In Praise of Process
“Have no fear of perfection, you’ll never reach it.” - Salvador Dali
A peculiar trait shared among many great artists is that they care little about preserving their work. Master painters have been known to scrape down canvases to use again or simply paint over completed compositions. Certain ceramicists pound down pieces and reform them before firing - or smash them afterward in radical protest. Even the legendary Michelangelo burnt many of his drawings.
Something about that has always resonated with me. In art school, as others focused on building large portfolios as they prepared to apply for graduate programs, I spent much of my time relegated to a basement corner, headphones on, toying, and tinkering. Sometimes intentionally, sometimes by accident, such experiments destroyed my work. But I paid no mind. I was far more interested in how I was creating rather than what I was creating.
Oftentimes, process is just as important as outcome. Sometimes more. That’s easy to lose sight of in all aspects of life. Especially in finance. As if in Pygmalionic fashion, people fall in love with their complex models that include endless line items and added variables. They aim for precision, but all that is yielded is false confidence. It’s only when things go really bad that people look back and question their process.
Today not only marks the start of a new year but also just over the 6-month mark since the inception of Invariant. Each week, I’ve published a piece ranging from swift short stories to dreadfully detailed analyses.
I’m bound to destroy some of them.
I will eagerly be my own fiercest critic and will pick them apart in follow-up pieces when errors become clear - a foreign idea to many at a time when it’s so easy to slyly delete or edit. But there’s nothing to hide, and there’s far more value in chronicling my foolishness alongside my successes. Even without obvious mistakes, I’ll challenge my own thoughts - presenting alternate views, models, and such. I have little attachment to any particular piece. I am, however, deeply attached to the process.
I count myself extremely fortunate to be able to say it’s hard to imagine a year better than 2022, and great things are in store for this publication. More comprehensive reports, more obscure assets, and most definitely more veering into art, history, and beyond. To the thousands of subscribers now following along: thank you! Your support, feedback, and criticism have been absolutely invigorating as I carve out my place in the written world.
Happy New Year.
Questions or thoughts to add? Comment here or message me on Twitter.
Disclaimer
This publication’s content is for entertainment and educational purposes only. I am not a licensed investment professional. Nothing produced under the Invariant brand should be thought of as investment advice. Do your own research. All content is subject to interpretation.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the market and on stocks with us, in the past year and the year ahead! Happy New Year!
Excellent. Well said.