August 31, 2024 • 27 mins
Light mailbag as we pre-recorded early in the month. But always a few things to talk about. Small things come in good packages! Happy Labor Day Weekend to all USA Fools.
Host: David Gardner Producer: Desirée Jones
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Shortest mailbag ever? Possibly.
It's what happens when yourecord a month end mailbag
before releasing someof the month's podcasts.
But whether we run long orshort or somewhere in between
is often a functionof you, yes, you,
and what you send me, orin the case of this month,
what little time Igave you to send me.
(00:21):
Nevertheless, good things come insmall packages only on this week's
Rule Breaker Investing.
It's the Rule Breaker Investingpodcast with Motley Fool
cofounder David Gardner.
And welcome back toRule Breaker Investing.
Thanks for making a little bitof time for us on your weekend.
(00:42):
It's very rare for me to recorda mailbag as a weekend extra,
but that's exactly what itmade sense to do this month,
especially becauseearlier in the month,
I got a cancellationfrom one of our authors,
and I managed to fit himin earlier this week.
C t Nguyen graciously fit usin and joined us this week,
and I decided, you know,
he needs to be anauthor in August,
(01:03):
not an author inAugust and September.
And so we used our normal monthend mailbag slot for CT Nguyen,
and I decided let's just parkthis mailbag on the weekend.
If you're in the United States ofAmerica, you are, I hope, on holiday.
It is Labor Day weekend.
Happy Labor Day weekend toall my fellow Americans.
But about a third of uslistening to me are from
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somewhere else around the world.
I hope you'reenjoying your weekend.
And so just to review wherethis podcast went over the
previous four weeks,we started with Of
Investing and the Fools I Sing.
That's how I chose to kickoff authors in August.
Having had a cancellation,I always had a plan b,
and that was simply to bring backthe various poetry, the poems,
(01:47):
taking many different formsover many different years that
have popped up on this podcast.
I'd saved them,
and I thought that would bea fun podcast to do one day.
And it made a lot of sense tokick off authors in August with
my many fellow full authors.
You, many of you thank you fortaking the time over the years
to send in some poetry.
So we kicked off with ofinvesting in the fools I sing.
(02:08):
And then we got to ourthree authors this month.
And the first was Whole Foodsfounder John Mackey and his
book, The Whole Story.
We then went to a completelydifferent kind of a book.
Let's call it experimentalfiction from Stanford
neuroscientist DavidEagleman and his book, Some.
Of course, we talked a lot moreabout a lot of other things besides
just his book, which was alsotrue of this week's podcast,
(02:31):
Games with CT Nguyen.
His book, Games Agency is Art,
was a wonderful platform tolaunch from and just to discuss
games and how they come intoour lives and how they help
enrich our lives and oftenimprove our perspective around
ourselves and theworld at large.
Games having been played forthousands and thousands of
(02:51):
years by our species.
So thank you again to all threeof my authors, John Mackey,
David Eagleman, and CT Nguyen.
My authors in August herein twenty twenty four.
Well, I usually kick off mailbagswith hot takes from Twitter x,
which is exactly whatI'm doing this weekend,
except this is gonna be themajority of the mailbag.
I'm really gonna focus on fourtweets that came in and make
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that the bulk of thisweekend's mailbag.
Let's go to the first one.
This one came in from Eugene Ngat Eugene Ng underscore v cap.
Eugene, you wrote,
thank you to David Gardnerat David g Fool for resharing
my prior Rule Breaker Investing mailbagpoem from November twenty twenty.
(03:33):
It was shared on the recentRule Breaker Investing podcast,
the August eighth episode ofinvesting in the fools I sing
with other fools,including David.
It is truly such an honorto be sharing the stage.
Let us all incorporate, Eugene,
you write some version of vision
in our investing portfolios.
And thank you again to EugeneNg who calls out at Amit
(03:56):
Samani.
Amit, thank you for pointing outthat podcast to Eugene so you can
come back and listen to it.
Investing in our vision, a bigtheme for him and his work and
certainly for me andmy work and what we do.
I think for many of uslistening to me as we invest,
we invest with vision.
In fact, principle number oneof the rule breaker portfolio.
(04:18):
I have six portfolio principles and thefirst of them is the most important.
And it is simplymake your portfolio
reflect your bestvision for our future.
I truly believe you,dear listener, all of us
are going tomaximize our returns.
And I mean, not just financialreturns, but, yes, I mean, your
(04:41):
happiness return,your fulfillment,
your enjoyment in investing.
You're gonna max that out ifyou truly make your portfolio
reflect your bestvision for our future.
And I don't say for yourfuture or the future.
I remind you that you arepart of all of our future.
And every little thing thatwe do when we spend money or
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invest money is ablow for freedom.
It is, I guess, more aptly,it is helping shape the
future that all ofus will live into.
When you spend your dollars atthat store, not that other one,
you're helpingthat store benefit.
When you're deciding to buythat stock, not this one,
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you're pumping up their balancesheet and prospects a little
bit more, not that other one.
Every one of us,
there is a one to onerelationship between the
dollars that we spend and thedollars that we invest and the
world that we are living into.
So make your portfolio
reflect your bestvision for our future.
You know, two other things I wannamention very briefly about portfolios.
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The first is that I thinkmost of us should have a stock
portfolio of atleast twenty stocks.
That's because another ofmy rule breaker principles,
this one is one of myrule breaker habits is never to
start a new position atgreater than five percent of
your overall portfolio.
So I often hear of people who decideto go all in or go big with one stock.
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They might have aten stock portfolio,
but they've got they've got onenew idea and they put thirty
percent of their moneyinto that one stock.
I think that's a mistake.It might work out for you.
It's not a greathabit to get into.
More often than not,
you and I are gonna do muchbetter if we don't allow any
new position to start atmore than one twentieth,
five percent of ouroverall portfolio.
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And if you cue to thisapproach to investing, this rule breaker
approach, thatmeans by definition,
as you start your portfolio,
you should have twentyplus stocks in place.
Now not everybody feelslike they have the money
in place or necessarily a brokeragefirm that would allow them.
We all have different brokersthat would allow them to buy
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fractional shares which isoften what allows you to build
up small positionsin bigger companies.
So not everybody cannecessarily start right there
with twenty stocks,
but I hope you get the overallprinciple which is you should
be making your portfolioreflect your best vision for
our future and you should startsmall with each of your positions.
Let them grow big on their own.
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The winners usually do,
and that's the real way tosucceed in rule breaker investing.
And the final thing I wannasay before we move on to tweet
number two is just you shouldbe able to look up and down
your brokerage statement or if you'vegot your portfolio on your phone,
you should be able to look up and downthat portfolio and feel confident.
Feel like you know thesecompanies, you love these
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companies, you're lookingforward to seeing how they do,
you're looking forward tolearning more about them.
You should not feel disconnected
from any of the companiesthat you're invested in.
Now, I have some companies inmy portfolio that are dogs and
I've just let them wag theirtails and bark all the way down
to the bottom of myportfolio standings.
They're my bad picks.
They're the worst investments I'vemade and often I just hold on to them.
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And the good news is by neveradding to them, which I never do,
they become increasinglyirrelevant to the overall
performance of my portfolio.
So I have to admit even whenI look at my own portfolio,
I can't always say I I can lookconfidently up and down that
portfolio, but atleast I look knowingly.
I understand why each ofthose things is there.
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And most of all,
you should feel some form ofmagnetic attraction to the
companies in your portfolio,
presumably because you love themin the first place and
what they do in this world.
Probably for you as aconsumer, you appreciate them,
but you also appreciate whatthey're doing in your portfolio
and you feel motivated andinterested to follow them as
they grow into the future.
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Anyway, there's a little bitmore about vision and Eugene,
thank you for your tweet.
Let's move on totweet number two.
This one of the John Mackeyappearance earlier this month
on the podcast, jasminegirl at john wart.
Lisa, you wrote, I reallyenjoyed listening to this one.
Agree with you too that theRussian writers like Tolstoy
and Dostoevsky are great.
(08:59):
I also like Turgenev a lot.
And that is fromlong time fool Lisa.
And Lisa, thank you for that.
You know, it's funny youmentioned the Russian writers.
John Mackey called them outwhen I asked him what's on his
reading list, what bookshas he really appreciated.
Again, he is one of the mostwidely read people I know,
now seventy one years young.
(09:21):
And so I love to askpeople like that.
What are some other great books thatall of us could could learn from?
And in particular,
after he mentioned his appreciationfor the Russian greats,
I found myself calling outanother wonderful book of the
last several years and that isa swim in a pond in the rain by
George Saunders.
In fact, I found myself callingthat book out a week later with
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David Eagleman as well.
I'm quite happy to say thatneither John nor David had
heard of the bookyet or read it,
and yet it is a NewYork Times bestseller.
Many of you will have readit or listened to it on tape.
But I'll tell you,
if you if you love literatureand you love stories and what
makes stories sing and you youthink that Tolstoy and Turgenev
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and Chekhov and all the restare great for very specific
reasons, but maybe onesthat you don't fully grok,
I completely recommend to youA Swim in a Pond in the Rain by
George Saunders.
I am loving reading thatbook aloud to my wife,
something that we've done fordecades since before we were married.
I read aloud during suppertime, she makes supper,
(10:25):
she loves to cook, Ilove to read aloud,
she loves to be read to.
How many books have Margaretand I enjoyed together and
that's the one we're having agreat time with this summer.
So there's another book plug,
A Swimming Upon in the Rain forfor those who love literature.
I also wanna mention that JohnMackey was generous with his
book tips and I took twoaway neither which I'd read before
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but both of which Ifelt inspired to read.
One was Bob Solomon's book,Ethics and Excellence.
And I I think I shouldread that at some point.
I love the title.
And then John also called KenWilbur's book, A Theory of
Everything.
And I remember John saying,it really is of everything.
So that just sounds interestingto me enough on its own.
(11:07):
So a couple more good booksto consider and, you know,
that's part of what makesbeing a reader so much fun.
You read and love abook and it leads you.
It might be the person who gaveyou the book or the book itself
might lead you to your nextread and you just go like that
dancing through life.
Alright. Let's move onnext to tweet number three.
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This one this one actuallyis something I reposted.
So this was not sent to me.
One of my favoriteauthors, Matt Ridley,
who's written a numberof books I really love,
most prominent of which I wouldsay is The Rational Optimist.
One of the things I love aboutTwitter and Twitter x is any
book that you'veread and enjoyed,
If that author is still living,
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they're probably outthere on Twitter x,
and you can follow them.
So a lot of us thinkthat, oh, yeah,
I'm not gonna really useTwitter because I don't wanna
tweet out a hundred and fortywords about what I'm eating
today or what I'mdoing next week.
Well, that is one waythat people use Twitter.
But for me, I more passivelyread it and follow people,
especially authors that Ireally admire because when they
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give you a book toread and you read it,
that's a gift thatwill live forever.
But even better than that iswhen you can find the author
and get regular communicationsfrom that author.
Things that they're seeing that arehappening right now in the world at large.
They may have written theirwonderful book ten years ago,
but what do theythink about yesterday?
And that's one of thethings I love about Twitter.
So this this postcame from Matt Ridley.
(12:31):
He's actually repostingsomething else from Daniel
Smith, but ultimately,
it's a Walter Lippmann paragraph
that was written innineteen thirty seven.
Walter Lippmann, a journalist,I'm just checking his dates.
He was born ineighteen eighty nine.
He died in nineteenseventy four.
On Wikipedia, it mentions his careerspanning sixty years and that he was
famous for being among thefirst to introduce the concept
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of the cold war.
It's also said of Lippmann thathe coined the term stereotype
in the modern psychologicalmeaning that we use today.
So a very influentialand deep thinker,
journalist Walter Littman.
And I love this quote fromnineteen thirty seven from his
work, The Good Society andhere it is channeled via Matt
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Ridley.
And I quote, the thinkeras he sits in his study,
drawing his plans forthe direction of society
will do no thinking if hisbreakfast has not been produced
for him by a social process which isbeyond his detailed comprehension.
He knows that his breakfastdepends upon workers on the
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coffee plantations of Brazil,the citrus groves of Florida,
the sugar fields of Cuba, thewheat farms of the Dakotas,
the dairies of New York, thathas been assembled by ships,
railroads, and trucks,
has been cooked withcoal from Pennsylvania
in utensils made of aluminum,china, steel, and glass.
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But the intricacyof one breakfast,
if every process thatbrought it to the table had
deliberately to be planned,
would be beyondthe understanding
of any mind.
Only because he can count uponan infinitely complex system
of working routines
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can a man eat his breakfastand then think about a new
social order, end quote.
Matt Ridley appends, thisis one thing, Matt says,
I would include inevery curriculum.
Well, whether or not youencounter that, quote, in
school at whatever level,
I'm glad that you encounteredit on this podcast this week
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because it is such a greatreminder of the unbelievable
interconnectedness
of our world economy.
Littmann was writing thatin nineteen thirty seven.
We are even by far moredependent on each other.
And I don't just meanyou and me dear listener,
I mean every country and everyother country in this world,
every person working a jobdependent upon in some ways
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collaborating with without even knowingit every other person in the world.
And that's why one of the bestantidotes to war is simply
trading with each other.
Even if you don't like theother guy across the border,
making a point of workingtogether and trading
benefits all of us andinterconnects us in a way that
(15:28):
is so beneficial forthe future of the world.
Walter Littman waswriting about, I think,
planned economies and what a badidea those were and indeed they were.
They are very bad ideas.
You really can't plan tomake that breakfast appear on that
gentleman's plate inthe way that it happens,
in the way that it happens foryou and for me every single
day, over the course of a year.
(15:49):
You can't plan for that, butyou can be enamored of it.
You're gonna be amazed thatwe have progressed conscious
capitalism to the point thatthat is not just possible,
but indeed something youand I take for granted
just about everyday of the week.
You can follow me atdavid g fool on Twitter x.
I don't tweet out that often.
I try not to overuse socialmedia, but when I find good
(16:12):
stuff, I like toforward it back out.
And thank you again toWalter Littman, Daniel Smith,
and Matt Ridley as it tookthree people for that line to
make it from there tome to you this week.
Alright. On to one moretweet. Tweet number four.
This from Chowzom atChowzom. Hi again, David.
Just listen to this week'sRule Breaker Investing podcast,
(16:33):
and this mind bending StarTrek, the next generation past,
present, futureimage came to mind.
Wonderful episode.
My wife and I bothenjoyed it so much.
Well, Xiao Zhan is referringto my conversation with
neuroscientist David Eaglemanand some of the futuristic
elements that weenjoyed together.
We discussed time travel a coupleof weeks ago among other things.
(16:56):
Xiao Zhan Yu referenced theStar Trek The Next Generation
episode and Xiao ZhanYu included an image.
Now, I'm pretty sure I wouldhave seen this Star Trek the Next
Generation episode,but a long time ago.
I know this is a classic.
It's an image of data.
Now data of course,
how how does Wikipediacharacterize data?
Here we go.
(17:16):
Quote, a self aware,sapient, sentient,
and anatomicallyfully functional male
android played, ofcourse, by Brent
Spiner and, in movies as well.
Data, one of the iconiccharacters from the Star Trek
Ove and you included an imageof Data, looking back at
(17:37):
himself, looking atanother image of himself.
And so I needed toto double check this.
This one's for Star Trek fans.
You may remember, I neededto be reminded Time's arrow part
one and part two.
So this was a two part story.
The crew of the USS Enterpriseinvestigates the discovery of
Data's severed head in a cave,which turns out to be over five
(17:58):
hundred years old.
The plot involves timetravel where Data ends up in
nineteenth century Earthleading to interactions between
different versions of himself.
The episodes explore theparadoxes and complexities of
time travel as Data's presentself encounters his own future
and past circumstances makingit a memorable and intricate
(18:20):
story in the Star Trek universe.
And just for the record,
season five of Star TrekThe Next Generation,
the finale was Time'sArrow part one and it all
concluded with theopening of season six,
which was Times Arrow part two.
So there we go.
An homage to Data, to StarTrek The Next Generation and to you,
(18:40):
Chao Zhan and miss Chao Zhan,
for taking the time to remindme remind all of us of,
a great couple of episodes.
And, yes, I'm definitely a Trekkiein a long running Star Trek series.
You know, I do wanna reference againsome of the questions I got to ask
David Eagleman.
For those of you who may nothave gotten to listen to my
conversation two weeks ago,
I entice you with what I gotto ask him in our buy, sell,
(19:04):
or hold segment.
Now long time listeners will knowthat I I did it once again with them.
I love with my intervieweesto play The Motley Fool's long
time buy, sell, or hold gamewhere I asked not about stocks,
but things if they were stocks,
would would my intervieweebe buying, selling,
or holding that thing?
Buying meaning he orshe agrees with it.
(19:25):
Selling probably disagrees with itor holding has further thoughts.
So here were the fivetopics that I asked.
I'm not gonna give his answers.
You'll have to listento that podcast.
But my first one was buy,sell, or hold time travel.
That humans will ever inany way somehow unlock that.
The second was theidea that neuroscience will eventually
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allow us to completely map outand hack the brain which would
enable us to alter memories andemotions or personality traits at will.
That was number two.
Number three, the ultimatedisruptive innovation for the
transportation andtravel industry,
teleportation, buy, sell,
or hold that it will bedeveloped in the next two
hundred fifty years.
(20:07):
A few more, the belief thatdreams are a window into
alternate realities or paralleluniverses buy, sell, or hold,
and that there are peopleliving on earth today who will
live more than two hundredyears buy, sell, or hold.
The last one, the conceptof digital immortality
uploading human consciousness to acomputer or the cloud to
(20:28):
live on after physicaldeath buy, sell, or hold.
And what I really appreciateis that David Eagleman took on
each of those directly andgave a pretty convincing
straightforward answerto each of them.
So, again, part of what I like todo on mailbags is entice you to go
back and listen to anepisode if you missed it.
And, Chao Zhan, you certainly got it and youreacted with your time travel data image.
(20:52):
But for anybody whomay have missed it,
that was maybe maybemy favorite buy seller
hold ever just earlier thismonth with an author in August.
So there you have it, fourhot takes from Twitter x.
Understandably, by the way,
there are no mailbag items ortweets about my deep dive into
games with CT Nguyen earlierthis week because we recorded
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this episode, the one you'relistening to right now,
earlier this week before weeven published out that podcast
again because of thecontingencies of a cancellation
and rescheduling.
Alright. I have a rulebreaker mailbag item.
It's item number one.
That's what we'redoing this week,
and it's from longtime fool Adam Nelson.
(21:34):
Adam wrote me on Augustnineteenth, two weeks ago.
I am so wildly flabbergasted
to hear about an author speakabout A Course in Miracles
on any Motley Foolpodcast positively,
let me clarify that.
My gratitude that John Mackeywas so candid about this and
(21:56):
that it was so profound to him,
it's just still seemingly difficultto comprehend, writes Adam.
But, hey, this is what synchronicevents are supposed to look like,
I guess.
Anyway, I feltcompelled to share,
and this one episode has reallycemented me in coming back to
these episodes just as much asI love Motley Fool Money and
(22:17):
Roundtable. Thankyou, Adam Nelson.
Well, let me say back, firstof all, Adam, you were so welcome.
And second, I'm not familiarwith A Course in Miracles,
that material myself,
but I love how John put thatout there along with two book
recommendations, whichI mentioned earlier,
Ethics and Excellence byBob Solomon and A Theory of
Everything by Ken Wilber.
(22:38):
You know, I view my role on thispodcast to put my fellow fools in
touch with the bestideas, the best people,
the best actions thatI've come across.
Not every author in August,
not every investment idea of my ownis gonna be right for every listener.
I've always counted on myfellow fools to pick out on
their own and choosewhat for you is the best,
(23:01):
most applicable rulebreaker isms for you to
follow or at least to try out.
In fact, testing and learning issomething I probably don't talk
about enough, but Ihighly recommend it.
If you come across a new ideaor an old idea that's new to
you or an old book that'snew to you, try it on.
Try it on for size.
Make an extra buyin your portfolio,
(23:23):
or try that technique out atwork or wake up with it at
home next weekendand give it a try.
You know, most of the ideas I'vechosen to follow over the course of my
life, I've done so by testingit out first and seeing how
it felt and whether it worked.
And I feel like I hityou up, dear listener,
with literally thousands ofthoughts and ideas from this
(23:46):
podcast just in any given year.
And we're now intoour tenth year.
I love exploring new terrain.
The greater theisland of knowledge,
the longer thecoastline of mystery.
One of my favoritelines attributed to Archbishop
William Temple, formerArchbishop of Canterbury.
(24:06):
The greater theisland of knowledge,
the longer thecoastline of mystery.
And so in many ways,Rule Breaker Investing
is a variety show fromone week to the next.
We do some recurring thingsbecause I love traditions,
so thank you again,authors in August.
And a lot of what recurs isthe latest update or episode in one
(24:30):
of our long standing series.
I can rattle some of themoff alphabetically right now,
blast from the past, campfirestories, essays from yesterday,
games, games, games, gottaknow the lingo, great quotes.
I fought the law and the lawwon, the market cap game show,
mental tips, tricks, and lifehacks, and the list goes on.
In fact, none of these serieswas planned or in place when
(24:53):
Rule Breaker Investing launchedas a podcast in July of two
thousand fifteen.
I had never heard of or thoughtof a market cap game show.
Every one of mydozens of recurring episodic series
simply came about asa kernel of an idea.
Sometimes, one suggested byone of you that we tried, it
(25:14):
felt good, itturned into a thing.
We reified it with a name and apurpose, and we made it recur.
Wicked is among myfavorite musicals.
I know there are some mega fanslistening to me right now and
others who've never even heardof this Broadway smash hit,
which retells the storyof the Wizard of Oz,
but with a completely differenttake on the so called Wicked
(25:37):
Witch of the West.
Anyway, here at the end ofthis podcast and of this month, and,
yes, during a holidayweekend as well,
I wanna celebrate one ofWicked's best songs because it
kinda summarizes what I've just saidand how I think about this
podcast and andinvesting in business.
It's called DancingThrough Life.
(25:58):
And indeed, there's some positiveintelligence laced into this.
Just some of its lyrics,dancing through life,
mindless and careless,make sure you're aware less
trouble is rife.
Woes are fleeting,blows are glancing
when you're dancingthrough life.
(26:20):
Fool
on.
As always, people on this program may haveinterest in the stocks they talk about,
and The Motley Fool may have formalrecommendations for or against.
So don't buy or sell stocksbased solely on what you hear.
Learn more about Rule BreakerInvesting at r b I dot fool dot com.
Shortest mailbag ever? Possibly.
It's what happens when yourecord a month end mailbag
before releasing someof the month's podcasts.
But whether we run long orshort or somewhere in between
is often a functionof you, yes, you,
and what you send me, orin the case of this month,
what little time Igave you to send me.
(00:21):
Nevertheless, good things come insmall packages only on this week's
Rule Breaker Investing.
It's the Rule Breaker Investingpodcast with Motley Fool
cofounder David Gardner.
And welcome back toRule Breaker Investing.
Thanks for making a little bitof time for us on your weekend.
(00:42):
It's very rare for me to recorda mailbag as a weekend extra,
but that's exactly what itmade sense to do this month,
especially becauseearlier in the month,
I got a cancellationfrom one of our authors,
and I managed to fit himin earlier this week.
C t Nguyen graciously fit usin and joined us this week,
and I decided, you know,
he needs to be anauthor in August,
(01:03):
not an author inAugust and September.
And so we used our normal monthend mailbag slot for CT Nguyen,
and I decided let's just parkthis mailbag on the weekend.
If you're in the United States ofAmerica, you are, I hope, on holiday.
It is Labor Day weekend.
Happy Labor Day weekend toall my fellow Americans.
But about a third of uslistening to me are from
(01:23):
somewhere else around the world.
I hope you'reenjoying your weekend.
And so just to review wherethis podcast went over the
previous four weeks,we started with Of
Investing and the Fools I Sing.
That's how I chose to kickoff authors in August.
Having had a cancellation,I always had a plan b,
and that was simply to bring backthe various poetry, the poems,
(01:47):
taking many different formsover many different years that
have popped up on this podcast.
I'd saved them,
and I thought that would bea fun podcast to do one day.
And it made a lot of sense tokick off authors in August with
my many fellow full authors.
You, many of you thank you fortaking the time over the years
to send in some poetry.
So we kicked off with ofinvesting in the fools I sing.
(02:08):
And then we got to ourthree authors this month.
And the first was Whole Foodsfounder John Mackey and his
book, The Whole Story.
We then went to a completelydifferent kind of a book.
Let's call it experimentalfiction from Stanford
neuroscientist DavidEagleman and his book, Some.
Of course, we talked a lot moreabout a lot of other things besides
just his book, which was alsotrue of this week's podcast,
(02:31):
Games with CT Nguyen.
His book, Games Agency is Art,
was a wonderful platform tolaunch from and just to discuss
games and how they come intoour lives and how they help
enrich our lives and oftenimprove our perspective around
ourselves and theworld at large.
Games having been played forthousands and thousands of
(02:51):
years by our species.
So thank you again to all threeof my authors, John Mackey,
David Eagleman, and CT Nguyen.
My authors in August herein twenty twenty four.
Well, I usually kick off mailbagswith hot takes from Twitter x,
which is exactly whatI'm doing this weekend,
except this is gonna be themajority of the mailbag.
I'm really gonna focus on fourtweets that came in and make
(03:13):
that the bulk of thisweekend's mailbag.
Let's go to the first one.
This one came in from Eugene Ngat Eugene Ng underscore v cap.
Eugene, you wrote,
thank you to David Gardnerat David g Fool for resharing
my prior Rule Breaker Investing mailbagpoem from November twenty twenty.
(03:33):
It was shared on the recentRule Breaker Investing podcast,
the August eighth episode ofinvesting in the fools I sing
with other fools,including David.
It is truly such an honorto be sharing the stage.
Let us all incorporate, Eugene,
you write some version of vision
in our investing portfolios.
And thank you again to EugeneNg who calls out at Amit
(03:56):
Samani.
Amit, thank you for pointing outthat podcast to Eugene so you can
come back and listen to it.
Investing in our vision, a bigtheme for him and his work and
certainly for me andmy work and what we do.
I think for many of uslistening to me as we invest,
we invest with vision.
In fact, principle number oneof the rule breaker portfolio.
(04:18):
I have six portfolio principles and thefirst of them is the most important.
And it is simplymake your portfolio
reflect your bestvision for our future.
I truly believe you,dear listener, all of us
are going tomaximize our returns.
And I mean, not just financialreturns, but, yes, I mean, your
(04:41):
happiness return,your fulfillment,
your enjoyment in investing.
You're gonna max that out ifyou truly make your portfolio
reflect your bestvision for our future.
And I don't say for yourfuture or the future.
I remind you that you arepart of all of our future.
And every little thing thatwe do when we spend money or
(05:03):
invest money is ablow for freedom.
It is, I guess, more aptly,it is helping shape the
future that all ofus will live into.
When you spend your dollars atthat store, not that other one,
you're helpingthat store benefit.
When you're deciding to buythat stock, not this one,
(05:23):
you're pumping up their balancesheet and prospects a little
bit more, not that other one.
Every one of us,
there is a one to onerelationship between the
dollars that we spend and thedollars that we invest and the
world that we are living into.
So make your portfolio
reflect your bestvision for our future.
You know, two other things I wannamention very briefly about portfolios.
(05:46):
The first is that I thinkmost of us should have a stock
portfolio of atleast twenty stocks.
That's because another ofmy rule breaker principles,
this one is one of myrule breaker habits is never to
start a new position atgreater than five percent of
your overall portfolio.
So I often hear of people who decideto go all in or go big with one stock.
(06:09):
They might have aten stock portfolio,
but they've got they've got onenew idea and they put thirty
percent of their moneyinto that one stock.
I think that's a mistake.It might work out for you.
It's not a greathabit to get into.
More often than not,
you and I are gonna do muchbetter if we don't allow any
new position to start atmore than one twentieth,
five percent of ouroverall portfolio.
(06:31):
And if you cue to thisapproach to investing, this rule breaker
approach, thatmeans by definition,
as you start your portfolio,
you should have twentyplus stocks in place.
Now not everybody feelslike they have the money
in place or necessarily a brokeragefirm that would allow them.
We all have different brokersthat would allow them to buy
(06:51):
fractional shares which isoften what allows you to build
up small positionsin bigger companies.
So not everybody cannecessarily start right there
with twenty stocks,
but I hope you get the overallprinciple which is you should
be making your portfolioreflect your best vision for
our future and you should startsmall with each of your positions.
Let them grow big on their own.
(07:12):
The winners usually do,
and that's the real way tosucceed in rule breaker investing.
And the final thing I wannasay before we move on to tweet
number two is just you shouldbe able to look up and down
your brokerage statement or if you'vegot your portfolio on your phone,
you should be able to look up and downthat portfolio and feel confident.
Feel like you know thesecompanies, you love these
(07:34):
companies, you're lookingforward to seeing how they do,
you're looking forward tolearning more about them.
You should not feel disconnected
from any of the companiesthat you're invested in.
Now, I have some companies inmy portfolio that are dogs and
I've just let them wag theirtails and bark all the way down
to the bottom of myportfolio standings.
They're my bad picks.
They're the worst investments I'vemade and often I just hold on to them.
(07:58):
And the good news is by neveradding to them, which I never do,
they become increasinglyirrelevant to the overall
performance of my portfolio.
So I have to admit even whenI look at my own portfolio,
I can't always say I I can lookconfidently up and down that
portfolio, but atleast I look knowingly.
I understand why each ofthose things is there.
(08:18):
And most of all,
you should feel some form ofmagnetic attraction to the
companies in your portfolio,
presumably because you love themin the first place and
what they do in this world.
Probably for you as aconsumer, you appreciate them,
but you also appreciate whatthey're doing in your portfolio
and you feel motivated andinterested to follow them as
they grow into the future.
(08:38):
Anyway, there's a little bitmore about vision and Eugene,
thank you for your tweet.
Let's move on totweet number two.
This one of the John Mackeyappearance earlier this month
on the podcast, jasminegirl at john wart.
Lisa, you wrote, I reallyenjoyed listening to this one.
Agree with you too that theRussian writers like Tolstoy
and Dostoevsky are great.
(08:59):
I also like Turgenev a lot.
And that is fromlong time fool Lisa.
And Lisa, thank you for that.
You know, it's funny youmentioned the Russian writers.
John Mackey called them outwhen I asked him what's on his
reading list, what bookshas he really appreciated.
Again, he is one of the mostwidely read people I know,
now seventy one years young.
(09:21):
And so I love to askpeople like that.
What are some other great books thatall of us could could learn from?
And in particular,
after he mentioned his appreciationfor the Russian greats,
I found myself calling outanother wonderful book of the
last several years and that isa swim in a pond in the rain by
George Saunders.
In fact, I found myself callingthat book out a week later with
(09:44):
David Eagleman as well.
I'm quite happy to say thatneither John nor David had
heard of the bookyet or read it,
and yet it is a NewYork Times bestseller.
Many of you will have readit or listened to it on tape.
But I'll tell you,
if you if you love literatureand you love stories and what
makes stories sing and you youthink that Tolstoy and Turgenev
(10:04):
and Chekhov and all the restare great for very specific
reasons, but maybe onesthat you don't fully grok,
I completely recommend to youA Swim in a Pond in the Rain by
George Saunders.
I am loving reading thatbook aloud to my wife,
something that we've done fordecades since before we were married.
I read aloud during suppertime, she makes supper,
(10:25):
she loves to cook, Ilove to read aloud,
she loves to be read to.
How many books have Margaretand I enjoyed together and
that's the one we're having agreat time with this summer.
So there's another book plug,
A Swimming Upon in the Rain forfor those who love literature.
I also wanna mention that JohnMackey was generous with his
book tips and I took twoaway neither which I'd read before
(10:45):
but both of which Ifelt inspired to read.
One was Bob Solomon's book,Ethics and Excellence.
And I I think I shouldread that at some point.
I love the title.
And then John also called KenWilbur's book, A Theory of
Everything.
And I remember John saying,it really is of everything.
So that just sounds interestingto me enough on its own.
(11:07):
So a couple more good booksto consider and, you know,
that's part of what makesbeing a reader so much fun.
You read and love abook and it leads you.
It might be the person who gaveyou the book or the book itself
might lead you to your nextread and you just go like that
dancing through life.
Alright. Let's move onnext to tweet number three.
(11:27):
This one this one actuallyis something I reposted.
So this was not sent to me.
One of my favoriteauthors, Matt Ridley,
who's written a numberof books I really love,
most prominent of which I wouldsay is The Rational Optimist.
One of the things I love aboutTwitter and Twitter x is any
book that you'veread and enjoyed,
If that author is still living,
(11:48):
they're probably outthere on Twitter x,
and you can follow them.
So a lot of us thinkthat, oh, yeah,
I'm not gonna really useTwitter because I don't wanna
tweet out a hundred and fortywords about what I'm eating
today or what I'mdoing next week.
Well, that is one waythat people use Twitter.
But for me, I more passivelyread it and follow people,
especially authors that Ireally admire because when they
(12:10):
give you a book toread and you read it,
that's a gift thatwill live forever.
But even better than that iswhen you can find the author
and get regular communicationsfrom that author.
Things that they're seeing that arehappening right now in the world at large.
They may have written theirwonderful book ten years ago,
but what do theythink about yesterday?
And that's one of thethings I love about Twitter.
So this this postcame from Matt Ridley.
(12:31):
He's actually repostingsomething else from Daniel
Smith, but ultimately,
it's a Walter Lippmann paragraph
that was written innineteen thirty seven.
Walter Lippmann, a journalist,I'm just checking his dates.
He was born ineighteen eighty nine.
He died in nineteenseventy four.
On Wikipedia, it mentions his careerspanning sixty years and that he was
famous for being among thefirst to introduce the concept
(12:54):
of the cold war.
It's also said of Lippmann thathe coined the term stereotype
in the modern psychologicalmeaning that we use today.
So a very influentialand deep thinker,
journalist Walter Littman.
And I love this quote fromnineteen thirty seven from his
work, The Good Society andhere it is channeled via Matt
(13:16):
Ridley.
And I quote, the thinkeras he sits in his study,
drawing his plans forthe direction of society
will do no thinking if hisbreakfast has not been produced
for him by a social process which isbeyond his detailed comprehension.
He knows that his breakfastdepends upon workers on the
(13:38):
coffee plantations of Brazil,the citrus groves of Florida,
the sugar fields of Cuba, thewheat farms of the Dakotas,
the dairies of New York, thathas been assembled by ships,
railroads, and trucks,
has been cooked withcoal from Pennsylvania
in utensils made of aluminum,china, steel, and glass.
(14:01):
But the intricacyof one breakfast,
if every process thatbrought it to the table had
deliberately to be planned,
would be beyondthe understanding
of any mind.
Only because he can count uponan infinitely complex system
of working routines
(14:22):
can a man eat his breakfastand then think about a new
social order, end quote.
Matt Ridley appends, thisis one thing, Matt says,
I would include inevery curriculum.
Well, whether or not youencounter that, quote, in
school at whatever level,
I'm glad that you encounteredit on this podcast this week
(14:45):
because it is such a greatreminder of the unbelievable
interconnectedness
of our world economy.
Littmann was writing thatin nineteen thirty seven.
We are even by far moredependent on each other.
And I don't just meanyou and me dear listener,
I mean every country and everyother country in this world,
every person working a jobdependent upon in some ways
(15:07):
collaborating with without even knowingit every other person in the world.
And that's why one of the bestantidotes to war is simply
trading with each other.
Even if you don't like theother guy across the border,
making a point of workingtogether and trading
benefits all of us andinterconnects us in a way that
(15:28):
is so beneficial forthe future of the world.
Walter Littman waswriting about, I think,
planned economies and what a badidea those were and indeed they were.
They are very bad ideas.
You really can't plan tomake that breakfast appear on that
gentleman's plate inthe way that it happens,
in the way that it happens foryou and for me every single
day, over the course of a year.
(15:49):
You can't plan for that, butyou can be enamored of it.
You're gonna be amazed thatwe have progressed conscious
capitalism to the point thatthat is not just possible,
but indeed something youand I take for granted
just about everyday of the week.
You can follow me atdavid g fool on Twitter x.
I don't tweet out that often.
I try not to overuse socialmedia, but when I find good
(16:12):
stuff, I like toforward it back out.
And thank you again toWalter Littman, Daniel Smith,
and Matt Ridley as it tookthree people for that line to
make it from there tome to you this week.
Alright. On to one moretweet. Tweet number four.
This from Chowzom atChowzom. Hi again, David.
Just listen to this week'sRule Breaker Investing podcast,
(16:33):
and this mind bending StarTrek, the next generation past,
present, futureimage came to mind.
Wonderful episode.
My wife and I bothenjoyed it so much.
Well, Xiao Zhan is referringto my conversation with
neuroscientist David Eaglemanand some of the futuristic
elements that weenjoyed together.
We discussed time travel a coupleof weeks ago among other things.
(16:56):
Xiao Zhan Yu referenced theStar Trek The Next Generation
episode and Xiao ZhanYu included an image.
Now, I'm pretty sure I wouldhave seen this Star Trek the Next
Generation episode,but a long time ago.
I know this is a classic.
It's an image of data.
Now data of course,
how how does Wikipediacharacterize data?
Here we go.
(17:16):
Quote, a self aware,sapient, sentient,
and anatomicallyfully functional male
android played, ofcourse, by Brent
Spiner and, in movies as well.
Data, one of the iconiccharacters from the Star Trek
Ove and you included an imageof Data, looking back at
(17:37):
himself, looking atanother image of himself.
And so I needed toto double check this.
This one's for Star Trek fans.
You may remember, I neededto be reminded Time's arrow part
one and part two.
So this was a two part story.
The crew of the USS Enterpriseinvestigates the discovery of
Data's severed head in a cave,which turns out to be over five
(17:58):
hundred years old.
The plot involves timetravel where Data ends up in
nineteenth century Earthleading to interactions between
different versions of himself.
The episodes explore theparadoxes and complexities of
time travel as Data's presentself encounters his own future
and past circumstances makingit a memorable and intricate
(18:20):
story in the Star Trek universe.
And just for the record,
season five of Star TrekThe Next Generation,
the finale was Time'sArrow part one and it all
concluded with theopening of season six,
which was Times Arrow part two.
So there we go.
An homage to Data, to StarTrek The Next Generation and to you,
(18:40):
Chao Zhan and miss Chao Zhan,
for taking the time to remindme remind all of us of,
a great couple of episodes.
And, yes, I'm definitely a Trekkiein a long running Star Trek series.
You know, I do wanna reference againsome of the questions I got to ask
David Eagleman.
For those of you who may nothave gotten to listen to my
conversation two weeks ago,
I entice you with what I gotto ask him in our buy, sell,
(19:04):
or hold segment.
Now long time listeners will knowthat I I did it once again with them.
I love with my intervieweesto play The Motley Fool's long
time buy, sell, or hold gamewhere I asked not about stocks,
but things if they were stocks,
would would my intervieweebe buying, selling,
or holding that thing?
Buying meaning he orshe agrees with it.
(19:25):
Selling probably disagrees with itor holding has further thoughts.
So here were the fivetopics that I asked.
I'm not gonna give his answers.
You'll have to listento that podcast.
But my first one was buy,sell, or hold time travel.
That humans will ever inany way somehow unlock that.
The second was theidea that neuroscience will eventually
(19:46):
allow us to completely map outand hack the brain which would
enable us to alter memories andemotions or personality traits at will.
That was number two.
Number three, the ultimatedisruptive innovation for the
transportation andtravel industry,
teleportation, buy, sell,
or hold that it will bedeveloped in the next two
hundred fifty years.
(20:07):
A few more, the belief thatdreams are a window into
alternate realities or paralleluniverses buy, sell, or hold,
and that there are peopleliving on earth today who will
live more than two hundredyears buy, sell, or hold.
The last one, the conceptof digital immortality
uploading human consciousness to acomputer or the cloud to
(20:28):
live on after physicaldeath buy, sell, or hold.
And what I really appreciateis that David Eagleman took on
each of those directly andgave a pretty convincing
straightforward answerto each of them.
So, again, part of what I like todo on mailbags is entice you to go
back and listen to anepisode if you missed it.
And, Chao Zhan, you certainly got it and youreacted with your time travel data image.
(20:52):
But for anybody whomay have missed it,
that was maybe maybemy favorite buy seller
hold ever just earlier thismonth with an author in August.
So there you have it, fourhot takes from Twitter x.
Understandably, by the way,
there are no mailbag items ortweets about my deep dive into
games with CT Nguyen earlierthis week because we recorded
(21:14):
this episode, the one you'relistening to right now,
earlier this week before weeven published out that podcast
again because of thecontingencies of a cancellation
and rescheduling.
Alright. I have a rulebreaker mailbag item.
It's item number one.
That's what we'redoing this week,
and it's from longtime fool Adam Nelson.
(21:34):
Adam wrote me on Augustnineteenth, two weeks ago.
I am so wildly flabbergasted
to hear about an author speakabout A Course in Miracles
on any Motley Foolpodcast positively,
let me clarify that.
My gratitude that John Mackeywas so candid about this and
(21:56):
that it was so profound to him,
it's just still seemingly difficultto comprehend, writes Adam.
But, hey, this is what synchronicevents are supposed to look like,
I guess.
Anyway, I feltcompelled to share,
and this one episode has reallycemented me in coming back to
these episodes just as much asI love Motley Fool Money and
(22:17):
Roundtable. Thankyou, Adam Nelson.
Well, let me say back, firstof all, Adam, you were so welcome.
And second, I'm not familiarwith A Course in Miracles,
that material myself,
but I love how John put thatout there along with two book
recommendations, whichI mentioned earlier,
Ethics and Excellence byBob Solomon and A Theory of
Everything by Ken Wilber.
(22:38):
You know, I view my role on thispodcast to put my fellow fools in
touch with the bestideas, the best people,
the best actions thatI've come across.
Not every author in August,
not every investment idea of my ownis gonna be right for every listener.
I've always counted on myfellow fools to pick out on
their own and choosewhat for you is the best,
(23:01):
most applicable rulebreaker isms for you to
follow or at least to try out.
In fact, testing and learning issomething I probably don't talk
about enough, but Ihighly recommend it.
If you come across a new ideaor an old idea that's new to
you or an old book that'snew to you, try it on.
Try it on for size.
Make an extra buyin your portfolio,
(23:23):
or try that technique out atwork or wake up with it at
home next weekendand give it a try.
You know, most of the ideas I'vechosen to follow over the course of my
life, I've done so by testingit out first and seeing how
it felt and whether it worked.
And I feel like I hityou up, dear listener,
with literally thousands ofthoughts and ideas from this
(23:46):
podcast just in any given year.
And we're now intoour tenth year.
I love exploring new terrain.
The greater theisland of knowledge,
the longer thecoastline of mystery.
One of my favoritelines attributed to Archbishop
William Temple, formerArchbishop of Canterbury.
(24:06):
The greater theisland of knowledge,
the longer thecoastline of mystery.
And so in many ways,Rule Breaker Investing
is a variety show fromone week to the next.
We do some recurring thingsbecause I love traditions,
so thank you again,authors in August.
And a lot of what recurs isthe latest update or episode in one
(24:30):
of our long standing series.
I can rattle some of themoff alphabetically right now,
blast from the past, campfirestories, essays from yesterday,
games, games, games, gottaknow the lingo, great quotes.
I fought the law and the lawwon, the market cap game show,
mental tips, tricks, and lifehacks, and the list goes on.
In fact, none of these serieswas planned or in place when
(24:53):
Rule Breaker Investing launchedas a podcast in July of two
thousand fifteen.
I had never heard of or thoughtof a market cap game show.
Every one of mydozens of recurring episodic series
simply came about asa kernel of an idea.
Sometimes, one suggested byone of you that we tried, it
(25:14):
felt good, itturned into a thing.
We reified it with a name and apurpose, and we made it recur.
Wicked is among myfavorite musicals.
I know there are some mega fanslistening to me right now and
others who've never even heardof this Broadway smash hit,
which retells the storyof the Wizard of Oz,
but with a completely differenttake on the so called Wicked
(25:37):
Witch of the West.
Anyway, here at the end ofthis podcast and of this month, and,
yes, during a holidayweekend as well,
I wanna celebrate one ofWicked's best songs because it
kinda summarizes what I've just saidand how I think about this
podcast and andinvesting in business.
It's called DancingThrough Life.
(25:58):
And indeed, there's some positiveintelligence laced into this.
Just some of its lyrics,dancing through life,
mindless and careless,make sure you're aware less
trouble is rife.
Woes are fleeting,blows are glancing
when you're dancingthrough life.
(26:20):
Fool
on.
As always, people on this program may haveinterest in the stocks they talk about,
and The Motley Fool may have formalrecommendations for or against.
So don't buy or sell stocksbased solely on what you hear.
Learn more about Rule BreakerInvesting at r b I dot fool dot com.
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