Necessity Versus Desperation

Necessity: A family of four on a motorbike

Desperation: Four dudes on a motorbike

Big Moves, Small Moves

Small moves are where we default when we want something change. If we are unhappy or hitting a plateau we might pick up a new book, test-drive a mid-life crisis Miata, purchase a new watch or take up a new yoga class. Small moves hardly move lives and fall easy prey to markets wanting to convert these moves into easy consumerist profit.

Big moves transform lives and change the world. Pursuing the life of a passionate artist, quitting a job to become a travel writer, opening a bakery, telling the crush of your life that you are into her, hitchhiking across a country, becoming a humanitarian: all of these big moves require us to leave something behind to embrace the possibility of something that is truly different than what we’ve had before. And in most cases, big moves make the world a better place.

The catch? Big moves are scary as hell.

Anticipate the Irrational

I was cruising on my bike today when a driver suddenly decided to serve over to the side of the road, presumably to check for directions, and nearly wiped me out in the process. Her abrupt maneuver, inability to signal her intention and absolute ignorance of my presence demonstrated such a lack of skill and judgment that I was impressed. Luckily, my batman-ninja-like reflexes kept me out of trouble.

It got me thinking how I must not only mind my own world but also anticipate the irrationality of others simply to survive. I spent the rest of the ride reflecting on how often outcomes in life are predicated on someone else's inability to exercise good judgment. It happens all the time. Whether we are choosing which grocery store checkout to use or negotiating a business deal, we could make the optimal choice but end up getting screwed. If markets were truly efficient then arbitrage would not be possible. And we all make sub-optimal choices. Our brains simply can't be on all the time.

Competency is the ability to consistently make prudent decisions in a chaotic world. Life is what happens when you didn't get the job because the other less competent candidate connected closely to the interviewer over fantasy football.

If there is such a thing as a formula for success, I envisage it to be along the lines of appeal to reason, engage on emotion, and anticipate the irrational.