spent the last few hours answering questions from strangers on the internet while sitting on a plane and the thing that keeps striking me is how similar every question sounds once you strip away the context
the BB analyst making $200K wants to know if his life has meaning. the 20-year-old in a frat wants to know if he is on the right path. the guy running a $15M environmental services company cannot sleep because his leverage ratio scares him even though his covenants are fine. the first-year law student wants someone to tell him the career pivot will work out. the immigrant who got laid off wants to know he is not falling behind permanently
the details are different. the feeling underneath is identical. am I going to be okay
we pretend that money and status and titles fix this. they do not. I sit in rooms with people who control nine-figure portfolios and they are nervous about the same things as everyone else. they just have more expensive language for it. the fund manager calls it "risk management." the analyst calls it "career strategy." the 20-year-old calls it "figuring out my path." same anxiety wearing different suits
I watched a grown man worth more than most people will earn in ten lifetimes throw a tantrum in a conference room because someone questioned his assumption in a model. not his competence. not his track record. an assumption in a spreadsheet. a cell in Excel. he turned red and raised his voice because for 15 seconds he felt like he might be wrong about something and his entire identity could not absorb that possibility
that is not a professional disagreement. that is a kid on a playground who got told he is not the fastest runner
Schopenhauer wrote that humans are not rational beings who occasionally feel emotions. we are emotional beings who occasionally think rationally. the rationality is the exception. the feeling is the baseline. every framework we build in finance and in business and in life is an attempt to impose order on a brain that is fundamentally running on fear and desire and the need to be seen as competent by other people who are also running on fear and desire
the most dangerous version of this is the person who thinks they have outgrown it. the one who believes that enough success or enough money or enough status has made them rational. that person is not more rational. they are less accountable. nobody around them pushes back anymore so the irrational impulses go unchecked and get rebranded as conviction and vision and leadership
the best operators I know are the ones who understand that they are still unreasonable kids underneath everything. they lose their temper over small things. they take criticism personally even when it is constructive. they make emotional decisions and reverse-engineer a logical justification after the fact. the difference is they know they do this. they have systems to catch it. they hire people who are allowed to tell them when they are being stupid. they build in a 24-hour delay before any decision made while angry
the worst operators are the ones who think they have evolved past it. they confuse pattern recognition with wisdom. they confuse wealth with emotional maturity. they confuse the silence of the people around them with agreement when it is actually just fear
Nietzsche said that the most common form of human stupidity is forgetting what one is trying to do. I think the more common form is forgetting what one is. which is a complicated animal that learned to use spreadsheets but never stopped being afraid of the dark
none of us outgrow being unreasonable. the question is whether we build a life that accounts for it or one that pretends it does not exist
thanks for the questions today. you are all going to be fine. even the ones who do not feel like it right now
So the Texans had;
An elite defence.
10 straight wins.
80% of Analysts predicting they win.
But NOW, they’re bad. And another example of us facing no good teams on the season.
Got it.
We all we got, we all we need.
Justin Herbert: Stayed at Oregon, thrived
Payton Pritchard: Stayed at Oregon, thrived
Sabrina Ionescu: Stayed at Oregon, thrived
Dante Moore: Staying at Oregon, ???
It speaks volumes about the athletic culture at Oregon that elite athletes choose to stay.
Guys, I'm confused by the NFL playoff.
You mean they don't have a committee that just decides what teams get in? How could they possibly know who deserves to be in the playoffs without a committee telling them?
Traditionally, the Chiefs have been really good. Why are they out?
Arizona is out? But they play in the NFC West. They'd be 17-0 in any other league.
Why are they playing playoffs this weekend? Why aren't they waiting 24 days to play?
Why is Denver so high? Their SOS isn't as good as the Bengals? Have you seen the SOS of the Bengals?
@Chirag_S_kotian@barstoolsports You’re a dummy that shouldn’t be allowed to tweet. He fumbled it and then clearly repossessed the ball. Go watch a more simple game that your smooth brain can understand.