A Message From the Past (Thoughts on Nostalgia)

When thinking about our own lives, we don’t remember how we actually felt in the past; We remember how we think we should have felt, given what we know today.

The transition from uncertainty to certainty melts the memories of anxiety and worry.

So much of what matters in investing – this is true for a lot of things in life – is how you manage the psychology of uncertainty. The problem with looking back with hindsight is that nothing is uncertain. You think no one had anything to worry about, because most of what they were worrying about eventually came to pass.

“You should have been happy and calm, given where things ended up,” you say to your past self. But your past self had no idea where things would end up. Uncertainty dictates nearly everything in the current moment, but looking back we pretend it never existed.

Michael Scott said it best: “should have had hindsight.”