In the first months of 2021, memestocks went mainstream. Some of my friends were all in - they were buying GameStop, AMC, Bed Bath & Beyond. They bought options and bragged about how much money they were making. A couple of years later, I haven’t heard them mention any of those words in months. There’s a not-so-thin-line separating skilled traders and degenerate gamblers - and my friends were clearly on the wrong side. I heard about their wins but never about their losses.
I was about to go fin that Harvard speech on optionality before I noticed the link. Optionality vs. commitment is something I think about a lot these days.
Yes, that's a point that I could have emphasized more. Optionality isn't bad, it's a focus on unnecessary optionality AND not recognizing the costs of gaining the optionality that's bad.
Small bets addresses both of these points because you listen to your own motivations and the bets you place are small, therefore have lower costs in time and opportunity cost.
And as your small bets succeed, you gain skills which do give you more optionality. But the gaining of that optionality is something you would have done anyway.
The Small Bets philosophy brings means and ends closer together in my head.
Great insight. Counterintuitive but true - reducing optionality makes us happy
I was about to go fin that Harvard speech on optionality before I noticed the link. Optionality vs. commitment is something I think about a lot these days.
Totally resonated with me - great piece.
Interesting perspective! Did taking small bets also open up *new* optionality as you learned more the results of those small bets?
Yes, that's a point that I could have emphasized more. Optionality isn't bad, it's a focus on unnecessary optionality AND not recognizing the costs of gaining the optionality that's bad.
Small bets addresses both of these points because you listen to your own motivations and the bets you place are small, therefore have lower costs in time and opportunity cost.
And as your small bets succeed, you gain skills which do give you more optionality. But the gaining of that optionality is something you would have done anyway.
The Small Bets philosophy brings means and ends closer together in my head.
Thinking of optionality as good OR bad, is such a fun topic to explore. Just thinking of "bad" optionality, I can think of several different types:
* paradox of choice (as in Barry Schwartz's too many shampoos example)
* constrains bring out creativity
* the main example you list here of hoarding optionality
Or maybe they're all the same but just different facets? Haha, so interesting
Good list there Chao! Adding: (Too much) Money can’t buy happiness.