In one sentence: A Thanksgiving "vault" rerun of 137: Phil's friend Wahei Takeda's habit of being grateful a thousand times a day, and the difference between a goal, a practice and a promise. Only what is new or extra is recorded here.
Key ideas
- Rerun. The host intro (Aaron, from the Rule #1 team) says Phil and Danielle are out and this is a vault episode for Thanksgiving week 2020. The conversation is the one summarised in 137. [00:00–01:00]
- Phil times himself. He runs a stopwatch on the exercise: 12 things he is grateful for in about 40 seconds, roughly one every three seconds. At that pace a thousand would take about 50 minutes, so he reads the "1,000 times a day" as a deliberately over-the-top intention that makes the thought pop up all day. [05:00–09:00]
- Goal, practice, promise. A goal lets you off the hook, a practice is firmer, a promise is firmest. Phil adds that commitments to others cost you if you break them, while promises to yourself are easy to renegotiate. [14:00–19:00]
- Investing is integrating. Phil says investing forces you to be honest with yourself about what you know and don't know, so it feeds integrity rather than competing with it. [18:00–19:30]
- Phil and Danielle still disagree. Phil says a person of integrity keeps promises even when life interrupts. Danielle says an absolute bar can set you up to fail. [22:00–26:00]
- Transcending the thinking. Phil says gratitude (or meditation, prayer, long-distance running) calms the busy surface mind. Danielle adds that it won't produce investing decisions directly. It puts you in a good place to decide, after the rational work is done. [29:00–33:00]
- Instinct versus a well-honed mind. Danielle notes her investing instincts are usually wrong and she watches them to do the opposite. Phil says intuition can just be a well-trained mind, but only after you have been rational for a long time. [29:30–31:00]
- Gratitude has to be acted out. Phil says the health benefits (sleep, stress, mood) depend on expressing it, not just thinking it. [20:00–21:00]
How it maps to RuleOne
- Nothing in the screen or agent stack applies. The link is behavioural: a written, repeatable practice (a weekly screen review, a checklist before any buy) is the investing version of a "practice" rather than a goal.
Buffett, Munger and Graham links
- Munger often says that the investor's temperament matters more than IQ. This episode is that idea applied to the mood in which you decide. Check the source before quoting him on it.
Words to know
- Practice: a recurring commitment, firmer than a goal and looser than a promise.
- Maro: the show notes' name for Wahei's technique of being thankful ("Maro Up"). The auto-transcript spells it "Mara", so the spelling is uncertain.
Try this
Write down one rule you will follow before every buy (for example "I have read the 10-K's business section"). Then decide whether it is a goal, a practice or a promise, and open /holdings/ to see whether your last purchase met it.
Check yourself
- Why does Phil say a goal is weak?
Answer
Stating a goal ("my goal is to be at dinner") lets you feel good about the intention without being bound to do it. - What is Danielle's view of gratitude and investing decisions?
Answer
It won't make the decision for you. It puts you in a calmer place from which to make an educated, rational one.
Short quotes
"Goals have a way of letting us off the hook." (Phil, ~15:30, auto-transcribed)