you need to pause, step back, and reflect on decisions in context. That everything is connected. I love dogs. I don’t own a dog. A dog is a commitment. Affecting holiday choices, times you wake up, cleanliness of the home, and various other things. They also give great cuddles, and I love cuddles. My preference for commitment is to things that I can keep the commitment to. Not in the moment. Not outside of my context. I believe in the long term. That small moments compound. Fully committed to this moment. But also, in how it is connected to the next. And the next. Choosing what we pay attention to. Remembering the connections. Building meaning over time. That’s what I mean by commitment.

Little Me and my Milligan