Same as Ever: A Guide to What Never Changes

by Morgan Housel

Peter Kaufman, CEO of Glenair and one of the smartest people you will ever come across, once wrote: We tend to take every precaution to safeguard our material possessions because we know what they cost. But at the same time we neglect things which are much more precious because they don’t come with price tags attached: The real value of things like our eyesight or relationships or freedom can be hidden to us, because money is not changing hands. Same with expectations—they’re easy to ignore because their value isn’t on a price tag. But your happiness completely relies on expectations. Your boss’s impression of your career relies on them. Consumer confidence relies on them. What moves the stock market relies on them. So why do we pay so little attention to them? We spend so much effort trying to improve our income, skills, and ability to forecast the future—all good stuff worthy of our attention. But on the other side there’s an almost complete ignorance of expectations, especially managing them with as much effort as we put into changing our circumstances.