#001 Why think beyond IR?
Few days ago, while travelling I asked my driver uncle, “If someone gave you ₹2 crores (about $230,000) what would you do with it?” and he answered, “I would buy more cars and rent it out”.
He lives in a tiny village where not a lot of people use four-wheelers. For the rest of the journey I kept thinking, “He could invest all that money in an index fund and get about 12% return over the long-term or he can start some other business where he earns more but, he said, he wanted to buy more cars and rent it out.”
This conversation left me with a question, why didn’t he think of something more/different?
The answer though, was staring right back at me, his imagination or information about what was possible was limited by what he knew, what he was doing. He was oblivious to stock market’s historical return of 12% over the long-term or the fact that, if he put that money in Fixed Deposit (FD), he would easily get around ₹16 Lakh/year (about $18,500) this is definitely more than what you would get if you were to start a taxi service without all the mental agony you would have to go through to get the license, man-power and other routine issues faced by such nature of business.
I don’t want this to happen with my life, more than knowing what I know, I want to understand what I don’t know. I want to experience and live through all the other subjects out there with same tenacity and “self taught” approach as I would If I were really interested in the subject. I aspire to imbibe in every sense of the meaning what Richard Feynman said once, “Study hard what interests you in the most undisciplined, irreverent and original manner possible”.
This has been my approach since the day I read this quote. I am learning more and more of what interests me, and one surprising thing that has come to fore is the fact that I happily read through and understand things that I wouldn’t have even tried understanding few years ago and I am proud of that.
So, don’t be surprised if I start writing about theoretical physics few years down the line. Because, I like physics and I might even do that. But, initially my focus will be financial analysis of companies that I think are worth investing, I might occasionally dribble other topics that I find interesting. But, here is a disclaimer: Don’t invest on my suggestions or even on the basis of the compelling case I make for those companies, at least not until I get my CFA Charter.
Why beyond ‘IR’?
I did my masters in “Geopolitics and International Relations” this lies within the societal norm that a person will find work in the field they choose to master it. But, I’m not conventional, I’m a misfit. Or as ChatGPT puts it, I need my “existence to leave a dent in the world”. I am not a person you can put in a box and expect not to venture out. First and foremost I’m a ‘human’ and it has our nature to venture towards the unknown, we as humans have always done that.
If I don’t venture into the unknown, how will I stand in front of my idols and tell them that I lived a multi-disciplinary life?
Then, there is other thing… and this is strictly my thinking and I am hoping to be wrong about it; IR as a subject is very limiting without the financial/geoeconomics considerations underpinning most events. After some time in academia I understood, if I genuinely want to express and explore my approach in IR, I need not just think but stand outside the box.
Why Finance?
In three words? I love it.
Naval Ravikant says, Do what you love and the circle emerges. I want to do something that I love. My time on this earth is finite and if I’m doing something that I don’t like, I would be fooling myself and living someone else’s life, I don’t want to do that. Yes, I know I’m a novice (comparatively) but, I also know that I can learn and grow as I explore more in different field of studies, especially finance.
And also, I’m a big believer of having my skin in the game. So, if I’m extrapolating any conclusion from whatever happens in the world, I should be able to bet on it, and if I fail, I should be held accountable. Taleb talks about how academia is fragile and full of “fragilistas” as very rarely someone in academia is held accountable for expressing opinion that turns out to be false and creates systematic challenges (think, 2008 financial crisis) and I don’t want to do that.
I think, the world of finance is the first place where you see the impact of whatever happens in geopolitics. Finance also gives me an opportunity to understand different realities, such as politics of a country that I’ll be investing in, the geopolitical risk associated with my investment, the technological understanding will be paramount in ‘betting’ on the future.
One of the most interesting thing about finance (other than making money) is that if you’re curious enough, you’ll learn a lot and you’ll learn very many different things. You’ll need to step into many shoes to understand different companies. And I hope to do that while making a lot of money.
If I can, why shouldn’t I?
What things will I cover here?
Honestly, I don’t know. I read a lot of different things and I follow a lots of people from other disciplines. So, I will try to answer my curiosity through this blog.
If I have a question in Biology, I will try to read more on the subject and share whatever I’ve learnt till that point. I’ll probably do the same for other subjects I’m interested in. Be it Physics, International Relations, Mental Models, Economics, Society and Culture. Sometimes, I might try my luck even with mathematics. Who knows?
I don’t know for sure but I can say this with surety, I’ll hundred percent follow my curiosity.
I will also review or share my learnings from books that I’m reading at the moment. So, this whole thing will be about sharing whatever I learn, making mistakes and learning from them and hopefully, conversing with the people who subscribe to my Substack.
I will end with another Feynman quote: “The prize is the pleasure of finding the thing out.”— I’m excited.
So, Subscribe!