A False Sense of How People View You

Morgan Housel (0:06)

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Investing involves risks, including possible loss of principal. All right, really quickly, before I get going, it's been three or four months since we've reformatted this podcast, and now we have video and the new format where I'm taking your questions, and it's going great. The numbers are great, really happy, so we're going to keep doing it. And as part of that, it would be really helpful if I could learn more about you and who you are and what you want to hear and listen to. There is a very quick survey in the show notes where I can learn a little bit more about you. It might take you 30 seconds. If you could do it, it would be helpful. If not, that's okay too, if we can just start this week's show. Two little experiences that I had in the last couple of months that I've been thinking about.

One was, if you're familiar with the e-bikes that seemingly every adolescent teenager is riding all around and causing havoc in the streets all over the country, I don't know if it's a global phenomenon, but we had this experience a couple weeks ago where a 15-year-old boy or around that age was on one of the roads, and he does a wheelie, like pops a wheelie, and then he turns around and looks me right in the eye. As a former 15-year-old boy, I know what he's thinking.

He's like, oh, I bet that guy is so impressed with me. I bet he thinks I'm so cool, and I want to see the look on his face when he's so impressed with me. And of course, the reality was I was like, you idiot, what are you doing? You're going to be lucky if you're alive for another month, if you keep doing that.

Just the general idea of like, his perception of what I thought of him was so completely wrong. He thought he was so cool, and I was so impressed, and it was actually the exact opposite. And I think there are so many instances like that in the world where your perception of how other people view your skills or your, let's say, material possessions is totally wrong of what you think it might be.

The other that I had, I've watched the documentary a couple of times now because it's that good. The documentary The Last Dance, which is about Michael Jordan's career, particularly in the 1990s, it's unbelievably good. It's like a 10-part documentary. Even if you don't like basketball, you'll love it. And there's a couple of scenes in there where Michael Jordan is driving his red Ferrari. And I had this just visceral, like didn't even think about it, but this feeling when I saw that, I was just like, gosh, he's so cool. Look at that. Look at that guy at his Ferrari. He's so awesome.

Put that aside, I also had this situation a couple of months ago in my hometown where I saw a guy who I didn't know, I don't know who he is, driving around town in a red Ferrari, almost exactly like Michael Jordan's.

And I have this other like visceral reaction of like, ah, I just didn't like it.

It just felt like he was just trying to show off, like he was insecure. And if I had any feeling, it was like, oh, there goes the midlife crisis kind of thing. And I thought later, I'm like, what's the divergence in those feelings? Michael Jordan in the car, awesome. Love that. This other stranger in the car, hate it. Don't like it.

And these are just like caveman feelings from my brain. Like I'm not thinking this through, and I don't want to judge anyone anyways, but that was the feeling. And I think if I had to sum it up, it's something like this.

Michael Jordan looks cool in the Ferrari because he's Michael Jordan, because I know how amazing he is, because I know how skilled he is, because I know that he is a million times better than me or anyone listening to this doing what he does. He deserves that success. The stranger who I see driving the same car, I don't know anything about what he does. I have no clue what he does. Maybe he is super successful and impressive. Maybe not. And so it's much easier to frame that guy as, you think you're better than me because of your car? Because I don't think you are. And then it just turns into almost like a battle. And so that again, it's just like there is a big difference in what is likely his perception of what I think of him and what it actually is. And I think as we'd have a much larger debate, as we have and probably will continue for a while about wealth and equality in the country, I've always thought it interesting that if there is a group of very wealthy people who by and large escape that criticism of being wealthy and living ostentation lives, it tends to be athletes and artists.