Most people are buying into the narrative that we need to be scared or worried or both. Photo: Freepic.
Bruce Kasanoff says in these troubled times it is too easy to want to run down the rabbit hole at every piece of sad news like an investor reacting to the latest stock market plunge.
Recently stock in artificial intelligence computing company, NVIDIA (which I do not own) crashed 16.2 per cent. On this day, investors apparently decided one of their favourite companies was actually worth much less than they thought it was on the day before.
Don’t worry … I have not suddenly switched to being a stock exchange analyst. It’s about my realisation that up to now I have been managing my life like a scared investor.
The Los Angeles wildfires freaked me out. My brother’s house burned down; I felt horrible for him, and then I realised the wildfire risk to my house in Oregon was roughly what his was. Danger, danger, danger!
That led me down a rabbit hole of wondering how to stay safe in these times.
I started to think like the investors who (temporarily) abandoned top AI stocks because one Chinese company claimed it wasn’t that hard or expensive for them to develop a world-class ‘large language model’.
The key word there is ‘claimed’.
How much do you want to bet that within a week or less, there will be reports that the Chinese company actually spent more time and money than was previously claimed?
How much do you want to bet that I am overreacting in my personal life?
Take that last bet, but please don’t rely on anything I say about the stock market.
A good life is never a straight line, with every day perfect. It involves a lot of ups and downs.
By the way, my brother is fine, his house was a rental, and he still loves Los Angeles.
Today’s column is as much for me as it is for you, but I am pretty sure that 90 per cent of the people I know are also buying into the media — and social media — narrative that we need to be scared or worried or both.
That’s no way to live, as I realised that morning when I saw investors running for the doors.
There’s so much to love in this universe. I’m going to focus on that.
Bruce Kasanoff is the founder of The Journey, a newsletter for positive, uplifting and accomplished professionals. He is also an executive coach and social media ghostwriter for entrepreneurs. He can be contacted at kasanoff.com. This article first appeared at kasanoff.com.
