August 2019 Report

I’ve adopted some houseplants and will try not to kill them. I’ve been hesitant to be responsible for another living thing’s only link to this universe. It’s a lot of responsibility. I would feel horrible if I was guilty of murder by negligence or ignorance. How am I supposed to care for another, if I can barely care for myself? Luckily these plants are fairly hardy. This is a big step for me psychologically.

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After years of recommending other people go to therapy, I finally tried it myself. I have to say, it’s way over hyped. I went in with a specific problem in mind. After two sessions I could tell I wasn’t making progress or finding any insights. Maybe it’s the therapist I had. Maybe I’ll try again in a few years when someone has a therapist they can recommend.

Books

Movies

  • Avatar: The Last Airbender
  • Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
  • Rango
  • So I Married an Axe Murderer

Song of the month

  • You Need to Calm Down by Taylor Swift

Stock Trading Performance

  • YTD
% losing trades loss on losing trades % winning trades gain on winning trades expected return on $100 invested
Total Gain Realized
69.70% -$1,106.59 30.30% $485.11 -$624.26 -$548.56

Nothing to see here. Move along.

  • August
% losing trades loss on losing trades % winning trades gain on winning trades expected return on $100 invested
Total Gain Realized
100.00% -$72.92 0.00% $0.00 -$72.92 -$72.92

Well frick. That’s the third time I’ve traded the stock DHX and I’ve lost each time. I kid you not, before I realized it, I already had a buy order queued up for Monday. Its volatility is tempting and punishing.

  • Roth IRA
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Woohoo! I’m beating the S&P 500.
Lessons
  • Spiders exist on an individual level. Ants exist on a colony level. Humans exist as individuals, colonies, and in the middle as tribes. This explains our constant existential angst between the relationship of the individual to a society. Should we be self-sacrificing for our community? Or should we be selfish for our survival (and sanity)? It turns out the answer is both.
  • The reason it’s impossible to talk about race is because there is no 3rd person perspective. As a parent, it’s easy tell little Timmy to share his toys with his baby sister. You can mediate because you have no background, no investment in the outcome, and no personal interest in the toys. This is not the case for race, sex, or economic inequality.

August Survey Results

  • Check out the results here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1ald5MxpZ1QeedjIqRr75Yj78QGaho-eKWs2m8FBZ_Ww/viewanalytics
  • 75% of people agree people skills are more important… Get ready for my next survey about public education. See below. Just so you know… The survey is more interesting if more people answer it… so y’know, feel free to share the link with your friends.
  • Most people feel they are unique, like being uniqe, think personality tests are inaccurate, and that people are unpredictable. Well, at least the respondants are self consistent!

September Survey

One thought on “August 2019 Report

  1. By definition, there is no such thing as murder by negligence. It would be floracide or plantslaughter. Take comfort from knowing that. Also, fyi, Richelsons historically have had perverse luck trading stocks. Myself, I only buy stock now out of spite, like that time I got so pissed at McDonald’s that I bought 50 shares. It went down and never recovered until I traded out to go after Google.

What do you think? Right? Wrong? Pure poppycock?