What will sharpen your thinking today:

• Makes-You-Think Tweet: Systems, goals, and identity

• Mind-Expanding Concept: Region-beta paradox

• Cool Quote or Question: Opinions vs bets

• High-Signal Content: Playing your own game

Makes-You-Think Tweet

Mind-Expanding Concept

Region-Beta Paradox

Worse situations can sometimes be better than better situations.

An example: I like walking. The longer I walk, the farther I go (duh!). But let’s say I only walk for distances up to 1 mile. If it’s farther than that, I bike. What ends up happening, paradoxically, is that I arrive faster when I cover 2, 3, 4 miles than when I cover just 1 mile. The fact that I change my mode of transportation briefly reverses the normal relation between distance and time. The image above illustrates this paradox: it takes less time to reach any point in region β than to reach the shorter distances in region α.

This paradox happens not only for distance and time. Another example is the intensity and duration of certain situations.

We expect that an intense physical injury will take longer to recover from than a mild one. But, if I go to the doctor, take medicine, and get sessions of physical therapy because it’s intense, then I might recover faster than if it was a mild one (“It’s nothing serious, I’ll just wait and it will go away”).

We can apply this concept more broadly. Warning: it can trigger some deep thinking about your life.

Meet my friend John. John’s job is not amazing and soul-enriching, but it’s alright. John is often bored but every once in a while he does interesting stuff. His boss is not an asshole. He earns enough money to pay the bills. It’s…alright, so he keeps going. Conversely, if John absolutely hated his job with every cell of his body, his boss was in fact an asshole and he was unable to pay his bills month after month, he would likely take his chances and look for a new, better job. The same logic applies to relationships. And many more situations in life.

Being in a shitty enough situation pushes us to find a solution. Shittiness creates enough activation energy. And we ultimately end up better off when things are awful than if they were just fine.

Worth thinking about: am I trapped in a good enough situation that deserves a change in approach?

Cool Quote or Question

We all have opinions about all kinds of things. As soon as we hear about something, we automatically judge and start concocting a reply in our heads. Not only that but we can't wait to share it with other people. It’s almost irresistible. And that’s why opinions are cheap.

Bets are different. If you’re willing to bet money on something, you are more likely to know what you’re talking about or you likely took some time to do your research. At least you believe it enough to risk your money.

“Wanna bet?” is an easy and effective way to gauge our confidence level about something (and that of others).

High-Signal Content

Is investing like math, where there’s a definite right answer for a problem, or more like sports, where players optimize for different skills and physiques depending on the game they’re playing?

Our preferences and constraints are more personal and specific than we intuitively think. Understanding what game we’re playing is important in all areas of life. Optimizing for the wrong variables is a sure way to lose years of life.

See you next week,

Filipe