Podcast: The Writing Episode w/ Morgan Housel

Today we have a special episode of the podcast. I think it's important to take a step back from the markets and Technical Analysis sometimes, and talk about something that is universal to us all. For this episode I invited Morgan Housel to come and talk about the importance of writing. For those of you who have been following my work for a long time, you often hear me talk about the personal benefits of putting my ideas down on paper. Sure, people all over the world get insight into what our firm is thinking, they get steady idea flow from my blog, and in some lucky cases, people might even learn something. But the truth is, my writing is an incredibly selfish endeavor. It forces me to think through the important concepts. And as Morgan talks about in this episode, the inability to express my thoughts in written form probably means my idea is stupid to begin with. The easier it is to write about, the better it will usually be received by our audience.

Morgan Housel is definitely one of my favorite financial writers in the world today. I know a lot of smart people who would agree with that. Whether you're a market participant or not, but especially if you are, I think writing consistently is one of the most valuable things you can do. Even if you don't share it with the public, and just keep it to yourself, I encourage you to get into the habit of writing. Think about it, people were keeping a journal and writing their ideas down way before blogs existed. There's a good reason for that.

On the flip side, when it comes to reading, Morgan also had a few thoughts he wanted to share with us. He is very much against the Trophy Reading and ripping through an ungodly number of books just for the sport of it. He's gone down that rabbit hole before and learned that he's better off reading just 1 book a month, taking his time, talking to smart people about it, and really digesting it. He made some really good points about this.

This was a really fun episode and one that I think is a great compliment to a lot of the other conversations we've been having with smart folks about the markets. Enjoy!