December 2024
How I think about personal finance
I’ve been re-reading Kahneman’s Thinking Fast and Slow, and the gist is that the only defense against poor decisions is rules, processes and algorithms. So I’ve been thinking of three rules around personal finance. Don’t Lose Money Warren Buffett said that the first (and really only) rule of investing is don’t lose money. Studies by Kahneman and Tversky1 have shown that people hate losing $10 more than they like winning $102.
2 minutes
August 2024
What superpower would you like to have?
I was asked this question at my first job interview.1 Back then, I wanted to have Hermione’s Time-Turner to study and do multiple things at the same time, because it reflected my own values of appreciating the finiteness of time. When people say time is money, I don’t think the point is to create equivalency. It’s to say that time is the ultimate and most precious currency in our lives.
1 minute
May 2024
The last defense against a world of disorder
As an engineer, it’s especially easy to fall into a trap thinking that technical expertise will carry you for eternity. But because most people can’t even predict tomorrow’s forecast, I highly value adaptability. Transferable skills ground you towards your inner principles even during ever-changing and tumultuous times. What are some useful transferable skills? The most important ones are easily quoted, but rarely executed. An obvious one for an engineer would be critical thinking and problem solving.
2 minutes