Playing Your Own Game
In Morgan Housel’s piece, Playing Your Own Game, he gives some advice at the end.
Figure out what game you’re playing, then play it (and only it).
So few investors do this. Maybe they have a vague idea of their game, but they haven’t clearly defined it. And when they don’t know what game they’re playing, they’re at risk of taking their cues and advice from people playing different games, which can lead to risks they didn’t intend and outcomes they didn’t imagine.
The crux of Housel’s piece is that people play wildly different games, yet they’re indexed the same. The example he gave is investors. Investing is a game with multiple sub-games. Venture Capitalists, Warren Buffet, Day Traders, and a college student into personal finance are playing very different games.
His advice, is to figure out what game you’re playing and only play that game.