Cultivating Ideas
"Your read was good with the information you had. You’re new. You’ll figure it out…or you’ll be gone." — Bobby Axelrod, from Billions.
If you haven't watched Billions yet, this is your sign to. It, along with Suits, are chock-full of little nuggets of wisdom. As my best friend says, "The stock market might be the greatest intellectual battlefield."
One of my favorite aspects of the show is the depth of their intellectual battles. For the most part, the main characters win not because they have significantly more information, but because they can process that information quicker and more accurately. This is true for any high paying job — be it an investor, lawyer, founder, executive. They pay you for your judgment and decision-making.
Not only do successful people voraciously consume information, they're the best at processing that information into the correct ideas.
I've committed to writing daily because I want to hone my writing ability but also because I'm trying to get better at forming rational, nuanced ideas. After all, the best writers are the ones who can articulate universal feelings.
At a subconscious level, a hedge fund manager never stops processing the world in narratives and data points. Knowing that you're a information processor and not just a consumer changes your information diet. Early programmers put it best: garbage in, garbage out.
Find more of my thoughts on Twitter (@ethanweii).