Morgan Housel

A Message From the Past (Thoughts on Nostalgia)

After college, my wife (who was then my girlfriend) and I got an apartment in the Seattle suburbs.

Do It Your Way

The ultimate success metric is whether you get what you want out of life.

Podcast With Howard Marks

I recently sat down with legendary investor Howard Marks, co-founder of Oaktree Capital Management.

Cumulative vs. Cyclical Knowledge

President James Garfield died because the best doctors in the country didn’t believe in germs, probing Garfield’s bullet wound after…

A Number From Today and A Story About Tomorrow

Every forecast takes a number from today and multiplies it by a story about tomorrow.

A Few Little Ideas And Short Stories

I once asked a successful author how to market a book.

Makes You Think

A few lines I came across recently that got me thinking…

Quiet Compounding

“Nature is not in a hurry, yet everything is accomplished,” said Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu.

Useful and Overlooked Skills

On his way to be sworn in as the most powerful man in the world, Franklin Delano Roosevelt had to…

Lazy Work, Good Work

John D. Rockefeller was the most successful businessman of all time.

How I Think About Debt

Japan has 140 businesses that are at least 500 years old.

A Few Short Stories

Thirty-seven thousand Americans died in car accidents in 1955, six times today’s rate adjusted for miles driven.

Lucky vs. Repeatable

Luck plays such a big role in the world.

Smart Words From Smart People

A few smart things I’ve read recently…

The Dumber Side of Smart People

Most people will die after three days without water.

A Few Thoughts on Spending Money

There are two ways to use money.

Information That Would Get Your Attention

I’ve always thought Twitter makes you twice as informed but half as productive.

Active vs. Passive Learning

If I asked, which do you think will lead to a healthier, happier relationship…

Respect Each Others’ Delusions

I love the saying that people don’t remember books; they remember sentences.

Long-Term News

NEW YORK – In what analysts called “the most important economic metric that exists,” 360,000 people were born yesterday, 78%…

Frugal vs. Independent

Here’s an important distinction about people who spend less than they earn.

The Full Reset

To understand the power of starting clean, you have to know the nuance of why the German military became as…

My New Book: Same As Ever

My new book, Same as Ever: A Guide to What Never Changes, is out today.

Wild Minds

Eliud Kipchoge, the world’s best marathon runner, was being held in a staging room during the 2021 Olympic Games in…

Smart Things I’ve Read Lately

“Until we know we are wrong, being wrong feels exactly like being right.” – David McRaney.

A Few Laws of Getting Rich

There are 13 divorces among the 10 richest men in the world.

The Thin Line Between Bold and Reckless

Cornelius Vanderbilt had just finished a series of business deals to expand his railroad empire.

The Written Word

A few thoughts I have about writing…

A Few Things I’m Pretty Sure About

You don’t have to know exactly what the future holds to know that some people will handle it better than…

Respect and Admiration

I like the idea of the reverse obituary: Write down what you want your obituary to say, then figure out…

What A World (A few Stories)

A few short stories…

Intelligent vs. Smart

Here’s an important distinction to make in life.

A Few Stories About Big Decisions

In 1964, Warren Buffett owned shares in an old industry company with fading prospects.

How to Read: Lots of Inputs and a Strong Filter

My reading strategy is to start as many books as I can but finish few of them.

Everything Is Cyclical

French geologists recently discovered that a Himalayan mountain suffered a massive landslide 800 years ago.

Rich and Anonymous

I think there’s an “ideal” net worth for everyone, when money not only stops bringing pleasure but becomes a social…

Smart Things Smart People Said

A few lines I came across recently that I liked…

A Few Questions

Whose life do I admire that is secretly miserable…

Why You Believe The Things You Do

I remember reading an article years ago about a father in Yemen who lost a son to starvation, only to…

Compounding Optimism

Let me share a little theory I have about optimism, and why progress is so easy to underestimate.

Paying Attention

Sherlock Holmes says in the book, The Study of Scarlet…

Expectations Debt

I live in Seattle, and Amazon is our giant.

The Spectrum of Financial Dependence and Independence

“I did not intend to get rich.

Vicious Traps

There are times in nature when two plus two equals ten – when two little things combine to form one…

Some Things I Think

The fastest way to get rich is to go slow.

One Big Web: A Few Ways the World Works

Joseph Tussman, a UC Berkeley philosophy professor, wrote in the 1960s that, “What the pupil must learn, if he learns…

What Makes You Happy

Ernest Shackleton’s ship, the Endurance, became stuck in Antarctic ice.

Mental Liquidity

I recently heard a phrase I love: Mental liquidity.

All Together Now

The Brooklyn Bridge was the largest structure in the western hemisphere when it opened in 1883.

Psychological Paths of Least Resistance

When faced with a problem, rarely do people ask, “What is the best, perfect, answer to this question?”.

The Luckier You Are The Nicer You Should Be

An important skill – an incredibly hard one – is identifying when things in your life are temporarily too good…

How It All Works (A Few Short Stories)

A few short stories whose lessons apply to many things…

Risk and Regret

David Cassidy’s last words were, “So much wasted time.”.

Everything You Can’t Have

Nothing is as desired as much as the thing you want but can’t have.

FOMO: The Worst Financial Trait

A funny thing about money is that it’s a negative art.

The Art and Science of Spending Money

Former General Electric CEO Jack Welch once nearly died of a heart attack.

Justifying Optimism

What was the happiest day of your life…

Why Competitive Advantages Die

A few factors I’ve seen pull winners off the podium…

Ideas That Changed My Life

You spend years trying to learn new stuff but then look back and realize that maybe like 10 big ideas…

Getting Wealthy vs. Staying Wealthy

Good investing is not necessarily about making good decisions.

A Few Good Stories

Virtually everything was in short supply during World War II.

Attention

In school they tell you your paper must be a minimum of five pages long.

Very Important and Hard to Teach

The most important decisions in your life may be whether to marry, who to marry, and whether to have kids.

Expectations and Reality

In 2004 the New York Times interviewed Stephen Hawking, the late scientist whose motor-neuron disease left him paralyzed and unable…

Little Rules About Big Things

A few things I’ve come to terms with…

A Few Good Books

A couple I’ve enjoyed lately…

Expectations (Five Short Stories)

David Cassidy seemed to have the best life you could imagine.

Engaging With History

In 1963, LIFE Magazine asked author James Baldwin where he gets his inspiration.

It’s Supposed To Be Hard

In 1990, David Letterman asked his friend Jerry Seinfeld how his new sitcom was going.

Good Enough

Spare a thought for the poor guppy fish, who lives a miserable existence but teaches us something important about forecasting.

Three Big Things: The Most Important Forces Shaping the World

An irony of studying history is that we often know exactly how a story ends, but have no idea where…

Big Beliefs

A trick to learning a complicated topic is realizing how many complex details are a cousin of something simple.

Rare Skills

Three rare and powerful skills…

Reality Catches Up

An asset you don’t deserve can quickly become a liability.

Tails, You Win

Steamboat Willie put Walt Disney on the map as an animator.

Little Ways The World Works

If you find something that is true in more than one field, you’ve probably uncovered something particularly important.

Lifestyles

Fifty-four years ago this month, in a push for publicity, The Sunday Times offered £5,000 to whoever could sail solo…

Wealth vs. Getting Wealthier

Will Smith writes in his biography that…

Keep It Going

A quick story about athletes and investors.

Too Far

Every good idea and every admirable trait can be taken too far.

Different Kinds of BS

There are three important facts about bullshit: It’s everywhere, it’s influential, and it’s dangerous.

Endless Uncertainty

The night before the D-Day invasion, a nervous Franklin Roosevelt asked his wife Eleanor how she felt about not knowing…

Obvious Things That Easily Escape Attention

Dr. Watson walks into a room, and Sherlock Holmes instantly accuses him of hanging out in the club all day.

Trying Too Hard

Thomas McCrae was a young 19th Century doctor still unsure of his skills.

A Few Beliefs

Having your views confirmed is a powerful and addictive drug.

The Rich And The Wealthy

Reggie Vanderbilt was born into a family of bitter feuds, fragile egos, and impossible expectations.

Never Saw It Coming

People are very good at forecasting the future, except for the surprises, which tend to be all that matter.

Staying Put

A lot of good ideas are ignored because they’re only occasionally useful.

Deep Roots

Forecasting is hard because it’s easy to skip the question, “And then what?”.

How People Think

One hundred billion people have walked this planet.

Low Expectations

Elon Musk said he had lunch with Charlie Munger in 2009.

Surprise, Shock, and Uncertainty

A couple things I’ve been thinking about in the last week…

Now You Get It

Historian Stephen Ambrose writes about World War II soldiers who left basic training full of bravado and confidence, eager to…

Six Questions For Derek Thompson

Derek Thompson is one of my favorite writers.

After The Fact

Let’s say you exercise an hour a day, seven days a week.

Fluke

Forecasting is hard. And not because people aren’t smart, but because trivial accidents can be influential in ways that are…

Big Skills

Scott Adams, the Dilbert creator, says he doesn’t have any extraordinary skills.

I Have A Few Questions

They’re relevant to everyone, and apply to lots of things…

Good Books

The Patriarch. An incredible biography of Joseph Kennedy, who lived one of the most interesting lives in American history.

Assured Misery

People tend to know what makes them angry with more certainty than what might make them happy.

How This All Happened

This is a short story about what happened to the U.S.

Experts From A World That No Longer Exists

The biggest risk to an evolving system is that you become bogged down by experts from a world that no…

Internal vs. External Benchmarks

There are two ways to measure how you’re doing: Against yourself and against others.

It Sounds Crazy

A big part of almost every story in history is that expectations move slower than facts.

Dangerous Feelings

Success has a nasty tendency to increase confidence more than ability.

History’s Seductive Beliefs

The biggest takeaway from history is that the characters change but their behaviors don’t.

Little Flaws

Not realizing that inarticulate, uneducated, obnoxious, unqualified, and crazy people sometimes have the right answers.

Rules, Truths, Beliefs

The luckier you are the nicer you should be.

Other People’s Mistakes

George Carlin once joked how easy it is to spot stupid people.

The Highest Forms of Wealth

Wealth is easy to measure but hard to value.

Too Smart

“One of the most persistent fallacies is the reflexive association of wealth with wisdom,” Ed Borgato once wrote.

Money Rules

Barry Ritholtz asked people for their top 10 money rules last week.

Little Stories

Early in his career Andrew Carnegie took a train to deliver a bundle of payroll checks to his crew.

Getting the Goalpost to Stop Moving

There aren’t many iron laws of money.

Play Your Own Game

Michael Jordan said he had to reconstruct his body when he went from basketball to baseball back to basketball.

The Limits of Investing Sanity

The Spectrum of Optimism and Pessimism

At one end you have the pure optimist.

The Big Lessons of the Last Year

History is one damned thing after another.

Five Investing Powers

Rare and helpful…

Too Much, Too Soon, Too Fast

Some things scale well. Double their size and you get double the output (or more).

Investing: The Greatest Show On Earth

Let me share two quick stories that have nothing to do with investing.

The Fed Isn’t Printing As Much Money As You Think

The risk of rising inflation over the next few years is probably the highest it’s been in decades.

When Everyone’s a Genius (A Few Thoughts on Speculation)

The end of a speculative boom can be inevitable but not predictable.

A Few Good Books

Some good ones I’ve read lately…

Best Story Wins

C. R.

Unfortunate Investing Traits

Napoleon’s definition of a military genius was “The man who can do the average thing when everyone else around him…

Why It’s Usually Crazier Than You Expect

I want to try to explain why Gamestop went up 100-fold in the last year and why Sears never recovered.

Personal Finance Philosophies

It can happen to you.

A Few Thoughts On Writing

You have five seconds to get people’s attention.

Two Worlds: So Much Prosperity, So Much Skepticism

The demand for forecasts grows after a surprise.

Last Man Standing

Amazon in 2014 was a puzzle.

A Few Things I’m Pretty Sure About

If something is impossible to know you are better off not being very smart, because smart people fool themselves into…

The Reasonable Optimist

Germany’s GDP fell by more than half in 1945, when the end of World War II left a pile of…

We Have No Idea What Happens Next

To grasp how hard it is to predict what will happen after the world is thrown upside down – as…

Accountable to Darwin vs. Accountable to Newton

Woodrow Wilson was the only president with a Ph.D.

Common Causes of Very Bad Decisions

Italian psychologist Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini was once asked why people keep making the same mistakes.

A Few Rules

The person who tells the most compelling story wins.

What We’re Reading

Speed of innovation…

Obvious Things That Are Easy To Ignore

“The world is full of obvious things which nobody ever observes,” says Sherlock Holmes.

Book: The Psychology of Money

My book, The Psychology of Money, is now out.

Alternative Forms of Wealth

Covid has forced many of us to spend unprecedented amounts of time with a few people (spouses, kids, roommates).

Expiring vs. Permanent Skills

Robert Walter Weir was one of the most popular instructors at West Point in the mid-1800s.

The Three Sides of Risk

I grew up ski racing in Lake Tahoe.

Here We Are: 5 Stories That Got Us To Now

Three days after Ronald Reagan was inaugurated in 1981, New York City Council President Carol Bellamy joined a group of…

What Always Changes

A few things that always change, never staying in one place for long…

The Ugly Scramble

A truth in one field often shines a light on another.

Good Things Taken Too Far

Penicillin is probably the most important discovery of the last 100 years.

Lots of Things Happening At Once

“Steve [Jobs] and I will always get more credit than we deserve, because otherwise the story gets too complicated,” Bill…

Never The Same

Things are different now.

Permanent Assumptions

If you were told in January what April would look like, you wouldn’t have believed it.

Acceptable Flaws

Life is a little easier if you expect a certain percentage of it to go wrong no matter how hard…

What Have We Learned Here?

A few things revealed in recent months.

When You Have No Idea What Happens Next

Do we know more about what’s going to happen in the next 12 months today than we did in January…

Who Pays For This?

The federal government will run a $3.8 trillion deficit this year and $2.1 trillion next year.

What Next? (Two Questions)

Desire for economic forecasts surges right when our ability to accurately forecast plunges.

The Shock Cycle

At first you don’t see bad news, because it starts small and isn’t reported in traditional outlets.

Why Time Has Slowed

Time seems to have slowed down.

Two Things Can Be True At Once

“How are you holding up?”.

Common Enemies

Everyone wants a map. Just a simple guide to what’s going to happen next.

Two Things We Know With High Confidence

Unknowns exceed knowns even in the best of times.

Corona Panic (Part II)

Lots of things now seem obvious in hindsight.

Different Kinds of Decline

Decline is everywhere these days.

We’ll Get Through This

In the 1930s an Ohio lawyer named Benjamin Roth kept a detailed diary about what he saw during the Great…

Death, Taxes, and Three Other Inevitable Things

Life guarantees…

Corona Panic

It’s OK to not have an opinion on topics you don’t know anything about.

100 Little Ideas

A list of ideas, in no particular order and from different fields, that help explain how the world works…

History is Only Interesting Because Nothing is Inevitable

Nothing that’s happened had to happen, or must happen again.

Useful Laws of the Land

The most important ideas are those that apply to multiple fields.

Different Kinds of Easy

Jeff Immelt left General Electric in worse shape than he found it.

What I Believe Least

Belief doesn’t have to be black or white.

2020: What a Time To Be Alive

A common theme in history is that progress happens too slowly to notice while setbacks happen too quickly to overlook.

Useful Hacks

“You can’t produce a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant.

The Psychology of Prediction

This report describes 12 common flaws, errors, and misadventures that occur in people’s heads when predictions are made.

No More Gurus

Avianca flight 052, from Medellin to New York, was circling JFK for landing in bad weather.

Common Plots of Economic History

Complicated stuff can stem from a handful of common roots.

The Spectrum of Wealth

Chris Rock joked that Bill Gates would jump out the window if he woke up with Oprah’s money.

Useful Biases

There was a time when psychology was all about helping people get from bad to normal.

Why New Technology Is A Hard Sell

Let me tell you about the only time in history a new technology has been adopted by almost everyone virtually…

Death, Taxes, and a Few Other Things

Life guarantees…

WeWork Lessons That Apply To Lots of Stuff

No company or investment strategy is proven until it’s survived a calamity.

Fat, Happy, And In Over Your Head

Having more than you need can be a liability masquerading as an advantage, and no sense of “enough” can look…

Immutable Truths and Arguing Fools

There are a few things that are so obviously true, and true for everyone, that no one argues about them.

Short Investing Beliefs

Expecting crazy > expecting average, because the important part of “reversion to the mean” is the reversion, not the mean.

You Better Love This

Something stupid you can stick with will probably outperform something smart that you’ll burn out on.

What We’re Reading

Student loans…

The Laws of Investing

Think of how big the world is.

Universal Laws of the World

If something is true in one field it’s probably true in others.

Inseparable Pairs

Hundreds of books and movies have depicted World War II.

Why Things Break: Easy Causes of Business and Investing Failure

There are a million ways to succeed at business and investing.

A Few Thoughts On Public Speaking

Next week I’ll give my 100th investing talk in London.

Financial Advice For My New Daughter

My wife and I welcomed a daughter into the world yesterday.

Good Ideas Can’t Be Scheduled

“I don’t know why people keep using one-year earnings,” economist Robert Shiller once said.

Realistic Personal Finance Hacks

Hacks are hard because shortcuts rarely exist.

Degrees of Confidence

Take a person who is confident in something they know nothing about.

Five Lessons from History

The most important lessons from history are the takeaways that are so broad they can apply to other fields, other…

You Played Yourself

Medicine used to be all about biology.

When You’ll Believe Anything

Ali Hajaji’s son was sick.

You Have To Live It To Believe It

Richard Held and Alan Hein raised 20 kittens in pitch black darkness.

Fees vs. Fines

The last three months of 2018 was the worst quarter for stocks in seven years.

Different Kinds of Information

An 1890 Oxford entrance exam question read: “Give some account of the life of Mary, the mother of our Lord.”.

We Don’t Build Enough Homes

At least relative to history…

The Value of College

Big life lessons on display in the last few years: Don’t lie to the FBI.

Counterintuitive Competitive Advantages

This is all that’s left of the Irish elk.

Recessions: It’s Been a While

It’s been a while since we’ve had a recession…

Pure Downside, No Silver Lining

There are no exceptions to Newton’s third law of physics.

Not Caring: A Unique and Powerful Skill

Jiddu Krishnamurti was an Indian philosopher.

What Else Matters?

Here’s what happened to a bunch of big economies over the last 30 years…

Different Kinds of Stupid

“The older I get the more I realize how many kinds of smart there are.

Short Money Rules

Above-average results require not being afraid of looking wrong.

Why Time Horizon Works

Ben Graham said, “In the short run the market is a voting machine but in the long run it’s a…

Where Big Leaps Happen

The Bronze Age was a big leap forward because it was one of the first times humans learned how to…

Origins of Greed and Fear

Greed and fear control everything in investing.

The Biggest Returns

The biggest energy story of the last four decades has nothing to do with oil or gas.

When It’s Time To Do Something

The Department of Homeland Security created terrorism warning codes after 9/11.

Things I’m Pretty Sure About

A few things I’ve been thinking about lately ….

Wild Expectations

Expectations were not high for Harry Truman when he became president in 1945.

Investing Ideas That Changed My Life

You spend years trying to learn new stuff but then look back and realize just a few big ideas changed…

Rational vs. Reasonable

I’m going to explain why it’s OK to make irrational investment decisions.

An Interpretation of Stated Odds

100% odds: Either accurate and nothing you can do about it or inaccurate and self-deluded.

Drip, Drip, Drip

“This year,” says the narrator, “thanks to Hitler and Hirohito, taxes are higher than ever before.

Selfish Writing

Howard Marks’ book The Most Important Thing has sold three-quarters of a million copies.

When Things Get Wild

Every past decline looks like an opportunity, every future decline looks like a risk.

No One is Crazy

At one point last week Florida was selling 550 lottery tickets per second.

Humble Exits

Jack Welch allegedly passed a note across the table to Jerry Seinfeld.

Rube Goldberg

Here’s what happens when interest rates rise.

Time Horizon vs. Endurance

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink once told a story about having dinner with the manager of one of the world’s largest…

Risk Management

Risk management starts with what Jeff Bezos calls the “regret minimization framework.” Project yourself to age 80, or age 90.

Different Kinds of Smart

“The older I get the more I realize how many kinds of smart there are.

Fool Me Three Times And I Give Up

The most significant part of the financial crisis that peaked ten years ago this month was that it took place…

Newcomers

Author Robert Coram once wrote about military promotions…

Concealed Emotions

Two forces control every investment market: 1) money is emotional, 2) most people don’t think they’re emotional.

People vs. Companies

One month after Japan surrendered World War II, General Douglas MacArthur met Japanese emperor Hirohito.

The Trajectory of Great Ideas

One day you wake up and realize you have a great idea.

Natural Maniacs

No one should be shocked when people who think about the world in unique ways you like also think about…

Appealing Fictions

“What was the happiest day of your life…

Real World vs. Book Knowledge

Willie Sutton, the famous bank robber, once described his attempt to become a lawyer in the 1920s…

Mindsets: Optimism vs. Complacency vs. Pessimism

A real optimist wakes up every morning knowing lots of stuff is broken, and more stuff is about to break.

The Lifecycle of Greed and Fear

All greed starts with an innocent idea: that you are right, deserve to be right, or are owed something for…

Little Money Rules

Emotions can override any level of intelligence.

Theranos Lessons

Fifteen months before his Ponzi scheme unraveled, Bernie Madoff made an astounding comment.

Repeating Themes

How much of the “history” of business and investing – particularly explanations for why things happened – is a wildly…

The Psychology of Money

Let me tell you the story of two investors, neither of whom knew each other, but whose paths crossed in…

“If I Were Wrong, What Would It Look Like?”

Lakshman Achuthan went on TV in 2011 and predicted a recession was near.

If Collaborative Fund Invested in Public Stocks

What if we could merge a private-markets mindset with public-market opportunities…

Nobody Planned This, Nobody Expected It

The Battle of Stalingrad was the largest battle in history.

Everyone Needs Help

A fascinating part of VC is sitting on the board of directors of companies you invest in.

Rules in the Textbooks, Guidelines in the Trenches

A study three years ago figured out how to save more than 100,000 lives a year.

Some Things I’m Pretty Sure About

I increasingly don’t believe in gurus, in any field.

An Art Leveraging A Science

Albert Einstein’s favorite idea was called gedankenerfahrung.

How to Talk to People About Money

Clarence Hughes went to the dentist in 1931.

Why We Listen To Bad Forecasts

London had 120,000 residents in 1523.

Ironies of Luck

Paul Tudor Jones was one of the most successful traders in the world.

Expectations vs. Forecasts

I expect there to be one or two recessions per decade.

Why I’m Bullish on Gen Z

The oldest millennials are in their late 30s.

Making Sense vs. Being Right

People tend to care about something making sense more than they care about something being right.

It’s Hard To Predict How You’ll Respond To Risk

I grew up with a friend who came from neither privilege or natural intellect, but was the hardest-working guy I…

Risky Business

Most things are going well for most investors.

The Thrill of Uncertainty

By the end of the study, pigeons were pecking a food lever up to five times per second “for as…

Making History By Doing Nothing

Anthony Eden had just finished resigning as prime minister of the United Kingdom.

The Greatest Story Ever Told

Capitalism’s success is built on a belief – a story – that, given the right incentives, people can work together…

Solving Hard Problems With Simple Ideas

To wrap your head around how good we are at solving hard problems with simple solutions, consider how much of…

How To Read Financial News

October 27th, 1929.

What We’re Reading

A few good articles the Collab team came across this week ….

Conflicting Skill Sets

F. Scott Fitzgerald said intelligence is “the ability to hold two opposing ideas in your head at the same time…

Great Products vs. Great Businesses

In January 2004, when Facebook was a days-old dorm room project, Mark Zuckerberg was asked by a friend whether he…

Thankful for What Didn’t Happen

I’m thankful for family, friends, good health, etc.

We’re All Innocently Out of Touch

Seven billion people on this planet share a flaw: They’re out of touch with almost everyone else.

Never Do That Again

On November 12, 2001, American Airlines flight 587 took off from JFK with 260 people onboard, en route to the…

What I Read (And Why)

Paul Volcker once joked that the ATM is the only useful financial invention of the last 50 years.

The Freakishly Strong Base

The earth used to be covered in ice.

The Theory of Maybes

Isaac Newton was a scientific genius at a time when scientists were often denounced as heretics.

A Decade Watching the Craziest Game

Investing is the craziest game I’ve ever seen.

The Shallow Benefit of Deep Liquidity

At some point in the last few years high-frequency traders began using picoseconds to measure the time needed to execute…

Saving Money and Running Backwards

Wealth has a curse. It’s called the hedonic treadmill.

How To Make The Economy Grow

The Gary Works steel plant in Gary, Indiana, is the largest steel mill in North America.

Skills vs. Behavior

Walk into a music store in the 1970s, and you were almost certainly looking at a product made by General…

Make Your Point and Get Out of the Way

No one likes their time wasted.

The Four Fundamental Skills of All Investing

In his book Succeeding, John Reed wrote one of the smartest things I’ve ever read…

Overcoming Your Demons

Seven years ago this month I was at an investing conference in Vancouver.

What I Learned in the Last year

This is how it started…

The Unsolvable Puzzle

Leo Szilard was one of the smartest people of the 20th Century.

Why Everyone Should Write

Everyone should write. You know why? Because everyone is full of ideas they’re not aware of.

An Honest Business News Update

NEW YORK – The S&P 500 closed at a new high on Wednesday in what analysts hailed as the accumulated…

The Most Dangerous Kind of Learning

Thomas McCrae was a young 19th Century doctor still unsure of his skills.

This is Hard Because Nothing is Black or White

Business is not easy. Investing is not easy.

Betting on Things That Never Change

Amazon launched 22 years ago this week.

Every Great Investment Hurts

Jeff Immelt stepped down as CEO of General Electric last month.

What I Believe Most

Ten things that guide almost everything I think about in business and investing…

Sustainable Sources of Competitive Advantage

This article originally appeared on Fortune.com.

The Best Simple Business Models

Most CEOs are very smart.

The Seduction of Pessimism

Pessimism is intellectually seductive in a way optimism only wishes it could be.

The Power of Failing Well

Amazon’s Fire Phone was a failure.

Jay Regan, Investing Pioneer, on Hedge Funds, Fees, and Competitive Markets

Ed Thorp wrote the book Beat the Dealer in 1962.

Expiring vs. Long-Term Knowledge

How much of what you read today will you still care about a year from now…

Bad Experiences

To understand how we process risk, you have to know the story of Austria’s 40-year-old nuclear power plant that has…

The Advantage Of Being A Little Underemployed

To realize how outdated the five-day, 40-hour workweek is, you have to know where it came from.

23 Books That Changed My Life

Google researchers tried to count how many books have been published.

A Simple Guide to the End of the Boom

Few answers to questions have as bad a track record as “What is the economy going to do next?”.

Stories vs. Statistics

Air travel plunged after September 11th 2001.

Staying Competitive as the World Changes

Capitalism is one big competition.

Stress and Comfort: Careful What You Wish For

The summer of 1932 was the darkest period the American economy had ever seen.

Short Investing Rules

1. Define what you’re incapable of and stay away from it.

What We Said When the World Changed

Few things transformed the 20th century like the car and the airplane.

Risk is How Much Time You Need

One of the craziest things about investing is that you can be wrong half the time and still do well.

Six Questions for Brent Beshore

Brent Beshore is one of the most impressive people I’ve met.

Busy vs. Productive

“What is the gravest crisis facing the American people in the year ahead?”.

Business Advice From a One Year Old

The day after he was born, I wrote my son a list of money advice.

Let Me Convince You To Save Money

The first idea – simple but easy to overlook – is that building wealth has little to do with your…

Surviving the Continuous Chain of Disappointments

Ed Thorp was the first person to systematically beat casinos at blackjack.

Multiple Points of View

We all have different jobs in different companies in different industries.

Getting Rich vs. Staying Rich

Abraham Germansky was a multimillionaire real estate developer in 1920s.

The Making of a Brand

An amazing thing about life before 1850 is that most people never experienced a world more than a few dozen…

Everyone Is Still Learning

Phil Knight started Nike in the 1970s.

Business Lessons From Other People’s Jobs

My friend Patrick O’Shaughnessy is a professional investor with a book club.

You Can See Where This is Going

More than $30 trillion will be transferred from baby boomers to their children in the coming decades.

How To Read

“In my whole life, I have known no wise people who didn’t read all the time,” says Charlie Munger.

A Chat With Daniel Kahneman

I attended a dinner last night with Daniel Kahneman, the psychologist who won the Nobel Prize in economics and the…

Six Questions for Shane Parrish

Shane Parrish is one of the smartest people I know.

Grandmasters of Work

Garry Kasparov lost to IBM’s Deep Blue computer in 1997.

The Difference Between Impatience and Having No Tolerance for Inefficiency

Someone asked me last month why millennials are so impatient.

New Year’s Acceptances

Rather than resolutions, I want to come to terms with a few things in 2017.

The Power of Brutal Honesty

Matthias Rothmund left a surgical clamp inside a patient, which is the kind of thing you’d think would hurt a…

The Tyranny of Improvement

There is no evidence that mammographers make better diagnoses as they gain experience.

The Art and Science of Investing

Technology is a science. It’s semiconductors and code and batteries.

The Bad Side of a Good Idea

The number of publicly traded U.S.

Writing Lessons for a Better Life

Writing is one of those things you’ll need to be decent at no matter what business you’re in.

The Best Way to Fund Your Business

Your business needs money.

The Difference Between a Statistic and a Fact

A simple idea that helps explain a lot of disagreements is that there’s a difference between a statistic and a…

Overlooked Truths of Business and Investing Success

Here are a few things that generally aren’t taught in school but I’ve noticed are vital in business and investing…

Four Things I Learned from the Book “What I Learned Losing a Million Dollars”

The investment industry is short on three things…

Why Smart People Make Bad Decisions

“One of the most persistent fallacies is the reflexive association of wealth with wisdom,” investor Ed Borgato tweeted this week.

How Investors Should Deal With Surprises

Psychologist Daniel Kahneman said something really smart on a recent podcast with Barry Ritholtz…

The New Business Strategy: Be A Little Nicer To Everyone

Craig Shapiro.

The Long Run Is Just A Collection of Short Runs

Every great idea can be taken too far.

What’s Something You Strongly Believe That’s Likely Wrong?

Let’s agree on three things…

The Most Complicated Simple Problems

“Investing isn’t complicated. You just buy stocks when they sell for less than they’re worth.”.

The Most Overlooked Trait of Investing Success

I once asked a doctor: What’s the hardest part of your job…

Explaining Old Products To My Son

My son turns one next week.

The Difference Between a Bubble and a Cycle

Brace yourself.

Today’s Innovations Are Tomorrow’s Baseline

Tony Hawk was the best skateboarder of all time.

The Hierarchy of Earning Profit

The joke has been around for years…

Get Rid of the Boring

“If you were financially independent – say you had $100 million – would you still work here?”.

Old World, New World

Here’s an iron rule of economics…

What A Time to Be Alive

John D. Rockefeller was the richest man the world had ever seen.

Good News: There’s Nowhere Left to Hide

Here’s my theory.

Simple Rules of Capitalism

You can’t accurately describe how complicated the global economy is.

When You Change the World and No One Notices

Do you know what’s happening in this picture? Literally one of the most important events in human history.