Learn From My Mistakes

Short story of how I break life chaos into small, solvable problems - 2 min read.

Oh, it happened.

I tripped the litmus test for lazy thinking.

A buddy and I started with iOS. Ten minutes later we were roasting Windows, Android, and Meta Ray-Bans all together.

I was lip-syncing the talking points.

If you could guess my take on Topic B from my take on Topic A, I was not thinking. I was playing the preset.

This has a name: ideological bundling.

If I say “vinyl hits different,” you can predict my takes on MP3s, streaming bitrates, playlists, and crazy-expensive interconnect cables.

(Legal disclaimer: at this point in my life, my setup is YouTube Music and a coffee mug.)

I’m still curious who buys 1.5 m speaker cables for $82,000.

Anyway, independent thinkers mix and match.

Bundled thinkers move as a set.

The quick test: “If I can predict your view on one topic from an unrelated one, you’re not thinking independently.”

Why this matters?

Bundles save time, cost accuracy

• “Cold plunges fix recovery.” We add daily ice baths. The real problem was low protein.

• “Dividend stocks are safest.” We chase yield. Total return loses to a boring index.

• “Deep work means zero meetings.” We kill quick syncs. Projects drift because nobody aligns.

• “10k steps is the goal.” We pace at 11 pm to hit a number. Sleep tanks, which mattered more.

We become easy to steer

• “Eco means better.” A green leaf on plastic. We pay more for the same bottle.

• “Creator camera.” We buy it on an influencer’s word and never leave Auto.

• “Premium roast coffee.” We stop asking about origin or roast date.

• “Natural means safe.” Fresh juice spikes glucose. Congrats, we squeezed a sugar bomb.

We miss good ideas that do not fit the set

• “Strict keto is best.” We avoid beans. Fiber drops and energy dips.

• “Frugality beats all.” We skip a paid service that saves hours each week.

• “Experiences beat things.” We save on a good chair. Our back pays for it.

• “Fresh only.” We ignore frozen veg. We cook less and eat worse.

=== Self-pity mode on ===

Coming up with these was brutal. I traded coffee and paid-for YouTube for a blinking cursor.

Got you!

I’m sipping coffee…

…wait. YouTube…

=== Self-pity mode off ===

Okay, I know I am wired to think in bundles. Now what?

Charlie Munger said it best: “Do not hold a view unless you can state the other side better than they can”.

So my job for the rest of the year or the rest of my life, whichever comes first, is simple: learn the other side so well I could argue it on their team.

(Dark humor is still legal, right?)

Let me explain with an example.

Their claim: “Vinyl hits different.”

Best reasons they give:

• Human-friendly sound. Vinyl can shave off the harsh edges. Not “better by science,” more “easier on ears that work in an office and own a loud Yorkie”.

• Ritual equals attention. You pull a pizza-sized disc from a sleeve, clean it, drop the needle. No skipping tracks every ten seconds. That ceremony tricks your brain into caring. Same trick as plating dinner on a plate instead of eating over the sink. (I tried both till I got married.)

• Pleasant imperfections. The tiny fuzz and warm distortion can feel cozy. Like a fireplace video on your TV. We know it is fake heat, but our brain likes the glow.

Their rebuttal to my claim:

• YouTube Music is convenient, not identical. The ritual changes how people listen.

• One album at a time. Fewer skips. More attention.

• Plus it is an object. You can hold it, gift it, resell it. Try reselling a playlist.

What changed for me:

• It is not about sides. It is about what job each thing is good for. Vinyl is great for people who want a ritual and a vibe.

• Lossless streaming still wins for convenience and for finding clean versions fast.

• If sound quality matters, the big upgrades are the room, the speakers, and where you put them.

And those audio cables for $82,000?

I still believe they improve the signal mainly between the wallet and the void.

Which is why I will not trade a used car and a used kidney for a brand-new cable.

What about a pre-owned cable?

Avoid buying at all cost! Might come primed for death metal…

Till next time.

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Cool Facts About Charlie Munger

Reading As Main Job: He and Warren Buffett structured their days so most of the workday was reading and thinking, not meetings, treating quiet study as the main lever for better decisions.

Go To Bed Smarter Rule: He ran a simple daily rule for himself, "go to bed smarter than when you woke up," and treated each day as a small interest payment into a lifetime knowledge account.

Latticework, Not Loose Facts: He did not care about random trivia. He tried to hook every new fact to a few big ideas, so he could pull the right idea fast when it was time to decide. Technically, he kept Obsidian in his head.

Inversion Habit: He solved hard problems by flipping them. Instead of asking “how do we win?” he asked “how could this blow up?” and joked that if he knew where he would die, he would simply never go near that place.

The Too Hard Pile: If something was too messy, too complex, or he could not understand it clearly, he put it in a mental folder called “too hard pile” and moved on. So instead of pretending to be smart and guessing, he just said, “I don’t get this” and refused to invest time or money into it. That way he saved his brain for problems where he actually had an edge..

Sit On Your Ass Default: After buying a great business he preferred to "sit on your ass" and do nothing for years, which cut trading noise, reduced taxes, and enforced discipline about only acting when odds were clearly in his favor.

Circle Of Competence Fence: He treated attention as scarce and stayed inside a tight circle of competence, arguing that real risk came from not knowing what you were doing, so most opportunities went straight to the “too hard pile”.

Multidisciplinary Tool Belt: He aimed to learn 80–90 simple “big ideas” from math, physics, biology, and psychology. With that small set of tools in his head, he could handle most real world problems without needing fancy tricks.

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