illusion – LUCKY IDIOT

Many times, we have to choose some options and that option seems to be free of cost. This is an illusion, however. They also come at a price, but the price tag is often hidden and intangible: each decision costs mental energy and eats up precious time for thinking and living.

We want to achieve everything and that ended up with nothing to us. Sometimes we need to learn to say no to the majority of things.

Investment – When we do not have an investment process then we like every stock and feel regret when we missed any. When we prepare a process, we show readiness to say no to the majority of things and accept things that fall under our process.

I have seen many investors who try to capture every opportunity, and when they cannot capture any, then they fall to regret. If we keep saying “yes” to every opportunity then we cannot smell the difference between real and fake opportunities. We cannot buy all listed stocks on the Indian stock exchange. And for that, we have to create a process that is suitable for us.

Think hard once and then just consult your list forever, instead of having to make up your mind whenever a new door cracks open. Most doors are not worth going through, even when the handle seems to turn so effortlessly.

This entire series will be reviewed with various examples from books which are “Thinking, Fast and Slow” and “The Art of Thinking Clearly“.

Illusions of Remembering

The illusion is not only of visual but it’s also of memory.

If we have seen any words or something for even a millisecond then also when we see it again we feel it familiar. Something which is in contrast to others that also give us a feeling of familiars. This creates a memory illusion.

Illusions of Truth

When things seem familiar, we generally tend to accept it as truth. But when things seem unfamiliar or extreme then we tend to reject it.

The impression of familiarity is produced by System 1, and System 2 relies on that impression for a true/false judgment.

When we wanted something to accept by people as truth then we keep on repeating the same. Because familiar things are easy to accept as truth.

When we listen frequently that equity investment or real estate investment can help us to create wealth then we become familiar to it and we start believing it as a truth. When we see people surrounding us making money through trading then we also believe it as a truth. We also start doing it without thinking about it as a truth or not. It keeps getting repeatedly visible in front of us and we believe it as a truth.

How to Write a Persuasive Message

When we write something truth but it is not necessary that people also believe it as a truth. For that, we need to use a true illusion. We need to draft our writing in a good manner, with proper colour combination and do not make it very complex, make it memorable.

Strain and Effort

The performance was better with the bad font. Cognitive strain, whatever its source, mobilizes System 2, which is more likely to reject the intuitive answer suggested by System 1.

The Pleasure of Cognitive Ease

Companies with pronounceable names correctly better than others for the first week after the stock is issued, though the effect disappears over time. Stocks with pronounceable trading symbols (like KAR or LUNMOO) outperform those with tongue-twisting tickers like PXG or RDO —and they appear to retain a small advantage over some time.

Ease, Mood, and Intuition

Our mood has an impact on system 1 and intuition. When we are uncomfortable, suspicious and unhappy, we lose touch with our intuition. And our system 2 take control. Reversely when we are happy, comfortable then system 1 take control.

So that we need to understand our mood while making any investment decision. If we are in good mood then our system 1 will take charge and we might not be getting involved in the proper analysis of our own decisions.

Norms, Surprises, and Causes

Assessing Normality

The main function of System 1 is to maintain and update a model of your personal world, which represents what is normal in it. The model is constructed by associations that link ideas of circumstances, events, actions, and outcomes that co-occur with some regularity, either at the same time or within a relatively short interval. As these links are formed and strengthened, the pattern of associated ideas comes to represent the structure of events in your life, and it determines your interpretation of the present as well as your expectations of the future.

When something happens or surprise our first time, when similar happens again, we will get lessor surprise or treat it as a normal. Our system 2 suggest that this is not a normal but system 1 made it. Whenever we met any surprises for the first time, our mind expects similar to happens again while a similar situation arises. That previous incident becomes normal for us and if that similar incident will not occur then we get more surprised.

It has been previously happening that market falls and get recover from that fall within 1-2 years. So that when the market falls everyone thinks that it will recover easily and we should invest. But there is a possibility that it may take a longer time to recover then what it used to be in past. So that we should not believe blindly that what has happened in past can happen in future also. It can have a higher probability to happen similar but also should not ignore the probability to not happen the same again or in the same time period.

Seeing Causes and Intentions

We generally use casual intuition frequently. For example, if someone says that he lost his wallet, then first thought comes of pickpocket rather than put somewhere, forget at restaurants, etc.

A Machine for Jumping to Conclusions

Jumping to conclusions is efficient if the conclusions are likely to be correct and the costs of an occasional mistake acceptable, and if the jump saves much time and effort. Jumping to conclusions is risky when the situation is unfamiliar, the stakes are high, and there is no time to collect more information. We should not jump to the conclusion where we know that involvement of system 2 is essential. It has a higher probability to meet error if we jump to the conclusion without taking the help of system 2.