🦖 Strong Convictions, Loosely Held
A new name for this blog and a guiding principle for this life
August 10th, 2023: Greetings from Costa Rica! I’m taking a quick trip down south for an incredible opportunity: to unplug in a wild rainforest and meet some new people.
My favorite pic from last week: the cold plunge. If you want a dramatic mood boost, try this. Cold showers also work. Have a great rest of your week!
I want to share with you a mental framework that changed the way I view life.
I recently renamed my blog to “Strong Convictions, Loosely Held 🦖”1
It’s one of my foundational life mottos.
I once heard it in a podcast. It refers how a successful hedge fund thinks through their investment decisions:
Make bold decisions. But at the same time, be open to changing your mind if you discover new information.
Have strong convictions.
But don’t hold them too tight. Don’t be rigid. Be open to new ideas and ways of thinking. Challenge your beliefs constantly. Always look for ways to update your thinking.
It’s about applying nuance to your thinking and understanding that almost nothing is black or white.
This applies to not just investing but science, medicine, and your daily life.
As F. Scott Fitzgerald, the author of The Great Gatsby, once wrote:
“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.”
All of us have strong beliefs.
Our beliefs can even change our cellular physiology (think the placebo effect).
But the hardest thing to do is truly challenge those beliefs. Especially ones that we didn’t even consider challenging in the first place.
To be open-minded to new ideas.
Like me and the vegetarian girl in Italy.
As author Derek Sivers says, sometimes we believe things not because they’re true, but because they’re useful.
Keep this in mind: is what I believe actually true or just useful to me?
As clinical psychologist Jordan Peterson says, don’t think what you “should” want. Search and find the truth for you. Listen to that internal voice.
And as the wildly successful entrepreneur Tim Ferriss advises, if someone tells you that you “have to” do something or you “should” do something, don’t just take their advice.
Ask them why.
Even if they’re your parents or friends.
You have to test assumptions:
“If they can’t answer you, then you shouldn’t take that advice. There’s a lot of speculation and just making up of the rules as we go along ... People get trapped in prisons of their own making because they accept limitations that other people place on them or that they place on themselves.”
- Tim Ferriss
Here’s a few beliefs I’ve challenged in some way over the past few years:
We “should” use Snapchat and TikTok because everyone else does
We “should” optimize our lives for comfort and convenience
We “should” respond to every text and email immediately
College education is the right next step for everyone
Walking in the snow with no shirt will make you sick
We “should” eat breakfast first thing in the morning
Being a little hungry is a bad thing
Learning a language takes years
World travel is too expensive
Discomfort is a bad thing
Red meat is bad for you
Eggs are bad for you
And many more.
There’s a few other questions that I’m pondering right now:
How can we best balance delayed gratification with living in the moment?
How much of happiness is an internal state ad relationship with ourselves?
How much higher is quality of life when you can walk everywhere?
Does to-go coffee ruin the experience of coffee itself?
Are books, if applied, more valuable than college?
What is the true definition of real education?
And many more.
If you ever find yourself reacting to any of my ideas, just first hear me out. See if you can learn something from me.
Yes, I’m only twenty years old.
But I’ve also have something to teach.
I have some authority in the realm of education, health and fitness, and world travel. I used to be an athlete, I scored top grades as a pre-med student, and I’ve solo traveled the world on a shoe string budget.
I’m fortunate to have a broad range of experiences.
Whenever I read a book, I keep an overly open mind to new ideas and then test them to see if they work for me. I encourage you to do the same.
I also encourage constructive criticism and active discussion, so please leave comments.
And if you want to unsubscribe from Baxter, feel free to do that as well.
(This button should say “Subscribe Now” but it glitches out in email).
I’m easiest to reach on Twitter, so come follow me and say hi!
Pura vida,
Baxter
One Big PS: I Started a Podcast
I just started a podcast. I had the privilege of interviewing an online ghostwriter and former D1 football player, Jack Moses.
We had a banger of a conversation, discussing injury, being a digital nomad in Costa Rica, in-person communities, books, limiting beliefs, psychedelics, business “class,” and much more.
Hope you enjoy. You can listen to it here.
You’ll find out on Sunday why I have this t-rex emoji everywhere.