| Sunday, 10 December 2023 |
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Good morning [%first_name |Dear Reader%],
I am fortunate that I found a career that gave me joy, even if I was 33 when I found it. After an itinerant and serendipitous career that included two breaks to write books (neither attempt went anywhere fruitful), in 2009 I ended up as a business journalist.
Though I was an MBA with eight years of experience, as a journalist I would start with zero years. I had no option but to take a pay cut, so I did.
The way I justified that significant decision to myself (and my wife) was by falling back to my MBA left-brain and creating a structured dilemma for myself. Which of the two variables did I want to maximise over the medium-term future?
1. Salary and corporate career
2. Intellectual and creative fulfilment
Welcome to edition 23 of First Principles. And this Sunday we’re going to embrace dilemmas.
Here’s what I have for you this week:
1. Creating and embracing dilemmas 🤗
2. Upcoming FP Podcast Guests 🎙️
3. #SilentSunday 🌅
4. #FPBooks 📚
5. #FPHabits ✅
6. #FPLinks 🔖
Pro tip: If your default setting is to not show images within emails, please consider turning it off for this newsletter. Or else, you’ll miss many of the interesting images and photos we carry each Sunday 📸🤳🏽
1. Creating and embracing dilemmas 🤗
“In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing”—Theodore Roosevelt
Most of us hate conflict and would rather avoid it. And when it comes to decisions, we subconsciously choose the path of least resistance.
While this is perfectly okay for the hundreds of minor decisions we make each day, it fails us when we need to make big decisions whose consequences (good or bad) play out over years, or even decades.
Because those decisions have tradeoffs, risks, consequences, and conflicts. And by avoiding dealing with them consciously, we make suboptimal decisions.
[aesop_nutgraf_quote_block title=”“If you take the best text in economics by Mankiw, he says intelligent people make decisions based on opportunity costs—in other words, it’s your alternatives that matter.
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Hari Buggana
Chairman and MD, InvAscent
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