Wildcard Wednesday: It's all wrong, upside down.
Be wary of first impressions in this complicated world - they are meant to mislead you
Charlie Munger says something along the line of investing: Be brave when others are scared, and be scared when others are brave.
It is not without merit also outside the field of investing. Then again, Munger was a lawyer turned financial expert, so he probably knows a thing or two about human nature. Otherwise, he wouldn't be a lifetime business partner with Warren Buffet.
You can get a lot of meaning and substance from going, contrarian. Looking at it in the opposite way, upside down, from the main perspective. Especially if this "main perspective" is presented as the main one by the media.
Then you have a tough job because you need two opposite views, both opposite to another and the "main." So kind of a trifecta view.
Why even bother? Because the world is not black and white, and the shades of gray can sometimes be mistaken for light, sometimes for dark. And since everything is gray, you need to take caution.
When there is a report about receiving money, you ask yourself where you will lose it. If it is about making jobs, you think about losing them. If it is about losing jobs, think about making it.
Only when you have established a statement's positive and negative stances can you start figuring out where you stand?
People always signal change as bad. That is why politicians don't use that word. But it's a lie; we change all the time. Either for the better or for, the worse. We imagine and lie to ourselves that everything will be ok because we assume things won't change. But they are.
We are decaying as bodies, the society is falling apart as a community. That is the essence of entropy - everything is falling apart. Only with the direct, intentional force do we always glue it together.
So next time somebody starts selling you on change, think about what it means if he was selling the not-change. When somebody tries to sell you on things remaining the same, think about what price of change that will incur.
Things are usually simple, although opposite of the first appearance. Be wary of first impressions in this complicated world - they are meant to mislead you. From the grocery store selling you the "same" chocolate bar for the "same" price (only to find out it is 15% lighter) to other things.
And let's not forget the mighty politicians who sell us on inclusion (only to ban, hate, and prosecute the other side) or sell us on making things the same, traditional (only to have a lot of so-called non-traditional to determine the way).
It's kind of ironic. The more you see through the lies, the less they will lie because it will no longer be "profitable" to lie.