'Want to understand the changing world? Start with what stays the same.'
That's from just one of the positive reviews of 'Same as Ever', the latest book by Morgan Housel, bestselling author of 'The Psychology of Money'.
Question mark, money. Image: Gerd Altmann on Pixabay
Motheo Khoariipe talks to Iain Mann (Gateways Business Consultants) about 'Same as Ever: A Guide to What Never Changes'.
Every week The Money Show interviews the author or reviewer of a new or trending business book.
This week Motheo Khoaripe (in for Bruce Whitfield) talked to regular book reviewer Ian Mann, MD of Gateways Business Consultants.
Mann reviews Same as Ever: A Guide to What Never Changes.
The New York Times bestseller is written by Morgan Housel, author of the international blockbuster, The Psychology of Money.
“Want to understand the changing world? Start with what stays the same."
That's another bestselling author, Harvard's Arthur C. Brooks, commenting on the conclusion of Housel's latest book.
"We've been trying to predict the future for a very long time... and it's absurd to predict fifty years into the future, or five years, or two years."
"Everything can change tomorrow, and it can change because of a tiny little accident. This book picks up those key themes we can predict."
"Housel says, one of the things we can predict with great certainty fifty years into the future, is that human beings will still respond to greed, to fear, to exploitation, social persuasions..."
"He identifies these things which clearly are not going to change; that's why he calls the book Same As Ever."
"We're not very good at predicting surprises for example, and what tends to matter most of all is the surprises. Huge risks are always those things that nobody saw coming. If we saw it coming we'd be prepared, and the damage happens because we aren't."
"Risk is really what's left over after you've thought through everything you possibly can... Housel asked Robert Shiller, the Nobel prize-winning on bubbles, and others, how inevitable was the Great Depression? He said nobody forecast it..."
"We only understand things because it's in hindsight. The biggest news, the biggest risks... are always what you don't see coming."
"The best story wins, it's not only what you say but how you say it. And that's not going to change."
"I think there are very profound lessons in the book for business, and for everything else."
Ian Mann, MD - Gateways Business Consultants
Description on Amazon:
Every investment plan under the sun is, at best, an informed speculation of what may happen in the future, based on a systematic extrapolation from the known past.
Same as Ever reverses the process, inviting us to identify the many things that never, ever change.
With his usual elan, Morgan Housel presents a master class on optimizing risk, seizing opportunity, and living your best life. Through a sequence of engaging stories and pithy examples, he shows how we can use our newfound grasp of the unchanging to see around corners, not by squinting harder through the uncertain landscape of the future, but by looking backwards, being more broad-sighted, and focusing instead on what is permanently true.
By doing so, we may better anticipate the big stuff, and achieve the greatest success, not merely financial comforts, but most importantly, a life well lived.
Scroll up to listen to Mann's review