Information Isn’t the Advantage
Edition - 007
Welcome to The Obsession, glad you’re here.
“Innovation and economics can be miles apart. Twitter directly influences geopolitics between nuclear states and it’s worth half as much as Progressive Auto Insurance.” - Morgan Housel
I love this quote. It’s a simple reminder that the world doesn’t always price impact the way we think it should.
A Reddit post can move a stock. A tweet can change the mood of the market. A 20 second video can shift what people want, buy, believe, or avoid. We’re living in a reality where information is everywhere, all the time, and it’s never been easier to feel like you’re “in the know.”
But even with all the access in the world, I don’t think one thing will ever change:
People will keep reading the headline and skipping the article.
And emotions will keep driving decisions.
Not because people are lazy, because we’re human. We’re wired for speed, certainty, and pattern recognition. We want the quick answer. We want to feel like we’re not missing something. And we want to make decisions that reduce discomfort in the moment, even if they cost us later.
We all have biases that shape our day to day choices. The question is whether we have the discipline to pause long enough to notice them. To reflect. To ask ourselves: Am I reacting… or am I thinking?
I’ve come to believe that one of the best ways to build that discipline is to study more history and less forecast. The people who win over the long run, whether in business, investing, or life, tend to think in longer time horizons than everyone else. They don’t obsess over the next headline. They obsess over the next decade.
And this shows up everywhere.
In business, it looks like panicking over a slow week instead of building a repeatable system.
In fitness, it looks like chasing a perfect program instead of doing the basics consistently.
In life, it looks like living in the future and missing the moment you’re actually in.
The opportunity cost of short term thinking isn’t always obvious, but it’s always there. Every time we make a decision just to calm ourselves down right now, we usually trade away something bigger later: momentum, clarity, trust, progress.
The obsession isn’t being “always informed.”
The obsession is learning how to stay steady when the world tries to pull you into reaction.
The Weekly 3
1) One Question I Asked Myself
Where am I letting emotion make a decision that should be made with patience?
2) One Idea That Shifted Me
More information doesn’t create better outcomes, better filters do.
3) One Challenge to Take Into Your Week
The next time a headline makes you feel urgency (excited, angry, anxious), wait 24 hours before you act on it. If it still matters tomorrow, it’s worth your attention. If not, it was noise.
