This reminds me of something that I read in David Epstein’s book Range, which is the idea of “match quality.” Essentially, the idea says that one must experience a wide variety of different areas of study, hobbies, etc. in order to find which ones match your unique blend of skills and interests. I think this expands upon that idea somewhat, in that if you find something that fits you very well you should then “invest” in it more deeply and not necessarily worry about the short term gains.
I found it really interesting to think about this in a business context, as it is similar to the argument between actively managed funds and passive index funds. You have determined that in this case, investing early and often in your chosen pursuits was much more “profitable” than frequently making changes. However, continuing this analogy, it’s possible that not enough research was done on the activities that were chosen for investment, and another career path could have been more fulfilling with the same amount of effort invested. Kinda similar to the multi-armed bandit problem, in that a wide variety of options are available but only one is the most profitable.
On the other hand, common financial wisdom indicates that early investment is more profitable because of compounding interest. Investing in any choice is most likely better than no investment at all, provided that choice generally makes you happy (i.e has a positive return on investment). Seems like you may have happened upon a set of highly positive investments and invested early, which is awesome!
This reminds me of something that I read in David Epstein’s book Range, which is the idea of “match quality.” Essentially, the idea says that one must experience a wide variety of different areas of study, hobbies, etc. in order to find which ones match your unique blend of skills and interests. I think this expands upon that idea somewhat, in that if you find something that fits you very well you should then “invest” in it more deeply and not necessarily worry about the short term gains.
I found it really interesting to think about this in a business context, as it is similar to the argument between actively managed funds and passive index funds. You have determined that in this case, investing early and often in your chosen pursuits was much more “profitable” than frequently making changes. However, continuing this analogy, it’s possible that not enough research was done on the activities that were chosen for investment, and another career path could have been more fulfilling with the same amount of effort invested. Kinda similar to the multi-armed bandit problem, in that a wide variety of options are available but only one is the most profitable.
On the other hand, common financial wisdom indicates that early investment is more profitable because of compounding interest. Investing in any choice is most likely better than no investment at all, provided that choice generally makes you happy (i.e has a positive return on investment). Seems like you may have happened upon a set of highly positive investments and invested early, which is awesome!