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If you want to know why most people stagnate and don’t change their life circumstances, I’ll start with a simple question. Take a look at this picture, and quickly tell me, which of the lines on the right matches the one on the left:
Did you pick C? What if I told you that you were wrong and that 94% of people picked B as the answer? Are you sure that it’s not an optical illusion and that you picked the right answer? Do you want to take a second guess? Alright, go again.
Did you change your choice?
Well, the right answer is… Drumroll… C. Now this experiment might have felt silly to you, but it’s this simple question that revealed something fascinating about human psychology. Psychologist Solomon Asch ran an experiment in the 1950s where he made participants sit in a room and showed them pictures on the screen like this one, asking them the same question I asked you. They almost always got the answer right.
Then, he made participants sit in a room with 17 other people, and run through the slides again – what the participants didn’t know was that the group was rigged. Sometimes the group would pick the right answer, but 11 out of 15 times, the majority of the group picked the wrong answer on purpose. This time, participants got their answers wrong 35% of the time even though the answer was obvious! 75% of the participants got at least one answer wrong. They were influenced to change their answer because they thought the others knew something they didn’t.
Asch’s conformity experiment was a major revelation on how people yielded to the majority opinions of the group they were in, despite having personal conviction in what the right thing to do was. When it comes to picking pictures, that’s harmless – but groupthink in life can be dangerous, especially in financial situations. In fact, that’s one of the main reasons for most people not achieving the goals they set in life. This brings us to…
How to get ahead of the 99%
There’s been a sudden trend among productivity YouTubers where they’ve all started making videos on “how to get ahead of 99% of people”. Most of the advice they give is sound but generic, in that it’s stuff that you already know like hitting the gym, meditating, eating healthy, and hustling. As someone who has traveled this road for a long time, I wanted to give you my take on how to get ahead of 99% of people so that you have an actionable roadmap to get started. You already know the first steps– believing in your judgment without getting carried away by groupthink. Check out the video for the other steps:"
Why I don’t spend money
I’m somebody who’s at two extremes of the financial world at the same time – My income is above average, but I keep such a close tab on my spending that people think I’m crazy. I admit, I am definitely eccentric. In my defense, I think that subscribing to a consumerist lifestyle and accumulating possessions to show off to others is a road that leads to nowhere, let alone happiness. Case in point, we’re in the midst of a stalling economy with unprecedented spending where unhappiness is at record levels. So we must be doing something wrong – Here’s my take on how to spend to maximize your happiness, and not just waste your money on what you think is supposed to bring you happiness to find out later that it was all a lie:
The housing price crash
Home prices just posted the largest annual drop in 11 years, which means that for the first time since 2012 we’re seeing a year-over-year drop in median housing prices. As we’re on the edge of what could be a major turnaround for the housing market, let’s take a look at what are the reasons for the recent trends, which areas are likely to be affected hardest, and how you can make money off this information:
Now, on to the fun stuff…
The Graham Stephan Show
It’s tough when a father has to take on the responsibility of raising a daughter when his wife leaves him – but it’s even tougher to deal with growing expenses when his wife remarries a millionaire and absolves herself of child support duties. Welcome back to Support Court with Vonda B, which has become my guilty pleasure viewing habit, and this week I’m reacting to “My Ex-wife married a millionaire”:
Then we have one video from “Till Debt do us Part” itself – where a husband realizes that “Happy wife, happy life” needs some context to interpret it… Watch this as a cautionary tale of how credit card debt can rip you up if you’re not careful.
Later this week, I found a hidden gem: Gail of “Till Debt do us Part” fame has another show called Princess where she finds spoilt brats who can’t do on an allowance of less than $100,000 a year and talks to them. In this one, she tries to turn around a kid who got caught stealing money, and it’s a fun video to watch.
“Emotional Damage!”
If those words mean anything to you, you’re going to love this episode. We met Steven He, the brilliant video creator who’s made “Emotional Damage” his tagline, as well as a part of the culture. Steven pokes fun at his own experience as an Asian growing up in America, and he’s not just hilarious but also a shrewd businessman who’s built a content empire in a very short time. We sit down with him to understand his approach to business, and we also duke it out to see who’s more frugal – him or me!
So that’s it for my weekly round-up. We now have a premium plan that gets you exclusive extra content every week and priority engagement – check it out.
See you next week with another bunch of exciting videos!
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So confused... you mean the right answer is C?
There must be something wrong with your article. The line on the left is clearly shorter than the one labeled B, That I am sure of. What you are tryhing to conveyh I am not. As