TIP785: My Reflections on Money, Life, and Happiness w/ Stig Brodersen

“If you fly economy and you suddenly get wealthy, don't fly private right away. If you want to optimize for your happiness, get excited about upgrading to economy premium, get accustomed to that, then get excited about flying business class, then get excited about that. And then whenever it wears off, fly first. And after that, perhaps you can get excited about flying private.”— Stig Brodersen

Psychology & Behavior · Economics & Markets · Philosophy & Reasoning

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Incremental upgrades maximize happiness per dollar

“Most poker players think by definition that they're great players. They will look you straight in the eye and tell you that if they win, it's because they're playing great, and when they lose, which they inevitably will, it's only because they're unlucky. What poker players mistake is that they compare their A game with others' C game. So of course they always find a reason to believe that they're way better poker players than they probably in reality are.”— Stig Brodersen

Psychology & Behavior · Strategy & Decision Making

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Compare your A game to their A game

“An investment with a higher expected return is to ensure you are less frequently a bad version of yourself. A slightly more expensive condo with natural light, perhaps a slightly nicer gym close enough that you actually use it. None of those things will likely make you happy in the moment. But if you think about your triggers that might cause you to become short-tempered, resentful, or numb, and money can help you avoid that, well, perhaps you want to magnify the version of yourself who has slep...”— Stig Brodersen

Psychology & Behavior · Economics & Markets · Philosophy & Reasoning

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Spend to avoid being your worst self

“Humans are built to desire things others do not have. Man once believed that if he owned a car, he would never want for more. If anyone truly thought that, it was only because almost no one else at the time had a car. And people sometimes say the same about flying private. If I could do that, I'd never need nothing else. But that too is a fantasy owned by those who don't have a private jet yet. As soon as everyone has one, we will want two.”— Stig Brodersen

Psychology & Behavior · Economics & Markets · Culture & Society

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Desire for distinction never ends

“It's just not cricket. There are rules that are behind the rules. There's a kind of shared understanding of what this game is supposed to be about. People in that game are not playing to win that game. They're playing to win the infinite game, which is the game of continuing the relationship with these people and making them like you and want to play another game with you and displaying your personality as being willing to take the win when it's acceptable to take the win, but also being willing...”— Guy Spier

Strategy & Decision Making · Psychology & Behavior · Philosophy & Reasoning

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Play infinite game, not finite

“Bill Gates had access to a computer with unlimited programming time when almost no one else in the world had, and it was easy for him but not for others to stay focused and program for days on end. He would literally fall asleep while coding, wake up, and continue coding where he left off. It was just one of his many unfair advantages.”— Stig Brodersen

Business & Entrepreneurship · Psychology & Behavior · Technology & Engineering

DUR_ENDURING

Access plus obsession creates edge

“The SEC required public companies to disclose their CEO-to-median employee pay ratio. The idea was that this daylight would shame executives to restraint. Did it work? No, it failed as predictably as the 2006 rules that forced companies to disclose executive pay in proxy statements. No CEO opens his proxy, sees that he earns 200 times as much as the average employee, and thinks, ah, yes, clearly the board must reduce my pay.”— Stig Brodersen

Psychology & Behavior · Economics & Markets · Leadership & Management

DUR_CONTEXTUAL

Transparency doesn't shame when identity protects

“Money magnifies who you are. Some of my friends are kind, and with money, they're even kinder than before. And then some of my acquaintances, they're jerks. And now with money, the jerk gene is on steroids.”— Stig Brodersen

Psychology & Behavior · Philosophy & Reasoning

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Money amplifies existing character traits

“As your influence grows, you may not notice how your interactions with others change. My suggestion to you is that you default to become nicer than you otherwise find it natural to be. Seriously, every year, make sure to be even nicer than the previous year. For many, it's like walking upward on an escalator going down. You end up where you started, even though you feel like you've been in motion. So don't be a jerk just because you can. Be kind and compassionate just because you can.”— Stig Brodersen

Leadership & Management · Psychology & Behavior · Philosophy & Reasoning

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Be nicer as power grows

“I found that happiness results from expectations. Until I turned 30, I always had someone in my life I didn't really like and took up more space than I wanted them to have. It basically boiled down to one thing: I was put together with people I didn't want to be with. Today, I only work with people I like. I don't work together with people I dislike.”— Stig Brodersen

Leadership & Management · Psychology & Behavior · Business & Entrepreneurship

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Wealth buys choice of companions

“The only one who wants to be changed is a wet baby. People do change, but they do not change because you want them to, and certainly not at the tempo you find convenient. Change isn't a thing you can hand to them. At best, you can stand nearby with a lantern ready to show the path when they finally decide to walk it.”— Stig Brodersen

Psychology & Behavior · Leadership & Management

DUR_ENDURING

Can't force change, only illuminate path

“There's one investment making the headlines lately that's been hiding in plain sight. It's an asset class that's outpaced the S&P 500 overall, with near-zero correlation since 1995, not gold, real estate, or crypto. It's a strategy typically exclusive to the ultra-rich. But now you can invest in shares of multi-million-dollar artwork by artists like Banksy, Basquiat, and Picasso through Masterworks.”

Business & Entrepreneurship · Economics & Markets

DUR_CONTEXTUAL

Democratizing exclusive asset classes