Author Morgan Housel shares his mental model for the writing process, arguing that struggling to write indicates a problem with the underlying premise.
“Good writing is very easy because if your idea is right, it's easy to articulate it. And if you get writer's block, the reason you have writer's block is because your idea sucks and it's wrong. And that, and that's why you're struggling to articulate it. So I think the harder, if writing is hard for you should take a step back and say my whole thesis here is probably wrong. If it was good, it would spill out of me.”
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More from Morgan Housel
Insight
Housel: High IQ and exhaustive due diligence increase risk of self-delusion
“The harder you work at something, the more opportunities you have to fool yourself. So if you're very smart and you have a one 40 IQ and you went to Harvard and you work at Goldman Sachs and you spend six months doing due diligence on this deal, you are going …”
Morgan HouselApr 8, 2025▶ 27:50Could AI TAKE OVER by 2027? | Morgan Housel on TBPN April 4th
Insight
Housel: You cannot cut 20% of effort because waste is unpredictable
“When people talk about, oh, I could have been just as successful if I worked 20% less. Yeah, but you don't know which 20% of your work was wasted or not.”
Morgan HouselApr 8, 2025▶ 31:11Could AI TAKE OVER by 2027? | Morgan Housel on TBPN April 4th
Insight
Housel: Investors with gambling urges should allocate 20% to speculative trading
“And for that person, if you can convince them to say, Hey, can we put 80% of your money in index funds? And then this 20%, you can go nuts with, you can trade shit coins. You can go crazy. You can do anything you want with it. That, that is, it seems like bad …”
Morgan HouselApr 8, 2025▶ 1:52Could AI TAKE OVER by 2027? | Morgan Housel on TBPN April 4th
AssertionContradicted
Housel: Vanguard monthly inflows exceed Robinhood's total assets under custody
“Vanguard brings in more money every month than Robin hood has in total.”
Morgan HouselApr 8, 2025▶ 3:57Could AI TAKE OVER by 2027? | Morgan Housel on TBPN April 4th
Insight
Housel: Free stock trading removed a vital speed bump against bad behavior
“It's hard to push back against free trading, like lower costs. That's great. But it removed a speed bump that incentivizes a lot of really bad behavior.”
Morgan HouselApr 8, 2025▶ 5:06Could AI TAKE OVER by 2027? | Morgan Housel on TBPN April 4th
Insight
Housel: Fewer recessions lead directly to larger subsequent economic downturns
“So it's like the fewer recessions that you have, the bigger the next recession is going to be.”
Morgan HouselApr 8, 2025▶ 7:13Could AI TAKE OVER by 2027? | Morgan Housel on TBPN April 4th
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