Logbook

…The lesson I learned that day was that there is a price to pay for speaking up and revealing a lie to be a lie. Liars don’t like being caught, and many of those who have been lied to would rather not know about it….Telling the truth can be a thankless act, but allowing falsehoods to go unchecked undoubtedly has a corrosive effect over time.

The National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) stated in a 2017 article that, “Weather is a contributing factor in 35 percent of general aviation accidents.” This bit of information can lead us to the first suggestion for avoiding over one-third of plane crashes. Only fly on sunny windless days. Can it be this simple? What if the world of air travel can’t function on only the pretty days?

A couple of decades ago, a man found himself in the presence of several other men, who “looked horrible when naked.” Despite the fact that he was in the Oakland Athletics clubhouse, surrounded by professional baseball players, he observed that “They just did not look like athletes.” It was his Eureka moment.

Today, I would like to take a different perspective on the term “underhanded”. One definition that I came across described it like this:

“Performing an action in a way that - while otherwise completely legal, seemingly neutral, and not apparently malicious, is extremely undesirable to somebody affected.”

Just reading this makes me upset. There may be some motivation for me to try to reclaim the term with a positive spin.

The kitchen team was headed up by a truly gifted chef and everything I ever ate there was wonderful. I’m not sure if I would have been able to really appreciate this kind of excellence at a time in my life when my preferred “fine dining” experience came from McDonald’s and included a free plastic toy.

Which brings me back to my friend’s story. As he told it, his young daughter (maybe 6 or 7 years old) ordered some eggs with her brunch.

“It was a miracle!” “How else can you explain that I would just happen to be on a flight seated next to the man that was meant to be my husband?”

Now let me be clear about a couple of things. Firstly, I am as big of a romantic as the next guy, more so perhaps. Secondly, this was a casual night out, over cocktails, with some close friends, not a wedding reception...so I went ahead and burst her bubble. “It’s just math,” I explained.

In the 2017 essay Make Better Decisions in the New Year, I discussed the concept of “decision fatigue” and suggested that one tactic for making better decisions is to make less of them. One way to make fewer decisions is to delegate. Today, I am taking that concept one step further. Yes, you should delegate. You should build your team, but maybe you should also look to add members that can then shrink the team.

The world, our country, and our community are muddling through a tough period right now. We don’t know how long it will last, but we know how long it has been. We, as individuals, may be facing struggles of our own. I submit that we should challenge ourselves to do two things.

Nelson Mandela said that “courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.” An astronaut would be a fool, to not have some degree of fear before her space shuttle launches. It is only by moving past that fear that she can progress towards a goal and achieve the incredible.

“Remember, best block, no be there.” ~ Mr. Miyagi

The fact of the matter is there will always be another bad market coming, as they do every few years on average. We just never know exactly when it will arrive. In the absence of that information, we are left with the question of when is the best time to think about being defensive.

I find that building a strong sustained stock market is not unlike building a proper campfire. There are certain key components that are necessary to get a good market started. There are different things needed to keep one burning strong. Lastly, there are certain items and tactics that can be used to revive one that may appear in danger of burning out. Just like with the campfire, improper application of overuse of any of these can lead to a cold and dark result.

If immediate outcomes are not a good determinant of the quality of advice, all we are left with is motivations. Since another person’s motivations can be very hard to discern, we must be willing to ask questions. This is true whether the advice pertains to mufflers or mutual funds. Where to begin?

With Father’s Day around the corner, I guess it is only natural that I reflect on some lessons that I learned from my dad. This entry shares a few driving lessons that can help us along our travels on and off the roads.

What do you think of when you hear that someone “paid a debt to society?” My argument is that the expression has gotten a bad rap and that more of us should be THRILLED  to acknowledge and pay our own “debt to society”.

The following three pieces of advice all came from licensed investment brokers (perhaps we need to make the Series 7 exam a bit more difficult). I wish that I had never heard them, but now that I have, I feel duty-bound to expose the flaws in their logic.

In the sequel to his hit documentary film “Supersize Me,” Morgan Spurlock opened a fast-food chicken restaurant. On one interior wall, one can read phrases such as “all-natural,” “artisanal,” and “handcrafted”. Beneath those terms, there is text reading, “Not sure what all these words actually mean? Great! Because, legally speaking, they don’t mean much.” Even labeling something as “free-range” only means that an animal has an “option” to go outdoors for “some part” of a day.

Such words have been extensively market-tested to ensure that they successfully send misleading signals to consumers. The convenient truth for businesses is that they need to do very little (or nothing) to earn the right to use such terminology.