The Superman Delusion
You ain’t getting it all done, ever !!!
Phew. You made it, finally. After all the work, chaos, burning fires, closing deals, and checking umpteen items on the to-do list, you are now done. Now it is time for you to enjoy your weekend to the fullest, and I’m sure you are super excited about it.
So what all do you have on that list for this weekend -
Reading the new book from your favorite author
Swimming 25 laps in your society’s Olympic-size pool
Meeting your cousins over lunch, and friends over dinner
Making utility payments for internet/mobile/landline/Electricity
Evaluating all the Mutual Funds to decide upon which one to buy into
Making payments for subscriptions coming up for renewal next week
Doing a zoom call with your family/friends back in your home country/town
Talking to fellow investors about which stocks are they loading up on and why
Exploring options for further studies in your field of interest to build domain expertise
Date with your partner in the glitzy Kebab outlet that opened up last week in Dubai Mall
Shopping for the new gym bag, skipping rope, workout gloves, and a few pairs of sports socks
Paying off all credit cards and loans that are due before the end of the month/start of the week
And the list goes on…
So before you don your superman avatar and get onto doing all these tasks, how about you revisit the last weekend and think about the tasks you at hand then? What was on the to-do list then? And how much got done? How many checkboxes did you tick then?
You might be surprised to find out that a lot of the items on your list didn’t get any time and attention from you. Not because you didn’t want to, you just ran out of time. Your time just zipped by, just like the grains of sand slip away through your fingers despite your attempts to hold them all in.
Damn it.
That’s exactly how you would have felt. And it’s then that you promised that the next weekend, your gonna tackle it all like a bull charging towards the matador. You’re gonna conquer it all. So finally, we are here. Your weekend to become the Superman has arrived and you got 48 hrs to get it all done.
But will you be able to? How’s Saturday going? How much from the weekend list is done till now? If you are a mortal like us, then many items are still left untouched and unattended. Many items haven’t even been able to attract 2 seconds of your brain power.
You don’t want this weekend to zip by too. You want this one to be super productive. Who is to be blamed for this predicament?
Is it you? It can’t be !!!
You have the willingness to get it all done, become super productive, be healthy, be well read, be a good kid to your parents, a good partner to your spouse, a good friend, a good person for your community, a good investor for securing your family’s future. You are bringing all the sincerity to the game.
So it cannot be you !!! Right?
Hmmm. Let’s see.
The problem isn’t with the “doer” in you, it’s the “thinker” in you.
Before I explain this, let’s go back to your teens. What were you thinking when you were attending those classes? What was consuming you mentally?
Once I reach that particular college, I will make many friends and party hard
I can wear those jeans and those shoes
I can travel to bars and enjoy the nightlife
I can study that subject and excel in that domain
It’s like our imagination was given a long runway to travel full speed ahead. And we did. That was the “thinker” in you.
And then we did land up in college and the “doer” in you did attempt to make most of the opportunities at hand but it was him that had to face the realities of constraints that slowed your progress towards those goals. You either lacked the resources to make certain choices, or you had a long way to develop your EQ to make friends with everyone you desired to be friends with, or you had work to do on developing your knowledge base to break through the top of the class.
The “thinker” kept imagining the possibilities, the “doer” kept bumping into dead ends and roadblocks. And when that happens, the “thinker” again takes you back to the future, where skies will be blue, roses will be red and you will be fulfilling all your desires with the snapping of your fingers.
The same thing happened when you started working in your first job. It was only a matter of time before you were visualizing a better one. The same pattern repeated when you secured your second one. The same thing is happening on weekdays when your Superman Avataar is thinking about conquering the weekend and hitting it out of the park.
It’s the Human Operating System within you that’s to blame, not you of course. Your Human OS has this fetish for “inifinitude” i.e. the state or quality of being infinite or having no limit.
It’s that seduction of the limitless possibilities in the future that makes you pack many things in your tight 24 hrs. It’s nothing lesser than your own Superman version zipping around accomplishing things and ticking checkboxes every few seconds.
But this OS has a flipside, it never lets you settle onto the task at hand right now. The present reality feels like a chore that needs to be completed. It’s a hurdle towards your dash to an ideal future that waits for you. And it’s this delusion that makes you succumb to a lot of silly mistakes -
You say YES to many things, which indirectly means you are saying NO to some of the most important things eg. working out or saving money.
Fear of Missing Out makes you chase the next shiny disco ball, the next SPAC, the next breed of dog coin launched this morning, the next NFO (New Fund Offer).
Instagram lives of others make you feel less and you don’t like it, so you make decisions to make you feel much better and look grander, which entails additional expenses and cash outflow.
Envy messes up your mind and doesn’t allow you to celebrate others’ wins, or even your own mini wins, even if major wins are far far away
The Superman syndrome that runs your OS is making you believe you can have it all, without any consequences in the present. Your blue and red suit is making you live in a make-believe world, all in your head, while it's sucking the joy and magic out of your present experiences.
Add to that the unlimited supply of external stimuli i.e. new podcasts released, new books launched, new youtube videos from channels you follow, more news, more data points, more charts, more research reports, more tasks to complete, and more errands to run.
This ever-gushing stream of information and the exciting possibilities being dreamed up by your OS is in a constant tug of war with your limited time and attention. You only have 2 choices left, realistically -
You will get overwhelmed with the constant demand for your time and attention from everything you have taken on, and eventually burn out OR
You will embrace your finitude and stick to doing a great job of a few things you take on.
Option 1 is a life led by FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). Option 2 is about JOMO - Joy of Missing Out (source - Oliver Burkeman). Either say YES to everything and become Jack of all trades. Or say NO to almost everything, except just a few things that you want to get really good at.
Let’s take my writing for instance -
I write every Saturday because I have made a commitment to myself to do so. I write for myself - it makes me synthesize lessons I have learned this week, it makes me think about the subject deeply, it makes me work out my memory muscles, it makes me confront my own demons which keep saying “i’m not good enough”, it makes a difference to the world outside, to the lives of readers who might just use my words to make changes in their habits and mental frameworks.
But while I write, my thinker mind is zipping around all the things he wants to accomplish today - gym, the movie with my wife, reading that book, playing my handpan, reading annual letters, attending the quarterly call, reading about the few supplements I have in mind to buy, booking an appointment with the doc for Ozone Therapy, deciding on DEXA scan and all the items in my to-do list.
But I ain’t giving into my Superman Avatar. I just won’t. I can’t. I am staying out with this piece and giving it all my time and attention, till I’ve done a decent enough job to send it to your respective inbox.
But this choice leads to leaving many things unattended. That’s ok. It ain’t a top priority for now.
I am making peace with my finitude i.e. the state of having limits or bounds. And I’m leaving it to providence to see where my writing habit takes me. Till now, it’s gotten me to make some amazing friends worldwide, we catch up on zoom every week on Thursdays, we have a trip to Lisbon coming up in Feb ‘23, and never know, what magic do we create together in time to come.
I can’t be bothered about where this will lead to. All I do know is that I got to do a damn good job today, with this one thing I’m devoting Saturdays for.
I ain’t no Superman and hence, I am embracing my finitude. This mental framework allows me to choose a few games I want to play and devote my time and energy to getting better at them.
There ain’t no future where roses are red, skies are blue and I am achieving every desire of mine and am on top of the world. There will always be choices to make, decisions to take, adversities to deal with, and things to let go of. It’s a daily grind and it ain’t stopping.
Investing is similar. There are 20,000 + stocks to choose from all over the world, 10,000+ Mutual Funds and ETFs, 5000+ Money Managers whose research you’d like to read, 200 countries to track, and umpteen macroeconomic variables to get a grip on - this is an exhausting amount of work. Even Superman will give up if he had to sift through everything in the investing world.
So, let go of your suit, boil down your life to a few simple choices and become the best at it. I’m choosing to dive deep into Quality Investing in India. I’m drawing a line and committing to building my skill sets for stock picking in this market. I know I will miss out on the USA, China, Europe, and many other companies sprinkled all over the world.
I’m ok with it now, but it took me a lot of time to get to this place.
I might not become the superman excelling at everything, but becoming damn good at Indian Equity Markets is a game I’m willing to give it all. I’m excited and the journey is just beginning for me.
I invite you too, to consider aiming for excellence in a few domains, if not everything. That’s still better than floating around everything and half-assing them all. Many choose the latter, but you don’t need to be a part of the herd.
Happy Flying :)
Recommendations for the Week #
I feel guilty to share another piece from Morgan Housel, but I can’t help it. He is the best out there and this piece, yet again, is a home run. Do take time out to read his perspective on ‘Little Ways The World Works’. This piece will break down the complexities of our world into its simplest moving parts. Commendable !!!
Buggy Humans in a Messy World is one of my favorite newsletters. It’s written by Anand Sridharan and his insights into the game of investing are a treat to read. This week’s newsletter includes his message for business owners who have got their companies listed in the stock markets. He warns them about the pitfalls of managing a business and how they could avoid succumbing to the stupidities that many successful entrepreneurs/management teams have been known for.
If you are as fascinated about longevity as I am, then you will love the song from Willie Nelson “Still Not Dead”. He is 89 years old and still going strong. I loved his zest and zeal for life and its inspiring to be able to have a blast in my 80s too ;)
Wishing you all a fantastic weekend and may you get to be the Superman this time around ;)
Manish