10 lessons I learned in 2024
Credit: InspireStock Gallery / Adobe Stock
- Main Story: Nightcrawler columnist Eric Markowitz reflects on the wisdom he acquired in 2024.
- Chief among his learnings was a solution to our current age of relentless distraction supplied by his 3-year-old daughter.
- Also among this week’s stories: Why Tesla is much more than an EV company, how “puking” has made cool investors untold fortunes, and the durability of forests.
Coming into the holidays, I wanted to take a beat and reflect back on the last several months. So I wrote down 10 lessons I learned this year. Perhaps some of these will resonate with you, too.
The year was a big one, both personally—and professionally. We launched an ETF in June, I started my Big Think column in July, and we had our second daughter in August (yes, I’m a little tired).
One big observation as we head into 2025: we live in an age of relentless distraction. It has become far too easy to focus on the wrong things—often all at once. Guard your time. Simplify your routines. Give more than you take.
The 10 lessons begin with one idea I learned from my 3-year-old daughter: Look up at the trees more often.
Key quote: “My three-year-old daughter loves to look at trees. She’ll stop mid-walk, point to the branches swaying above, and say something like, ‘Look at the leaves dancing.’ She notices everything: the way light filters through the branches, the colors that shift with the seasons, even the patterns in the bark. I’ve walked past trees my whole life without really seeing them. I never paid attention to the way they move or the quiet life they hold. But watching her, I’ve realized how much is hiding in plain sight — waiting for someone to notice. Life rarely demands your attention in obvious ways. Kids have a way of teaching us the simplest lessons: pay attention to the world around you. Look up. See what you’ve been missing.”
Tesla — and the confessions of a crazy stock picker, part II
One of my favorite investing essays of all time was our founder Arne Alsin’s “Confessions of a Crazy Stock Picker” back in 2013.
This week, he’s out with a Part II — and it’s about his long-standing conviction in Tesla. “When I wrote Confessions of a Crazy Stock Picker ten years ago, I argued that the best opportunities come when others can’t — or won’t — see them,” he writes. “Tesla is the perfect example of this, in my view. The skeptics are loud, but I believe they’re missing the forest for the trees.” He continues:
Key quote: “In my experience, most people seem to view Tesla as a car company. That is, I believe, their first mistake. Tesla isn’t just building electric vehicles; I believe it’s creating an ecosystem. It’s laying the infrastructure for the 21st century. Every few years, the company leaps to a new S-curve of innovation. EVs were act one. Full Self-Driving (FSD) is act two. Robotics and AI could be act three. And beyond that, I believe the roadmap will stretch into possibilities we can barely imagine.”
Special note: My colleague Daniel Crowley, CFA, made his TV debut this week, talking AI, Tesla, Amazon, and more on the Schwab Network. Watch it here.
A few more links I enjoyed:
Do As I Say, Not As I Did – via Nick Maggiulli
Key quote: “Think about this anytime you consume content. Ask yourself, “Did this person actually use the advice they are providing?” If they didn’t, it doesn’t mean that they are wrong, but you have reason to be skeptical.”
More Investing Truisms – via Harvey Sawikin
Key quote: “In severe turbulence, late panickers will be dumping positions near the bottom of the move (technically known in the business as “puking”). They’re unwittingly creating the “capitulation” phase, when smart buyers step in to benefit from their distress. Savvy and well-funded traders like George Soros and Warren Buffett have made untold fortunes from others’ capitulation.”
Growth is from Mars, value is from Venus – via Owen A. Lamont, Ph.D.
Key quote: “Bifurcation has some benefits. For example, consider the oft-repeated claim that today’s market is excessively concentrated and therefore very risky. It’s just not true. As I’ve previously argued, you can’t just look at portfolio weights and intuit portfolio outcomes, because portfolio volatility is driven by return covariation. The truth is that aggregate market volatility in 2024 has been lower, not higher, partly due to market bifurcation.”
From the archives:
Pace Layering: How Complex Systems Learn and Keep Learning – via Stewart Brand (2018)
Key quote: “All durable dynamic systems have this sort of structure. It is what makes them adaptable and robust. Take a coniferous forest. The hierarchy in scale of pine needle, tree crown, patch, stand, whole forest, and biome is also a time hierarchy. The needle changes within a year, the crown over several years, the patch over many decades, the stand over a couple of centuries, the forest over a thousand years, and the biome over ten thousand years.”
