Mind Punk'd

To mark the start of vacation last night, my wife suggested we head into the city for dinner - with dinner being a place where we all ate salads. We are trying to be a bit healthier. It is a funny thing though, as I feel better after eating a salad than I do eating something a little more trashy, but still.... not as satisfied in the moment. It is one of those short, mid and long view conflicts.

Often, we favor the short view on things, the instant gratification, immediate return. It could be in regards to food, where it tastes good right now, makes us feel a bit sick sometime later and if we continue doing the same consistently, make us quite ill or in poor condition down the track.

It is the same for the way we use money too of course, where the short view might be a spontaneous purchase that makes us feel good now, but in the mid range the feeling will fade to nothing and in the long term, the cost of the opportunity-cost of these purchases heavily outweighs the feelings we had in the moment we made them.

The problem with the gratification timeline is that humans are very much programmed to instant gratify without a lot of thought for the future, especially in regard to resource allocation and usage. Plus, this is further negatively compounded, because we are also very bad at judging how we are going to feel about our future conditions. This is why so many people favor the short term and say,

"live in the moment"

Forgetting that, future moments are going to be lived as well.

Our own genetic coding punks us.

No matter how shiny something is in the moment, everything degrades over time, which leading with this assumption means, what makes us happy right now, is going to face "happiness degradation" as we go forward. However, this isn't quite the same for investments, where what we invest now, can see positive return, appreciation.

And, not being very good at thinking about how we feel about our future positions, means that this works in the positive and the negative. We overweigh our current "feel good" moments, but depreciate our future "feel good" moments, believing that the instant gratification return now, is going to be worth more than the future feelings of that moment. But, for anyone who is financially struggling to make ends meet will likely say,

It'd be nice not to have to worry about money constantly.

What I have personally found in my own experiences and interactions with others is, the people who value the present moment consistently higher than their future experience, tend to also be the ones who do not have future experiences that they are happy with. But, because they keep valuing their current experience, they don't look back in time and the role they played in getting into a position where they are struggling.

And, the other thing I have noticed is, the people who "live in the moment" and criticize those who invest for the future, don't seem to realize that it is possible to live in the moment and simultaneously invest in the future. They think "living" is using all resources possible in that moment, without acknowledging that living in the moment can also be a process of building now, for that future.

And in my own experiences with others who take the live now building for the future approach, they tend to have a far greater appreciation for their current moment, because it is not entirely a consumable, there is a purpose.

“It is not that we have so little time but that we lose so much. ... The life we receive is not short but we make it so; we are not ill provided but use what we have wastefully.”
_ Seneca

If the purpose of life is to live only the moment requiring no future result, that is the simplest thing - because that moment can be the very last moment of life, and it is a life of purpose fulfilled. No other consideration is needed and, it doesn't matter what that experience is. This means that a person can live each moment in absolute agony and, be grateful for it.

Sounds awesome.

Are people who say they are "living in the moment" truly subscribed to this idea? In my own experiences, not at all - because as soon as their "moment" feels negative, *they complain and want a different experience, a different moment. This means they aren't in that moment anymore, they are in their head wanting something else.

Oops.

But, the happiest people I have met live a hybrid life of moments, where they have decided upon some kind of future result to aim for, which gives them purpose and then, work in the moment toward that end, reflecting on their past behaviors, current position and adjust their future accordingly. This means that they can enjoy the moment whilst investing into their future position, making it a win-win as well as bring a consistency to life and making those pain points valuable, because there is a reason to learn from them.

This is something that the "live the moment" people again seem to omit from their position, because if the goal is to maximize the moment, there is no reason to learn anything for the future at all. Learning is a resource that considers what will happen down the track and if there is no down the track, there is no reason to waste time learning - not to mention, retaining what is learned.

But, it is because people subscribe to pithy sayings without putting much thought into them, that they end up living their conditioning mindlessly, robotically, by default. The investment mindset is not one that is automatic, it is one that is learned and has to consider the past, the present and the future in order to be able to have a chance of making decisions that are more probable to get us to where we want to go.

But, we as a society encourage instant gratification and consumption, without considering if what we are satisfying ourselves with is adding to our purpose at all. So, we overvalue the immediate positive feelings at the expense of the future, which is more likely to be felt negatively, because we did nothing to position ourselves for conditions that would enable us to feel joy.

And, this is the goal of investing, isn't it? Don't we all want to live a more joyful life, one where we feel that we have a reason to live and that what we do matters? As social animals, doesn't that reason include others into our equation and what we do should in some way improve the experiences of people outside of ourselves?

Not for a moment dwelling hedonist, it doesn't.

In my opinion, it is not only possible to live as an investor into the future as a form of instant gratification, but preferrable to live that way. Because, not only does it satisfy our current momentary needs, it also builds our potential for alternative experiences in the future and can help others improve access to possibilities for others. If there is no one investing into the future, there is no one improving the conditions for others, as everyone is trapped in the moment. This doesn't mean things don't change, but are they likely to change for the better, or degrade?

Last night, I was happy that we went out for the evening meal to "mark" the start of vacations, but once we were in the car, the ulterior motives of my wife became apparent. There was a band playing that she wanted to see, but didn't have a ticket, but the venue was one that could be walked up to. So, after the meal, we went to this place and she stood and listened to the music for a while, as Smallsteps and I wandered around the little harbor.

My wife was thinking ahead, so she could enjoy the moment.

That is an investor mindset.

Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]

Oh, the pictures are from the harbor - an old steam engine from a boat and my wife filming through the venue window.