Money, Bullshit, and the Art of Not Giving a F*ck

Why do I invest?

Warning: What you're about to read is 100% "my perspective." A mix of observations, half-baked ideas, and certainly not giving any advice. I don't pretend to know what others think. Narcissistic and cringe? Sure.

The Societal Treadmill

In my social circle, I feel like an outlier.

I've spent the last decade realizing I'm a bit of a weirdo, and that's okay. For years, I tried to fit in, following the prescribed path:

1. Go to university

2. Land an entry-level job at a prestigious company

3. Climb the corporate ladder

4. Buy a house

But I was miserable. My goals weren't my own; they were external expectations.

Paradigm Shift 1: Give zero fucks about other’s opinions

It's okay not to know what you want to do with your "career." Being lost is underrated. Isn't the point of life to be present and explore? I'd rather live as a treasure hunter than do the same soul-sucking work until I'm 82, only to retire and think, "Well, that was shit, but now I can retire."

We should also normalize the 9-to-5 and focus on work-life balance. It's perfectly fine to prioritize family and personal interests over corporate ambitions. Celebrate regular, honest, and hard work. Where is this nowadays? What did you do last Tuesday? I bet 90% of you can remember your lunch but not a single thing you did.

It is also more than fine to work 24/7 if you are obsessed with something and that makes you happy. Don’t just suit up and make money for the bald man because that’s “what I should do.”

We all see success differently. For some, it's about how much money they make or what company they work for. Others flex with 2-hour workdays, while some proudly boast about their 12-hour grind. I also respect that it takes an enormous amount of work and bullshit to climb the career ladder nowadays. I could not do it.

Be weird, be lost, be obsessed, or be balanced. Just be authentic. I think we also have lost this in “corporations.” Remember when salespeople had personality? I used to talk with the sleaze bankers, and it was fun banter on the phone. Now, I don’t bother even answering my phone.

Is it the ESG policies? Political correctness? Or fear of offending someone in our hyper-sensitive, social media-driven world? What stripped away “corporate people” personalities? Why not get replaced by AI? Maybe it is a blessing that humans start acting like humans again, and AI can handle the bullshit? It could be the beginning of the human renaissance. All the corporate bots and government bureaucrats get replaced with AI so they can be humans again.

Im fucking bullish on humanity.

The Money Trap

I used to be obsessed with hitting financial milestones. First, it was $1 million, then $3 million, then $5 million... It never ends. The number is never enough.

I relentlessly pursued these arbitrary goals—working 12-hour days, obsessing over self-improvement every weekend, and not taking holidays. Then, the pandemic hit, forcing me to stop working (I also lost everything). Shit happens! In hindsight, it was the best thing that could happen to me.

What is Truly Enough?

Consider this famous exchange between authors Joseph Heller and Kurt Vonnegut:

Vonnegut: "How does it feel to know that you've made less money from your writing than a hedge fund manager makes in a single day?"

Heller: "I have something he will never have... enough."

Paradigm Shift 2: True wealth isn't just a number

I asked myself: What do I want to do, and how much would it cost? My list was surprisingly simple: (I heard this tip from some random podcast).

• Spend time with family and kids

• Health!

• Write and read more

• Exercise regularly (lift weights, walk, ride my bike)

• Let my kids choose their own hobbies

• Live close to nature

• Eat good, simple food

Realizing this doesn't require vast fortunes was liberating. We're all different, though. Maybe you want to travel more, or you must have that dream 10/10 home. The key is identifying what truly matters to you.

Once you've chosen your path, embrace it. A “chosen” life is 10x easier to plan and 10x less stressful. And if your priorities change, the plan changes with them.

The Investing Game

Why Invest?

1. To safeguard the lifestyle I want (see above).

2. To protect myself from governments and their idiotic policies. I want to be immune to this shit.

3. It's the greatest computer game/puzzle on Earth.

I've often wondered why others invest. Is it because they want to, or because they feel they have to?

Instead of securing their future, most are digging a deeper hole for themselves, shackled to a system that doesn’t have their best interests at heart.

Most wealth is tied to the walls: 80-90% (+20y mortgage), 5-10% Fiat currency, and the rest in some passive index/mutual fund.

If your goal is to marry the system or government, carry on. But if freedom is what you seek, it’s time to rethink.

Take this, for example: People have become so delusional about their relationship with the government that they actually believe raising taxes somehow stimulates the economy. What’s next?

Take Finland, my home-sweet bureaucratic nightmare. We've turned healthcare into a Kafka-esque labyrinth that's more expensive, and nothing barely works.

I keep asking myself: Why isn't anyone else calling bullshit on this. Where is the “limit” when we pay taxes for breathing? The response: “It is what it is.”

The truth is, we don’t need much to fix this mess - just some common sense and more people willing to call out the bullshit. So, is everyone so married to the system, or have they just stopped using their brains altogether?

The Passive Investing Paradox

Passive investing is at an all-time high. But of course, everyone does some stock picking too. When they do, it's like watching hamsters chase the hottest shit, giving zero fucks about fundamentals or anything substantial.

It boggles my mind how these "normies" spend hours comparing specs for air fryers, hunting for the best bargain, reading endless reviews. But when it comes to investing? Suddenly they're brainless hamsters. You'll get a dissertation on why they chose a particular toaster, but ask about their stock picks?

The Death of Analysis

Nobody asks for my thoughts on stocks anymore. So here I am, arguing with the void on the magical internet.

I ask simple questions:

• What's the upside?

• How do you plan to make money with this?

The most popular answer? "I hope the interest rates will go lower." (I want to punch these people in the mouth.) Often, I just hear random mumbling. Occasionally, someone will say, "The P/E is very low, and they pay high dividends. Very respectable firm." Congrats, you've found the perfect value trap. But how do you actually make money with this?

If your investment can't withstand a 2-minute pitch to some random jester (like me), what the fuck are you doing?

Paradigm Shift 3: Carve Your Own Path

Find your way to survive. Copycatting Buffett, listening to tips from jesters on Substack, or following influencers on Twitter won't get you far. Neither will doing the same fucking thing as 95% of investors.

The New Market Reality

This mix of all-time high passive investing, sprinkled with a dash of gambling mentality, creates a market where:

1. Information is distorted

2. We have "crashes" on Monday that correct to "normal" by Friday

3. Market swings are enormous (traders should love this; everything moves like a shitcoin/penny stock)

4. Small caps are dead with no liquidity (why even bother getting listed?)

5. Nobody analyzes companies or reads earnings reports anymore

6. It's easier than ever to create bubbles

It is what it is. There's no point whining about why the market is the way it is. People are idiots, the market is idiotic, so let's focus on surviving!

I spent an enormous amount of time and energy from 2016-2019 trying to find "value." I was an uber-gay bear in 2019. If I had the same mentality today, I wouldn't have survived.

The Idiot's Game

If the players are idiots, the market is idiotic. What's the point of being "right" or the hero of the story? The most idiotic bets often win. Your job? Find someone even more idiotic to buy your bags.

Historical Perspective and Market Unpredictability

It's always easy to be a bull or a bear. What's hard is buying low and selling high.

Crying " bubble " is easy when market valuations climb, and nothing makes sense. But history teaches us that predicting the peak of a bubble is a fool's errand.

Key points to remember:

1. Historical extremes: Japan's stock market traded at a P/E ratio over 60 in the late 1980s. Current valuations might not be so extreme in comparison.

2. "The market can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent." Even if we're in a bubble, no one can accurately predict how high it'll go or when it'll pop.

3. Taking a permanent stance as a bear or bull can blind you to market realities and opportunities. The market doesn't give a fuck about our opinions or predictions.

4. Instead of trying to predict the future, focus on being adaptable. Keep your tap dancing shoes on.

5. Focus on what you can control: your budget, investment amount, risk tolerance, exit strategy, and entry points.

Paradigm Shift 4: Embrace Uncertainty

Don't try to predict the unpredictable. Focus on being prepared for various scenarios. It's not about being a bear or a bull, but about being a rational, adaptable investor ready to tap dance to whatever tune the market plays.

For me, this means questioning my "thesis" and investments every day. If I can't defend it in a 2-minute pitch to a jester, it's over.

The New Game: Selling Bags - Cryptofication

Remember when investing was about finding good businesses? Yeah, me neither. Now it's all about who can peddle their bags to the next sucker. We've gone full crypto but with stocks.

Some stocks have become more about being a fan or straight-up religious behavior. Bitcoin is a prime example. 98% of the takes are bullshit, whether bullish or bearish. For example “AMC apes" “Palantir Palantards”

I've even seen "investors" buying company merch. Let that sink in. They're not content with just being married to the government's financial system but want to become “community members”.

But hey, maybe we need the full "Cryptofication" experience to fix this shit. There is nothing like a good old -95% crash to separate the wheat from the chaff. 95% of this crap will never recover, and maybe that's for the best.

The Delusion of Easy Money

This incompetence and delusion aren't limited to crypto-bros and meme stock traders. It's everywhere, even in supposedly "serious" markets. Take the OMX 25 for example. They're still dreaming that everything will magically be fine, and OMXH25 will start printing money soon.

But I have to ask:

• What's the upside?

• Who are you going to sell your bags to?

• How will you actually make money?

They expect a medal of honor or participation diploma from the government for "doing the right thing." Sorry, folks. Reality doesn't work that way. There's no magical guarantee things will turn out well just because you followed the "rules" or LARPed as the Oracle of Omaha. (I also worshipped this dude for over a decade).

Even my Helsinki stock market, once the last bastion of "overly sheepish attitudes, reporting everything and doing everything by the book," is falling into this shit show. The small caps are now full of scams and shady shenanigans. And after over 2 years of zero companies listing, guess what we're getting? A pure vaporware scam in the form of Solar Foods. And no, it's not even an IPO - it's a "technical listing." Why bother with the hassle of actually proving your worth?

Remember how the GME dude came back with memes and dumped on the poor GME cult? Well, it's fine. He got to drive off into the sunset; he sold! That's the game now - create a cult, pump the stock, then dump on your followers. It's not about value. It's about who can create the most convincing delusion.

The Path Forward

1. Call out the bullshit. More people need to do this so we can start healing.

2. Go to war with yourself. It's not fun or easy to fight a mental battle 24/7. But take baby steps towards freedom - freedom from societal expectations and the need for external validation.

3. Recognize that it's not just currencies that debase, but everything. When we blindly follow societal norms and invest in ways that don't align with our values or understanding, we debase more than our money. We debase our time, energy, and ultimately, our lives.

This cycle has been extremely long. Every crisis is "solved" by debasement. It could go on for a long time. Everything continues to debase - we're seeing even more extreme short-termism.

Everything almost already trades like a shitcoin - even Nvidia (3 trillion market cap). The S&P 500 casually swings 8% in a week. This used to be an exceptional return in a year. Nothing is enough; we want 2-3x returns, and we want them fast!

Companies focus only on stock performance: buybacks, options, and the only thing that matters is price up = everything good. Meanwhile, their products and services are turning to garbage.

They scream for more ESG or whatever is hot so they can greenwash their way out of doing anything meaningful.

Nobody cares; consumers, corporations, and politicians are all in the same shit race for the next big multiplier.

It's getting harder and harder to find any real "value" these days. Everything feels debased, watered down, or overpriced. I asked a friend recently if there’s anything still worth paying for, and he half-jokingly mentioned a Nepalese restaurant where the quality has stayed the same, and the price only went up by 2 euros. That’s the best he could come up with.

Is it just me, or is the search for worthwhile services, subscriptions, or products becoming nearly impossible? Can you name anything that still stands out as genuinely worth it? This could also be very good for the long term and end this meaningless consumerism that has plagued the world. If everything being debased and overpriced forces us to rethink our priorities and focus on what truly matters, then maybe we’re heading in the right direction…

Conclusion

Please, start calling out the bullshit. Yes, it's a lonely road, but keep up the good fight!

The bar is so low nowadays that literally anybody can rise above mediocrity. We can all still be a beacon of something better.

Remember, it's not just about money. It's about living a life true to your values, questioning the status quo, and having the courage to forge your own path. Be the signal; be your algorithm.

Stay hard,

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minsky_moment

Good shit