The Pursuit of Wisdom

As Gandalf said: Even the very wise cannot see all ends

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I had spent the better part of the last few days working on a piece that was just not coming together. Yet last night, in a chain of philosophical YouTube videos, it all clicked.

I was reminded of an excellent scene in The Fellowship of the Ring, a dialogue between Gandalf and Frodo ensues about the creature Gollum who had been following them into the Mines of Moria:

“Frodo: 'It's a pity Bilbo didn't kill Gollum when he had the chance.'

Gandalf: 'Pity? It's a pity that stayed Bilbo's hand. Many that live deserve death. Some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them, Frodo? Do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. Even the very wise cannot see all ends. My heart tells me that Gollum has some part to play in it, for good or evil, before this is over. The pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many.'

Frodo: 'I wish the Ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened.'

Gandalf: 'So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. There are other forces at work in this world, Frodo, besides that of evil. Bilbo was meant to find the Ring, in which case you were also meant to have it. And that is an encouraging thought.”

Its no wonder a work from the 1950’s finds universal love and appeal 70 years later, and a 13 year old me watched the DVD ragged 20 years ago. There’s profound truth and wisdom in this story, and this is just one example. Yet it gets to the crux of what I had been grappling with this past week:

How wise are you to know what’s really the best outcome?

Events that seem like misfortune at the time, likely play a larger part of good if you let them, but that’s the hard part, in trusting that there is good found in the chaos that only future wisdom and hindsight will reveal.

I would argue that it is the fool who throws his hands up, curses fate and storms off in the cloud of misfortune, in the moments of stress and anger, lose the greater good that is found within. I had the fortune to experience such a fool this past week, in which a person mistreated me over a perceived monetary loss, in a fit of anger that reminded myself of what it looks like to serve a capricious master you don’t understand:

Further, this all has echoes of an idea articulated by Nietzche of “Amor Fati”, the Latin phrase meaning “love of fate” or “love of one’s fate”. It is used to describe an attitude in which one sees everything that happens in one's life, including suffering and loss, as good or, at the very least, necessary.

Its a call to let go of any regret, because the idea is at the time you made each past decision with the best knowledge available to you, and more crucially, that it assumes that in wishing for a different path, we have perfect wisdom to know that if by doing so, it would have been better. It assumes a perfect knowledge that no one person possesses, and that at the end of all things, that different decision wouldn’t have lead you to the same regret you wished to avoid.

As Gandalf wisely said: Even the very wise cannot see all ends.

In the investing world, especially in 2022, its easy to point to many events that just seemed purely negative. How things could have been different if I sold before then, and I was able to skip all of the carnage? The question then is, would that have been the best outcome, or was there a greater good that you would have missed?

Moreover, how are you sure that what occurred, whether fraud or loss, isn’t going to serve you in some greater fashion if you let it?

Its a call for faith, that God’s plan is for good and not evil, a trusting in Divine Wisdom above your own, and that Good will prevail.

I’m of the mind now, that I would have missed on life-enriching experiences that would have remained hidden in the “easier” path. I find myself in 2023 with the privilege of meeting people I now consider friends, that a profit (or perceived “missed loss”) would not have provided.

Further, the earned wisdom of going through the all-too-normal market events has left me a better investor than I otherwise would have been. If by looking back on the opportunities for large windfalls, I find myself questioning how I could be so sure that would have been better? Or crucially, how am I so sure that a ton of money in the hands of a less wise version of me wouldn’t have been a curse?

Maybe its a willingness to be the fool, in as much as it means to accept my limitations on knowledge on what is truly at play? Humility is coming either way, so you might as well accept it now.

Its a reminder, as my experience with the angry gentleman this past week, that its prudent to view monetary gains and losses not with joy and contempt, but rather with respect and responsibility. Money comes and goes, much to the consternation of those who wish to fully control it. History is replete of events that remind everyone who is really in control, and its typically not us. To that end, to value people and virtues like wisdom above it, I suspect that through all market events, you find yourself richer.

How dangerous is the person you’re negotiating against who doesn’t value anything you can truly offer? That’s what I aspire to be.

To end this, I’ve spent the better part of the past few months diving deep into financial history. What we see today in all of the blow-ups, scandals, government monetary debasements are all more normal from an historical basis than things going well.

So this is a reminder to myself that when markets recover and enter that wild phase, to value things that are eternal, as the markets will inevitably turn right when you least think it will. Its a call to be kind to everyone you come in contact with, because money comes and goes, but this is a very small world.

Will

All human beings seek the happy life, but many confuse the means - for example, wealth and status - with that life itself. This misguided focus on the means to a good life makes people get further from the happy life. The really worthwhile things are the virtuous activities that make up the happy life, not the external means that may seem to produce it.

-Epictetus