Joseph's "Just My Thoughts"

Volatility: Expectation and despair arise from our reactions to change; they stem from the common root. Some argue that despair comes from failed expectations, or that we expect because we despair; however, even fulfillment often disappoints. Both are responses to volatility—how we perceive shifts in circumstances. A positive (+) change is expectation; a negative (-) one is despair. Since volatility dominates our world and nothing is static, the magnitude of change matters more than permanence. Understanding volatility is crucial for navigating life successfully. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

Volatility and Investment: The phenomenon where an asset’s price fluctuates over time is called volatility. Owning and reselling this volatile asset is known as an investment. The concept of buying and reselling an asset often causes us to overlook the fact that this process involves a trade-off between low-volatility and high-volatility assets. Cash is less volatile than stocks, and stocks are relatively more volatile. In other words, investing involves exchanging low-volatility assets for high-volatility assets and then switching back to low-volatility assets. Meanwhile, surplus profit is generated by the price differences caused by volatility. What would happen if we traded only highly volatile assets with each other? We would probably hesitate to exchange assets and might refrain from investing. In investing, there must be both low-volatility and high-volatility assets. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

Pantone: Color cannot be monopolized. However, Pantone earns money with this color. How could Pantone monopolize the color industry? The answer lies in a subtle difference: Pantone does not monopolize the color itself; it monopolizes its description. To reproduce a specific color, there must be criteria (classification and combination data) and a description. This is where Pantone’s unique approach comes in. Pantone developed the “Pantone Matching System (PMS, criteria)” and monopolized the description of how printing inks should be formulated to reproduce that color. The resolution was so systematic that it eventually became a global standard. As a result, if you cannot monopolize the essence, it is better to monopolize the additive factor. In this way, business, legally, is the act of strengthening monopoly power. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

Nominal Value is the price assigned to an item, such as a book priced at $15.50. Real Value is the adjusted price, considering factors like inflation and depreciation, so the used price of the book reflects this Real Value. Intrinsic Value refers to the worth of the book’s content, which can far exceed its Nominal or Real Value depending on the reader’s ability to understand and apply it. Merchants profit from the gap between Nominal and Real Values, while wise individuals gain by recognizing and utilizing Intrinsic Value. Recognizing and leveraging these values is essential for building wealth. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

Mirroring and Maturation: Mirroring is a psychological activity where you observe yourself as if seeing your reflection, allowing you to gain self-awareness separate from your current reality. By creating this mental ‘mirror,’ you can see yourself as others might, which is a form of self-objectification. Adequate mirroring facilitates more accurate reflection on and correction of mistakes, ultimately leading to improved actions and decisions. Over time, this process helps you become more mature. Practicing self-objectification can also make others feel comfortable with you and may increase their reliance on you. This process is also known as self-reflection. Everyone has a mental mirror, but many neglect to keep it clear through regular self-examination. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

Occupy and Move: These concepts are the key to wealth. Here, ‘occupy’ means owning goods, and ‘move’ refers to transferring ownership through exchange. Wealth is built by accumulating possessions. For accumulation to occur, a good must first be owned by someone else and then transferred. The transfer of ownership is what I call the movement of goods. To transfer, a payment is made to the current owner, usually in currency. Currency simplifies exchanges, as it is easier to move and issue than physical goods. Today, currency moves electronically, accelerating transactions. Had goods always been exchanged directly for other goods, exchanges and wealth accumulation would progress more slowly and inefficiently. The economic system now manages prices by adjusting the money supply, controlling the value of goods relative to currency, since money is easier to manage than goods. Business and investment outcomes depend on whether wealth is stored in money or in goods. If you emphasize goods, pat...

Connectivity and Opportunity: Opportunities come when you uncover connections that others haven’t seen. Humans create events, which then feed back into the world and cause change. By interpreting and discovering interconnected elements more quickly or differently than others, we open doors to progress. For example, people realized that a multiplex cinema’s competitor was a theme park, not just another cinema—showing how movie theaters and outdoor theme parks were connected. Another case is Lego: while sales were declining, they initially blamed computer games. However, they later discovered the real issue was a shift in children’s play culture. These examples illustrate how recognizing invisible connections boosts your chances of staying competitive. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

The Trap of Compound Interest: Many view compounding as beneficial because interest earned is reinvested to increase profit. However, for those who are in debt, compound interest can increase the burden, leading to even greater losses. This effect disproportionately harms poor people, who often pay higher costs and face greater opportunity costs than the wealthy. While compounding enhances gains for those profiting, it intensifies harm for those losing money. This structure benefits the powerful, as the rules are designed by those in power. As a result, the desire for power can drive people toward questionable actions. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

Storytelling: Life revolves around storytelling. Both business and investment depend on it. Every story has a context that should be clear through common sense and logic. Stock prices mirror the story behind trading volume. If you learn to understand these stories, it gives you a benefit in stock trading. The restaurant industry is about storytelling related to service, while sales on Internet shopping sites tell a story about product distribution. Good storytelling can grab people’s attention, entice them, and evoke their emotions. Novels and dramas offer many valuable lessons on how to build wealth, as storytelling is a powerful way to connect with the world. Humans learn and understand through storytelling. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

Value of Quantity: A phenomenon where the quality of a system changes once the amount of a single element surpasses a certain threshold. For example, if a restaurant that can normally serve up to 50 guests per day consistently has 100 customers daily, the capacity limit expands, and the quality of service improves. Of course, if they respond poorly, the service quality can decrease, but the outcome depends on the restaurant’s internal capabilities. Success or failure hinges on how we manage the excess amount beyond our capacity. Stock prices also depend on trading volume. Stocks tend to change their behavior only when a specific trading volume is reached. The good news is that stock prices can spike abruptly, but if the volume isn’t high enough, they can quickly fall. A person who reads 100 books has a different literacy level than someone who has read 10,000. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

Profits and Rewards: While profit and reward may seem similar at first glance, they are distinct concepts. Profit is more practical than reward and has a genetic basis. Reward, in contrast, offers comprehensive benefits and is aligned with life. For example, if a company promises to give stock options to its employees, that is a reward; however, if the stock option is officially recorded by a resolution of the shareholders’ general meeting, that is a profit. Profit reflects the realization of rewards. Our genes seek profit more than rewards. Nevertheless, rewards also help sustain life. An example illustrating the difference between profit and reward is seen in loss. Gambling and drugs may offer us emotional rewards, but they also show how we can experience diminishing returns by wasting our resources. Profits and rewards are clearly different. Many people confuse the two, which can harm relationships. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

Chain Reactions and Links: A phenomenon where one event continuously influences subsequent events, connected by a common link. For example, when the central bank raises the base rate, interest rates at private banks increase, which raises the cost of loans for citizens and leads to higher prices. Interest from central banks, interest from private banks, interest on loans from citizens, and increased production costs are all interconnected, so a change in one part affects the entire system. This is a chain reaction. A decline in one area can cause missed revenue opportunities because everything is connected. The link creates this connection. In the example above, the link is the act of borrowing money, which is essentially a loan. To stop the chain reaction, you must identify and break the link in the chain. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

When you go to the supermarket to buy vegetables, the prices are displayed. The final indicator of all the factors involved in growing the vegetable is its price. That price acts as a signifier. However, the price often changes. What causes the signifier to change? The reason could be the farmer, the climate, the distributor’s situation, or one of these factors might contribute. However, in today’s complex systems, another variable unrelated to vegetable cultivation could also affect the price, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The result of the interaction of these variables is the price. A change in the previous price points leads to a singularity in the ecosystem. Understanding what that singularity is and why it occurs can help us see the world differently. Depending on the analysis, we either take profits or identify the cause of losses. We should focus on singularities that alter the state of equilibrium. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

Aristotle believed that happiness was the ultimate goal of human life. We often comfort ourselves by saying that wealth does not guarantee happiness, especially when money is tight. But is that really true? How much wealth do we actually need to feel happy? Psychologist Professor Eun-guk Seo suggests that Aristotle’s view is just a personal perspective—not a scientifically proven fact. He explains that, in nature, survival is the primary goal, and happiness is more of a tool for survival than an end in itself. So why do we work hard and strive to earn money, even in tough times? While money may not guarantee happiness, it can help us live more comfortably. In the end, economic activity is about survival—if we can’t meet our basic needs, it’s hard to enjoy happiness or convenience. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

In our society, there are accepted ways to communicate messages. Messages that don’t follow this format are often rejected or ignored by the public. If CEOs or politicians don’t understand this communication format and fail to deliver their messages effectively, people won’t understand them, which can harm the relationship. Meetings like those of accounting, the board of directors, and general shareholders meetings are examples of these communication formats. We need to learn the correct format first so we can express ourselves clearly. You could attend a swimming competition in a suit, but since it would seem funny, a leader must understand this formality well to be effective. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

What in this world isn’t influenced by politics? Politics shapes art and media alike. It involves governing the world and making decisions that determine the future. Art is a product of that influence. Works of art, media messages, and knowledge recorded in books reflect the spirit of the times and offer clues about what’s ahead. Investing is a risky venture in an uncertain future. Therefore, the ability to appreciate artworks and interpret media messages is a vital skill for professionals in investment. Someone who ignores the arts, the progress of knowledge, and the flow of media messages is unlikely to make wise investments. Loving art purely to gain wealth isn’t ideal, but having a passion for art can help you recognize opportunities for wealth more quickly and sensitively than others, making a life close to art a truly fortunate one. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

False equivalency: A misleading comparison where the comparison targets are forcibly balanced while ignoring relevant differences. For example, claiming that banning guns also requires banning cars. Both cause harm to human life, but guns are designed for lethality and are closely linked to crime, whereas automobiles are meant for transportation and sometimes cause fatalities in traffic accidents as side effects. Comparing these two as if they are the same constitutes a false equivalency. Similarly, saying that apples and oranges are the same because they are both fruits and round is also a false equivalency. We are easily misled by such false comparisons. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

Action and behavior are distinct. Action is an immediate response to a situation’s demands, while behavior is a voluntary response driven by will and intention . So, which one is more important? Both are essential. There is a time to act and a time to behave. The best approach is for your behavior to follow what you started with action. Immediate action is necessary to achieve results, and behavior is needed to put your will into action with a specific purpose or goal . A person who acts easily is practical, while a person who prefers behavior is strategic. But if you don’t act, nothing happens. The world we live in gains meaning after its occurrence and its consequences. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

Sometimes one event causes another. In such cases, the first event is often the result of a previous event that led to it. For example, if you roll a die and get a 3, that result already includes the number 3 on the die. If that’s the case, then we should consider that the number of ‘beings born’ in this world is very small compared to ‘ things that never came into existence .’ ‘ Coincidence ’ is thinking that something can happen randomly, and ‘ intention ’ is excluding the birth of other things to make it happen. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

Language has a grammar for communication. In other words, there is a form , and communication is only possible when society agrees on that form. Therefore, in communication, form is often more important than content . Different fields in society use different grammars and preferred language styles. For example, there are separate grammars and vocabularies used in law , and the same goes for marketing . This is especially common in advertising and public relations , where the form is usually more important than the content. In a world where focusing only on the form can seem showy, and emphasizing only the content can cause communication problems. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

Tendency : The force that maintains a phenomenon’s movement in a consistent direction. Therefore, as long as this tendency persists, the future can be predicted within certain limits. When tendencies change, so does the future. The surest way to get wealthy is to know the future first. Of course, just knowing the future isn’t enough. Still, it’s clear that those who see the future faster and have a wealth of knowledge will have an advantage in competition. In society, people operate under a common direction that its members agree upon and believe in, and they have the power to maintain that direction. For example, a brief fashion trend , the ongoing rain during the rainy season, or the inertia in physics that keeps an object moving at the same velocity unless acted upon by an external force. Once a force moves in a specific direction, it tends to continue in that direction. By carefully reading trends , you are more likely to build wealth or achieve social success. - Joseph’s “just...

When ‘ temperance ’ driven by reason becomes excessively strict, issues of ‘sadism’ or ‘masochism’ can emerge. Temperance isn’t necessarily a positive trait. ‘Pleasure’ often plays a central role in relationships involving giving or receiving abuse. Although feelings vary among individuals, there is a connection between causing pain and deriving pleasure that satisfies the craving for pain. Some people find more satisfaction in inflicting pain, while others find fulfillment in enduring suffering. Our tendencies toward pain influence how we express our personality outwardly and how we protect ourselves inwardly. If you experience stress from ‘temperance,’ you need the right kind of experience to free yourself within healthy limits . - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

Weather forecasters on the news often feature well-dressed meteorologists who diligently explain the weather using various meteorological terms. But if the forecasts were always accurate , there would be no need for such lengthy explanations. People wouldn’t complain if it were simply raining or not, if the temperature was a few degrees, and if the humidity was comfortable or uncomfortable. However, since there’s a chance the forecast could be wrong , they try to explain it thoroughly to ask for people’s understanding. Do you see why simplicity is great? Simplicity is great because no one can simplify it haphazardly. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

To be complex, one must first be simple. Because, unless it’s simple, it’s hard to get complicated. Every complex problem is a combination of simple problems. People tend to think that intelligence is complex. However, in hindsight, memory is just a continuation and connection of simplicity made up of thoughtful ingredients. Still, it is burdensome and complicated to find simplicity in an already complex system . Therefore, the pursuit of simplicity is a burdensome decision, one that requires a willingness to understand this complexity first. Growing up in the mind means taking on this burden and being willing to take on the challenge of finding simplicity in a formally complex system . It’s like a child taking their first steps , trying to get up while risking falling with their whole body. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

The foundation of intelligence is memory. Without memory, intelligence cannot develop or function properly. Creativity also relies on memory as a necessary prerequisite. Forgetting is also a phenomenon caused by memory. If there were no memory, there could be no forgetting. Without forgetting, memory capacity becomes overloaded, leading to various issues. From a memory perspective, forgetting is something to be grateful for. Essentially, intelligence is driven more by memory than by logic. The strength of memory shapes priorities and influences value formation. However, humans have eventually delegated memory to external tools outside of our consciousness, not our brains. These are called records . Examples include books and cell phones . Your cell phone is an extension of you. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

The medieval church forbade usury and claimed that usurers went to hell. However, as the feudal system of the Middle Ages declined and merchants emerged as an emerging power, usury businesses amassed enormous wealth. Usurers donated their corrupt wealth to monasteries , and when they died, they could be buried there. It was a bonus that the donor usurer could receive the sacrament of confession shortly before death. Fear of the afterlife caused poor churches to accumulate wealth, used to decorate walls or build larger, more elaborate structures, leading to the Renaissance era . The unjust usury business sparked a literary and artistic revival . Let go of the illusion that only good things can change the world for the better or the right. The innocence of ignorance about how the world works makes it easier to accept sin and corrupts the world into evil. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

Most people tend to underestimate themselves excessively. Many say, “ Humility is the virtue,” perhaps influenced by social environment and education, but it’s more about recognizing mistakes and limitations than about one’s own potential. That is, self-judgment based on experience. Of course, there will be mistakes and limitations in the future that we haven’t yet encountered, but the possibilities and achievements will be just as numerous. If we assume the odds are about equal, then we shouldn’t need to underrate ourselves. Excessive self-confidence or showiness is a problem, but so is underconfidence . Too much or too little is called arrogance . In Christianity , it’s considered “ sin .” - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

Don’t underestimate your emotions . If I leave these feelings of hate , resentment , longing, and loneliness inside me, one day they will surely take their revenge. Emotions aren’t harmful when we share them with others. Even if we can’t resolve the root cause, having a friend to share our trivial feelings with helps us endure life’s hardships . When there’s someone other than myself to whom I can devote, we can avoid the storm of emotions and overcome adversity . It’s even better if we have an equal friend to share our feelings with, someone we’re committed to. Without just this one friend, we feel sad, exhausted, and lost. The feelings I hold inside will eventually take their revenge on me. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

Real change happens so quickly that we often don’t notice when it occurs. The changing of seasons is a good example. Clearly, winter and spring are very different. It’s hot during the day and cold at night, but when we see spring flowers blooming along the roadside, we realize spring has arrived. We tend to think that big changes will feel different, but sometimes small signs reveal the change. For instance, when our foreheads sweat even with little movement, we recognize that the temperature is getting warmer. What changes might you not notice or recognize? Perhaps your weight? - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

No matter how strong someone appears, they have vulnerabilities . In reality, such a person often forgets that their strengths come from their weaknesses . Even if you concentrate too much on your strong points, your weaknesses can be easily uncovered. Someone who gets disappointed or angry when things don’t go their way reveals their vulnerabilities too easily. If I slightly disagree or irritate the person, they can be easily manipulated. A truly strong person does not openly display their strength or weakness. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

Traditional education taught that human economic development progressed from hunting to stock farming and then to agriculture . However, the only real difference is that stock farming is an economic method of obtaining food by domesticating livestock , while agriculture involves domesticating plants. Therefore, this three-stage development theory is no longer accepted. Instead, the development of human civilization can be seen in the evolution of transportation . To understand the nature of how the world changes, we should observe the development of transportation. The increasing speed of movement is the main evidence that society is changing rapidly. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”