The Morgan Housel Podcast

A truth that applies to almost every field is that it’s possible to try too hard, and when doing so you can get worse results than those who knew less, cared less, and put in less effort than you did.
There are mistakes that only an expert can make. Errors – often catastrophic – that novices aren’t smart enough to make because they lack the information and experience needed to try to exploit an opportunity that doesn’t exist.

Daniel Kahneman says, "The long-term success of a relationship depends far more on avoiding the negative than on seeking the positive."
It's like that in so many areas of life.
Most people know what they're good at, or at least they think they do. Flaws, though, tend to be nuanced, and we're often blind to them.
This episode shares dozens of little flaws I often think about -- ones that are easy to ignore, but can compound into disasters over time.

This episode is about the difference between intelligence and smarts, and why one is valued more than the other despite being less useful in the world.
The core here is realizing that people are not spreadsheets. They are emotional, hormonal, misinformed, status-seeking, insecure creatures trying their best to make it through the day. So if you have to choose between understanding how the world should work in theory vs. how it actually works in practice, lean towards the latter. It’s like historian Will Durant once said: “Logic is an invention of man and may be ignored by the universe.” That is so smart.

Thanks to my friends at ⁠Ramp⁠ -- the best expense accounting system I've seen. For more check out ⁠ramp.com/morgan.

Let me share a little theory I have about optimism, and why progress is so easy to underestimate.

I’ll explain it in four parts.