Someone asked me why many smart people are poor…

Money rewards a completely different skill set than intelligence does.

It rewards distribution, which means getting your thing in front of people. Some smart people find that horrifying.

Money rewards timing, which means showing up before everyone else figures it out. Intelligence usually needs time to let an idea marinate.

Money rewards persistence, which means doing the same boring task day after day after day, including on a Wednesday in February when nobody’s watching and the radiator’s clanking and you’d rather be anywhere else.

Money rewards a kind of public shamelessness that smart people find physically painful.

Smart people don’t act. They research. I think research is their favourite hobby.

They research everything so much that it’s no longer a means to an end; it’s the purpose.

They spend two years comparing index funds.

They read three books on negotiation before asking for a raise.

They spent two years comparing index funds.

They spent two years deciding whether to move to a different city, and then they won’t move anywhere because everywhere sucks anyway.

Meanwhile, somebody with a high school diploma and zero anxiety about being wrong opened a Roth IRA in 2019, dumped money into it every month like clockwork, and is now sitting on a portfolio that would make our print-shop philosopher weep into his instant coffee.

Knowledge that you don’t deploy isn’t knowledge. It’s expensive entertainment.