#14 Morgan Housel: Reading, Writing, and Lifelong Learning
Shane Parrish interviews financial writer Morgan Housel, a columnist at The Motley Fool and former Wall Street Journal columnist. They discuss his approach to reading, writing, filtering information, the importance of admitting error, and qualities to value in friends and family, including developing empathy.
Deep Dive Analysis
20 Topic Outline
Morgan Housel's Early Career and Entry into Finance
Transition from Investment Banking to Financial Writing
The Role of Writing in Solidifying Thoughts
Advantages of an Outsider's Perspective in Finance
Defining Success in Financial Writing: Timeless Frameworks
Navigating Financial Opinions and Confirmation Bias
The Importance of Intellectual Flexibility and Admitting Error
Lessons from Great Teachers: Simplifying Complex Topics
Honing Writing Ability Through Simplicity
Morgan Housel's Daily Routine and Idea Generation Process
Strategies for Filtering Information in a Noisy World
Influential Books on Historical Change and Adaptation
The Role of Technology in Reading and Information Management
The Indulgence of Blunt Honesty and Its Challenges
Choosing to Be a Big Fish in a Small Pond
The Importance of Empathy in Friendships and Relationships
Developing Empathy and Raising Children in a Diverse World
Impact of Fatherhood on Perspective and Priorities
Current Reading and Reflections on Historical Scientific Errors
The Ultimate Goal: Financial Independence for Lifelong Learning
7 Key Concepts
Writing as Thought Solidification
Writing helps clarify and crystallize ideas that are vaguely present in one's mind, making it a valuable process for anyone in any field to solidify their thoughts.
Timeless Content
This refers to content that remains relevant and valuable regardless of when it is read, as opposed to news-based information that quickly becomes outdated. The most valuable content offers insights that endure over time.
Confirmation Bias
A psychological tendency where individuals seek out and interpret information in a way that confirms their existing beliefs. This bias makes it difficult to objectively evaluate opposing viewpoints and can skew one's perception of credible opinions.
Intellectual Flexibility
The rare and powerful ability to objectively reassess one's own opinions and change them when presented with new facts or evidence, rather than clinging to old positions due to ego or professional reputation.
Simple Writing
The principle that the most effective and impactful writing uses small words and short sentences, making complex topics accessible and easy for a wide audience to understand without stripping out the essence or complexity of the message.
Curated Link Aggregators
Online resources or individuals who filter and compile a selection of high-quality, interesting articles and research reports. These aggregators serve as a trusted filter for navigating the overwhelming amount of daily information, especially in fields like finance.
Empathy in Relationships
The crucial ability to understand and share the feelings of others, recognizing that everyone experiences personal struggles and emotional ups and downs. This trait is considered one of the most important for fostering strong friendships and relationships.
12 Questions Answered
His first job was as a host at Denny's, then a valet. He initially aimed for investment banking and private equity, but after being laid off in 2007, a friend suggested financial writing for The Motley Fool, which he pursued without prior writing experience.
Writing helps solidify thoughts by forcing one to articulate ideas that might otherwise remain vague, leading to crystallization and clarity.
Success is measured by challenging readers to think differently about a topic by providing new frameworks, rather than just facts or opinions, and by creating content that remains relevant and timeless.
It's challenging due to confirmation bias, but a good strategy is to actively seek out rational commentators with whom you disagree, as they can challenge your views and expose potential holes in your own thinking.
The most effective way is to simplify complicated subjects and explain them in plain, accessible terms with simple examples, avoiding jargon or overly complex language.
He reads for about two hours in the morning, then continues reading online and research reports until around 4 PM, with most of his writing done between 4 PM and 7 PM, interspersed with walks for digestion and idea generation.
He avoids overtly political content and relies on trusted link aggregators and individuals (like Shane Parrish for books) who curate high-quality content, serving as a personal filter.
Empathy is crucial, involving the ability to understand that friends, like all humans, have bad days, emotions, and personal struggles, and to empathize with their situations.
It's important to expose children to diverse experiences and cultures from an early age, helping them understand that not everyone lives the same way they do, even while striving to provide them with good opportunities.
Fatherhood has increased his sympathy, made him more emotional about suffering and pain in the world (e.g., violence), reduced his reading time, and sharpened his focus on family priorities.
He is fascinated by how incredibly wrong top scientists were about genetics 150 years ago, such as the theory that a fully formed miniature human existed inside sperm, prompting him to wonder what fundamental beliefs we hold today might be similarly wrong.
His ultimate goal is to achieve financial independence, allowing him to dedicate his life to full-time reading, thinking, and learning on his own schedule.
29 Actionable Insights
1. Plan for Financial Independence
Develop a clear plan to achieve financial independence, enabling you to dedicate your time to personal learning, reading, and thinking on your own terms and schedule.
2. Embrace Intellectual Flexibility
Be willing to change your opinions and views when new facts emerge, demonstrating intellectual flexibility rather than clinging to outdated beliefs.
3. Prioritize Disagreeing Perspectives
To become a smarter thinker, take the views of those you disagree with more seriously than those who affirm your existing beliefs, actively seeking out challenges to your perspective.
4. Question Fundamental Beliefs
Regularly question your current fundamental beliefs, acknowledging that historical scientific and societal understandings have often been proven wrong, to maintain intellectual humility and openness to new truths.
5. Cultivate Empathy for Others
Develop empathy by recognizing that everyone experiences ups and downs and may be dealing with unseen struggles, fostering understanding and compassion in your relationships.
6. Seek Diverse Experiences
Actively seek out diverse experiences and interactions with people from different backgrounds, socioeconomic classes, and cultures to broaden your perspective and cultivate empathy.
7. Teach Global Perspective Early
Instill in children from an early age an understanding that most people globally live differently than they do, fostering empathy and a broader perspective on the world.
8. Expose Children to Diverse Cultures
Take children to various countries and cultures, including less conventional destinations, to expose them to diverse experiences and foster empathy from a young age.
9. Re-evaluate Priorities for Focus
Regularly re-evaluate and clarify your priorities, especially when life circumstances shift, to eliminate distractions and focus intensely on achieving your most important goals.
10. Strive to Be a Big Fish
Focus on positioning yourself as a significant contributor in a smaller, more niche environment to enhance your ability to stand out, be unique, and ultimately succeed.
11. Practice Blunt Force Honesty
Adopt a communication style of 100% honesty, addressing issues directly and to people’s faces rather than talking behind their backs, to foster efficiency and clarity.
12. Master Honest, Non-Rude Feedback
Develop the skill of providing direct and honest feedback, even when critical, in a professional and courteous manner that avoids causing offense and promotes effective learning.
13. Adopt an “Index Plus” Investment Strategy
Consistently dollar-cost average into index funds monthly as the core of your portfolio, and supplement this with individual stocks you find attractive, if desired.
14. Establish Personal Information Filters
To manage the overwhelming volume of content, identify and rely on trusted individuals or sources to act as your personal filter for information.
15. Leverage Trusted Link Aggregators
Utilize link aggregators from trusted individuals to filter the vast amount of daily content, ensuring you consume high-quality and relevant information.
16. Curate a Trusted Twitter Feed
Actively follow trusted individuals on Twitter who consistently share links to high-quality articles and research reports, using it as a primary source for daily reading.
17. Avoid Mixing Politics and Investing
Filter out information sources that overtly mix politics with investing, as this combination can introduce biases and reduce the quality of financial analysis.
18. Prioritize Timeless Content
Seek out or create content that remains relevant over time, rather than focusing solely on news-based or ephemeral information, to gain more lasting value.
19. Use Writing to Solidify Thoughts
Engage in writing, regardless of your field, to help crystallize and solidify your ideas, as it forces you to articulate what you know.
20. Simplify Your Writing for Clarity
Aim for simple, clear writing using short sentences and small words, ensuring that your message is easily understood by a broad audience without losing its core meaning.
21. Learn from Simple Explanations
Prioritize learning from individuals who can simplify complex topics without losing their essence, as this approach makes information more accessible and impactful.
22. Structure Your Day for Deep Work
Dedicate the majority of your day to extensive reading and information consumption, then shift to focused writing or creative work during a specific, productive block in the afternoon or evening.
23. Integrate Walks for Idea Digestion
Take multiple walks throughout the day to serve as dedicated time for processing information, connecting ideas, and formulating new thoughts or topics.
24. Cultivate Serendipitous Idea Generation
Avoid forcing yourself to actively brainstorm new ideas; instead, allow them to emerge naturally during relaxed, non-focused activities like walking or showering, and capture them immediately.
25. Foster Curiosity for Natural Ideas
Instead of forcing new topic ideas, focus on staying deeply curious about what you’ve recently read, connecting different pieces of information, and trusting that new ideas will emerge naturally from this process.
26. Reread and Highlight Key Passages
Reread books and articles to discover new insights, and actively highlight interesting passages to easily revisit and reinforce learning.
27. Utilize Digital Tools for Archiving
Embrace digital reading platforms like Kindle for their superior ability to search and archive information, enhancing your ability to revisit and reference material.
28. Review Highlights to Spark Ideas
Regularly revisit highlighted sections in previously read books to stimulate new ideas and thinking, especially when seeking inspiration for new topics.
29. Study History for Adaptation Insights
Read historical accounts, especially those detailing significant periods of change, to gain a deeper understanding of human and business adaptation and to influence your thinking on change.
9 Key Quotes
If you don't come in on Saturday, don't bother coming back on Sunday.
Morgan Housel
Writing is a great process for anybody in any field, because it really helps you solidify your thoughts.
Morgan Housel
If an article is relevant today, but not relevant tomorrow, then it's not relevant at all.
Morgan Housel
Change your mind when the facts change.
Morgan Housel
The best writing is a simple writing.
Morgan Housel
I think you get your best ideas just randomly. You're walking through the grocery store, you're in the shower, you're just kind of zoning off. And then it's like, pop, you get an idea in your head and you're like, oh, I got it.
Morgan Housel
The amount of financial content that is published every day... it's just so much that there's no possible way that you can just jump blindly into the world of financial content and try to learn something. You're drinking from five fire hoses if you try to do that.
Morgan Housel
I think at every point in history, there has been something, there've been two things, something that we were totally 100% completely wrong about. And at the same time, a sense that we have figured everything out... Like those two things have always coexisted.
Morgan Housel
I want him to understand from a very early age that 99% of the world is not that.
Morgan Housel