Author: Rommel Castro

Second-Order Thinking

It’s very easy to take bad decisions, thankfully there are mental models that can teach us how to think and how to take better decisions.

Second-order thinking is a mental model that helps us find the long term consequences of our decisions and thus help us make better decisions leaving the immediate gratification behind. It’s very easy to think about the immediate results and forget about what’s going to happen after, that’s why this model brings a very important question: “Then what?”

From now on, I will start asking “then what?” every time I need to make a decision, it’s an habit I want to build.

If you’re interested about this and other mental models, I recommend you read fs.blog

If you want to succeed, double your failure rate.

Someone at work shared this quote today, and wanted to share it here for myself, as a reminder that is OK to fail and it’s actually a great thing. Make sure you’re having new failures in your life and learn from them, and then follow new failures.

I still have many zeros

0 it’s where massive amount of creativity comes from, when you have nothing to lose and everything to win. This is probably that biggest motivation I have in my life. Being someone who comes from zero-zero and now I have accomplish some things in my life, but still have many zeroz, still many things to do, to learn and many risks to take and that I want to take in my life, many fears to overcome.

what about you? how many more things can you accomplish in your life? how many things you haven’t tried? those are your zeros. and if you are very young and have nothing, have zero-zero, you have everything to win, get up and do it, take the challenge, the risks! it’s worth.

Don’t tolerate your zeros. Having zero should be your motivation, you should be driven by brute necessity!

Opened FB for a few days and this is what I learned

I been learning to appreciate more and more my time, as part of this I decided back in January to deactivate my FB account, and remove FB and IG apps on my phone.

During the last seven months I opened FB only when I had a purpose to use it. I reactivated my account few days ago and close it a few min ago, and I did some reflecting about it and this is what I noticed/learned.

Every time I reactivate my account, I notice I miss it less and need it less

Sure the first few days and weeks it can be difficult, yeah because I had an habit of going to fb.com or picking up my phone just to check FB but then I began noticing the times I was doing it. Noticing how much I was doing it made start believing I had a problem, I wasted a lot of time checking FB and that helped me miss it and avoid it in my life more and more.

I can to use FB in a mindful way and with purpose

When I decided to reactivate my account it’s because I have a purpose, maybe I want to check in on a friend, contact with professionals, look for properties, etc. When I achieve my purpose I deactivate my account again.

Before going to FB think about what you want to accomplish and what’s the purpose

FB can be a very toxic place you be part of that toxicity

Maybe you don’t noticed, I didn’t noticed for a long time until I stopped using the site and noticed I was myself a toxic person sometimes, I used to discuss and sometime troll people which is not mature and professional, plus fb is not a great place to share and/or discuss idea in a smart, healthy way.

I found this article about discussing in the new era of twitter/FB and how it used to be before. (read article).

Last year I used FB 55 hours (based on RescueTime), I could have read 2475 or around 9 books in that time, I could have learned something valuable, or spend that time putting attention to more important things that will help me accomplish my goals in life.

Many have written about this topic and I wanted to share my two cents, hope this helps you think about it and make the move of living the real life.

Am I really an imposter?

No. I’m not.

And probably you have asked yourself the same question many times and don’t feel bad about that, I gotta tell you a secret, I have asked myself this question so many times and not only when I’m awake but also when I’m dreaming.

Take a look at your past, remember all the hours you used to learn and study, all the sleepless nights figuring out things and maybe all that effort wasn’t paid at that moment but after so many years you’re being recompensed for all the effort you put.

Don’t feel bad about it, enjoy the ride and focus on getting even better.

Sell the winners? Sell the losers?

One of the first questions you have when you begin investing on stocks is: When should I sell? and there’s not right or wrong answer to this question, it always depends, but lets about the two main reasons why peoples sells their stocks:

– Sell when the stock’s price is high (a winner)

But why would you sell your winners? if you did your research and everything still makes sense, wouldn’t make sense to hold on it?
One of the reasons to sell on your winners is that the growth in price is too high and doesn’t make sense, in that case probably it’s a good idea to sell and invest on another company.

– Sell when the stock’s price is low (a loser)

This one makes more sense, but as usual it depends, why did the stock price decreased?
is it a problem with the company in the long term? Then is probably a good idea to sell. Is it temporary issue or bad media? It will pass and the value will recover, in this case it’s better to hold.

As mentioned it will always depend, but don’t let your emotions take control of you and don’t make what Mr. Market wants you to do. Follow your principals and remember that the market always catch up with the company’s real value.

The trick is not to learn to trust your gut feelings, but rather to discipline yourself to ignore them. Stand by your stocks as long as the fundamental story of the company hasn’t changed.

Lynch, Peter. One Up On Wall Street: How To Use What You Already Know To Make Money In (p. 82). Simon & Schuster. Kindle Edition.