Juan David's Newsletter - August 9, 2020
Why I'm Going To College & Special Edition about Decisions
Hey everybody,
I just published an essay about why I’m going to college. I walk you through the entire thought process of my decision. Not an easy decision to make but it’s one worth thinking a lot about.
In the essay, I also talked about how to find what you’re good at, what one of the youngest billionaires advised me, and thinking from first principles.
You can read here or scroll down below.
Welcome to the ones of you who have joined us since last Sunday! If you’re reading this but haven’t subscribed, join hundreds of curious and fascinating people by subscribing here!
As always, scroll down to find out this week’s Curiosities 🙀🧨🤩!
Am I Going to College? Yes. Should You Go to College? Maybe Not
If you prefer, you can read this on my website.
Before we start I want to note that these are my thoughts and what I think is right. I may be wrong and if I am I’d love for you to prove me wrong.
Lots of smart people have written about why you shouldn't go to college. But I'm giving it a shot.
Yeah, you read that right. I’m going to college despite the argument of many people of why people shouldn’t go to college.
I want to study engineering because I want to get the foundation of specialization in a method of thinking. I want to have one strong foundational skill that I can build on.
Many say college isn't worth it. And I want to add perspective to this debate as an entrepreneur, immigrant, and optimist.
Curiosities 🙀🧨🤩
This week’s Curiosities will be a special edition about DECISIONS.
Curiosity #1
Alan Watts on making decisions:
“You do not know where your decisions come from. They pop up like hiccups. And people have a great deal of anxiety about making decisions. Did I think this over long enough? Did I take enough data into consideration? And if you think it through, you find you never could take enough data into consideration. The data for a decision for any given situation is infinite. So what you do is, you go through the motions of thinking out what you will do about this.
Worriers are people who think of all the variables beyond their control, and what might happen.
Choice is the act of hesitation that we make before making a decision. It is a mental wobble. And so we are always in a dither of doubt as to whether we are behaving the right way, or doing the right thing, and so on and so forth…and lack a certain kind of self-confidence. And if you see you lack self-confidence, you will make mistakes through sheer fumbling. If you do have self-confidence you may get away with doing entirely the wrong thing.
You have to regard yourself as a cloud, in the flesh. Because you see, clouds never make mistakes. Did you ever see a cloud that is misshapen? Did you ever see a badly designed wave? No, they always do the right thing. But if you would treat yourself for a while as a cloud or wave, and realize you can’t make a mistake, whatever you do, cause even if you do something that seems to be totally disastrous, it will all come out in the wash somehow or other.
Then through this capacity, you will develop a kind of confidence, and through confidence, you will be able to trust your own intuition. But this is the middle way, of knowing it has nothing to do with your decision to do this or not, whether you decide you can’t make a mistake or whether you don’t decide it, it is true anyway, that you are like cloud and water. And through that realization, without overcompensating in the other direction, you will come to the point of where you begin to be on good terms with your own being and to be able to trust your own brain.”
This quote gave me so much perspective this week, especially when I was writing this essay.
Curiosity #2
The controversial statistician and former options trader, Nassim Taleb, calls this, “Alternative Histories,” and he says, “One cannot judge a performance in any given field (war, politics, medicine, investments) by the results, but by the costs of the alternative (i.e, if history played out in a different way).”
From an essay, I wrote about probabilities.
Curiosity #3
Amos Tversky who was a cognitive and mathematical psychologist said once that:
In dealing with probabilities…most people only have three settings:
“gonna happen,”
“not gonna happen,” and
“maybe.”
Curiosity #4
A good decision isn’t about luck or the outcome. A good decision is when you think critically and analyze the situation well. Annie Duke says:
Chess is not a game. It’s not a game because there’s no luck and no hidden information. It’s not a game because given enough time, a computer can ALWAYS find the right move in any given situation.
The decisions in chess are interesting, but there are no probabilities and no risks in the long run.
Life is totally different where there are risks and consequences of your actions.
Curiosity #5
If you want to learn to make good decisions, but I mean REALLY good decisions.
Play Chess.
3 Lessons I've Learned From Chess:
1. Emotions: It's easy to get irritated by something or even just taking quick mindless decisions. Controlling your decisions takes mental output and effort. Chess has taught me to control and make my emotions work in my favor.
2. Metacognition: Chess is as much as moving pieces as it is reading your opponent. If you get your opponent intimidated or even better make your opponent think you're incompetent. You've won.
3. Imagination: The best chess players are the ones who are thinking 4-5 movements ahead. When you imagine, you are also creative. The best movements (decisions) are often the most unthinkable (creative/imaginative).
Good decisions are not easy, but they are simple.
Please give me feedback on Twitter. Did you like the essay? Which Curiosity was your favorite? What do you want more or less of? Other suggestions? Just send a tweet at @jdcampolargo!
Thanks for reading,
Juan David Campolargo
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Juan David Campolargo 🚀
Twitter: @jdcampolargo 🧠
Blogging at JuanDavidCampolargo.com ✍️
Weekly Memos & Updates: HERE 🙀
Watch my TEDx Talk, 'Inspiring the Next Generations to be More Optimistic,' HERE