This is the action bias: look active, even if it achieves nothing. There are many situations where we do not know what will happen but we just act to show our active behavior in eyes of others.

When penalty kick in football kicked to goal. The goalkeeper just has 0.30 seconds to think where the ball will fall right, left, or center. It is difficult to guess in much less time so they jump either side which creates an illusion of doing something to stop the goal.

Investment – Similarly, when a fund manager knows that he cannot beat the market, then many fund manager keeps on churning stocks in a portfolio or they keep on buying one and other stocks which creates an illusion among their clients of doing something to beat the market and create wealth. Also, I have seen many fund manager who keeps many books with them so that when clients meet them, they can just create an illusion of avid reader.

‘All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone,’. We need to learn the skill of patience because we cannot produce a child in a month by doing sex with nine women or with the same woman nine times a month. When the situation is not suitable with our philosophy and process then we have to keep patience to wait for the loose ball to hit a home run. We do not need to hit a home run on every ball and if we try to do that then remember, we cannot survive till a loose ball comes for a homerun.

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