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Takeaways from the Book 'Same as Ever' by Morgan Housel

Morgan Housel once shared a quote that goes like this, “𝘗𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴; 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘴.” 

The author lives by this philosophy in his books, most recently in ‘Same as Ever’. There are many quotable sentences that explain why some things in the world never change. Hence, the name ‘Same as Ever’. 

I had great fun reading this. 

Here are few of my takeaways: 

Everything that happened in our lives is the final outcome out of numerous possibilities. If any other possible event occurred instead of the ones that occurred, our lives could have taken a completely different path. This thought alone should make us humble and realise we can’t predict the future.

What is the biggest risk in life? Answer: the risk that you have never thought of. Instead of predicting what can happen, focus on how you can maximise your resilience against the most extreme events. 

Stories are more powerful than statistics. People don’t remember numbers, they remember the narrative. A lot of the great books don’t have novel ideas. They share known facts and ideas and package them in compelling stories (e.g. Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari, Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham).

“Most great things in life -from love to careers to investing-gain their value from two things: patience and scarcity. Patience to let something grow, and scarcity to admire what it grows into.” Problems arise when you want to hurry up the process.

Biggest changes and innovations tend to occur during and after a terrible event or under stress and fear. “World War II began on horseback in 1939 and ended with nuclear fission in 1945.” 

Building something takes time, destruction can happen instantly. Growth and progress is a slow process while bad things happen fast. Setbacks, suffering, struggles get more attention for how fast it occurs.

Pessimism captures more attention than optimism does. However, the best combination is the balance between the two. The best financial plan is to save like a pessimist and invest like an optimist. 

Incentive is the most powerful force in the world. Whenever you feel surprised at the way people behave or how the world works, think of what are the incentives behind these. You will not be surprised anymore.

There are two types of information: permanent and expiring. Permanent information remains relevant for years and decades and expiring information becomes irrelevant in days. Focus more on permanent information. Consume more books and less breaking news. 

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