Joseph's "Just My Thoughts"

Only when there is a surplus can new things be created. Surplus means having more than what is necessary. Creating something new requires an initial investment in advance. Whether it’s labor or capital—that is, whether labor is purchased with capital—energy can only be used for new work if there is a surplus. Only with prior investment can something entirely new, never seen before, be made. The existence of something that did not exist before in this world results from someone putting in their surplus first. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

Money is the most widely used medium of exchange worldwide, serving as a way to buy essential goods needed for life or to store wealth. Since the country guarantees the stability of fiat currency, it becomes possible to exchange ‘things for money’ instead of ‘things for goods,’ unless the country goes bankrupt. However, this amount of money cannot be increased indefinitely. When there is too much money in circulation, its value drops below the price of goods, causing those who hold wealth in money to lose that wealth. The key point is that money is limited in the market. Due to this limitation, money gains value. The government regulates this money supply through the ‘interest rate.’ Raising the interest rate reduces the money supply, while lowering it increases the supply. This helps control prices. Therefore, understanding the interest rate is crucial for managing and valuing wealth, making it essential to know the interest rate above all else in life. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

FAST (Free Ad-supported Streaming TV) is gaining attention. It refers to a type of media service where viewers watch ads and access content for free instead of paying a fixed subscription fee to watch movies or shows online. However, strictly speaking, FAST isn’t truly free because viewers must watch ads. In terms of opportunity cost, the viewer pays for the service by watching ads instead of paying a subscription fee. All free offerings are created through a value exchange. Let’s not be mistaken—nothing is truly free. Freebies are simply a form of payment. My expenses become someone else’s income. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

Humans can explain why they consciously act, but it’s hard to clarify their unconscious actions. When we can’t explain our unconscious behaviors, we often feel a sense of fear. We perform many actions unconsciously without realizing it, but if we can’t explain why, our brains invent their own stories. Humans are naturally drawn to and affected by stories. Fear arises when we’re in a situation that can’t be explained by our stories. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

It took 3,000 years from the appearance of smallpox in the world to the development of a vaccine. It took 13 years for AIDS, 5 years for Ebola, and just 4 months for COVID-19. Seven days after the COVID-19 outbreak was reported to the WHO, all of the viral DNA sequences were identified. The rapid development of an mRNA vaccine in such a short timeframe has never been achieved in human history. This demonstrates how remarkable progress in biology and biotechnology has become. Similarly, the pace of wealth creation and economic growth has also sped up. It is a recent phenomenon in the long history of human life that we now measure time in seconds. We need to understand what kind of world we are living in right now. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

Negativity Bias: the tendency to focus more on bad things than good ones, influenced by its survival benefits. Our language contains about 30% words expressing positive emotions, 50% expressing negative emotions, and the rest neutral. It’s probably normal to say negative things. However, even in this environment, a small number of successful people use “positive language” that they are less likely to speak. Habits are important. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

Globalization is not a recent phenomenon; it began in the 1870s when international trade and investment expanded to sell mass-produced products worldwide, driven by technologies such as steam engines and electricity. The peak of globalization occurred in 2019, just before the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. The economy advances primarily through improvements in productivity. The technological advancements mentioned have significantly influenced this productivity growth. For example, a smartphone, which combines the functionality of a computer with that of a mobile device, exemplifies technological progress that has brought convenience to mankind. However, smartphone technology and network effects haven’t contributed to the expected boost in human productivity. Technology can be categorized into those that enhance productivity and those that do not. Although today’s technology development exceeds that of the past, it doesn’t automatically lead to greater productivity. To build wealth, incre...

Every benefit comes with costs and expenses. There can be no benefit without costs and expenses. Receiving a gift actually incurs costs and expenses. Whether we give our time or spend money to maintain a relationship with the giver, we are paying in some way. Even inheriting a parent’s legacy comes at a cost and expense. Since costs are incurred before gains, it’s more advantageous to learn how to manage spending effectively rather than just earning money to build wealth. Costing the cash is called INVESTMENT. Whether it is a wasteful investment (consumption) or an investment to accumulate value, this decision is ultimately up to you. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

Wings can be a problem if we don’t fly. The queen ant has wings that worker ants don’t have. A queen’s wings are only used once in her life when she flies to mate. After mating, she lands and bites off her wings. In underground life, wings are just an annoyance. We keep many things even when we don’t need them. There are also times we hold onto useless things and thoughts, even knowing they serve no purpose. That’s not smart. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

The difference between living and non-living things lies in their complexity. Living beings are more complex than non-living objects. Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins explains that mollusk cephalopods, such as octopuses and squids, changing their skin color in an instant is a deliberately performed life phenomenon. The intention may be for survival or warning predators. Being alive and having a life depend on this complexity. Humans are complex both physically and mentally because they are alive. To celebrate life is to embrace this complexity. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

Many people in our society invest in bonds. Perhaps you, reading this article, have invested in bonds at least once and are still investing now. Bank deposits are a form of bonds, just not labeled as ‘bonds.’ When you deposit your money in a bank, the money isn’t considered bank money. Interest is paid because the money isn’t withdrawn immediately. When you withdraw your deposited money, the bank must return the principal plus interest. This is essentially a bond. However, the only reason this differs from bonds as an investment asset is that these bank deposits are not traded on the market. If bank deposits were traded publicly, the interest rate would be evaluated in comparison with other deposits, even if the principal remains unchanged. Valuation reflects opportunity cost. This is the transaction value of bonds. When goods or assets are traded in the market, their value is re-evaluated. The core of value is comparison, and the tool for valuation is opportunity cost. That’s why CEOs...

Founders often start a business without understanding their profit model. People are more likely to fail because they only think, “I have to work!” and don’t truly grasp how and why they can make money from it. They don’t understand the concept of capital, meaning the basic funds, nor do they understand the founder’s equity. They have heard the terms often but don’t really know their meaning or importance. They don’t recognize it, although they may have heard of it a lot. You start a business and partner with others without knowing whether your return is the reward for taking risks, giving up current interests, or sacrificing competitors. Understanding this is a fundamental part of entrepreneurship. Yet, in reality, they run their business without considering these issues simply because they need to work and can do so at the moment. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

Some people are poor but live with a rich mind, while others are rich yet live with a poor mindset. Poverty compounded costs, and wealth compounded profits. All of them operate on the principle of compound interest. Poverty costs a lot. So, what’s the difference between a rich mind and a poor mind? Their attitude toward time varies significantly. Not everyone, but when a poor person suddenly becomes rich, they still pay the cost of poverty. The most common form is installments. Thus, even if people are rich, they often live with a poor mindset, sometimes thinking of it as savings. Even if you are poor, you can live with a rich mind, which increases your chances of getting wealthy. Debt pulls the future into the present. Drawing the future ahead of time makes people slaves. They say they are slaves of money, but in reality, they are slaves of time. If you gradually change the habit of bringing future time into the present, your attitude will shift, and your behavior will change. We want...

I advised a CEO to read books regularly. But he said he didn’t even have time for reading because of his business. I didn’t tell him to read a lot; I only suggested that he do it on a regular basis. It’s not easy to start with a large amount, but it’s easy to give up or refuse to continue. Still, doing a small amount consistently is also difficult, but the goal is to build a habit. Reading is an extension of management activities that managers must do, not because they have time to spare, but because neglecting it can harm management by limiting their knowledge of the world and others’ experiences. Of course, reading doesn’t guarantee success or prevent failure. However, there’s no doubt that it’s the most fundamental activity that can help individuals grow and organizations thrive through the knowledge and experience gained from reading. A fool fills 100% of his life experience. A wise man fills it with 1% inspiration, 29% reading, and 70% implementation. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

What I spend is someone else’s income. Apple co-founder Steve Jobs discussed every morning at breakfast with his family about buying a set of Miele washing machines and dryers from Germany for two weeks. Why? Of course, it was to teach their children about economics and to illustrate a lesson about opportunity cost, a common trait among wealthy people. If you buy this washing machine, you cannot buy that one. That is the opportunity cost. It’s a form of relative value, based on the idea that choosing one option means sacrificing another, so the value of each can be compared within those limits. Wealth begins with training in understanding even trivial opportunity costs. To succeed in business, you need to learn how to measure opportunity cost first, rather than just how to make money. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

Invisibly, we engage in a fierce struggle with ‘time.’ Both economic activities and wealth accumulation are battles against time. Time is fair and irreversible. Therefore, it makes sense to evaluate and judge the value of an asset based on time. Additionally, we analyze past records to assess and forecast the future, while also avoiding current deprivation by bringing the concept of ‘future’ into the present to compensate for insufficient assets. All of this is the magic of time. The past influences the present, and the future shapes the present. The present of the past is molded by the current moment, and the future will also attempt to predict what lies ahead by examining the present. We live by differentials and sometimes integrals. I believe this phenomenon occurs because the concept of infinity exists. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

Stock investment is categorized into short-term and long-term strategies. As with all investments, the success of an asset is determined at the time of purchase, not when you sell it. Short-term investing involves buying stocks at low prices, while long-term investing focuses on buying based on the overall price trend. These two approaches embody different investment philosophies. The first factor to consider when developing an investment strategy is time—the duration of the investment. Valuation and investment methods vary depending on the length of the investment horizon. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

We usually think of “investment” as giving effort or money to someone. But investing is more about exchanging what you have for some value, and the object of the investment has some worth rather than just giving something away. Some exchanged values can be monetary or moral. If I swap my cash for moral and social benefits, it becomes a religious or social contribution. However, if the object of exchange is an asset with a specific monetary value or potential for profit, it is an economic investment. The world is designed to facilitate some form of value exchange. The main idea of investing is to trade low volatility for high volatility and then switch back to low volatility over time. The former is called an investment, and the latter is called an exit. Cash tends to be less volatile, while stocks and digital coins are very volatile. By exchanging assets with small volatility, stability is maintained, but wealth is not necessarily increased. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

Being in debt means using up the future in the present. Essentially, it’s about how we manage our time. Therefore, the most valuable resource for debtors is time, and it depends on which side time favors. Paying off debt is like repaying borrowed future time early. When the ability to generate wealth over time decreases, the future time becomes a burden, and the debtor faces the pain of bankruptcy. Taking on debt is costly. It may seem like borrowed money is repaid with money, but the irreplaceable resource of time is also returned along with interest. With the rise of postpaid credit cards as a common payment method, we’ve become less sensitive to the associated pain and cost. There are two ways to spend money: using present time or future time. The costs and pain are much higher when the future is spent as if it were the present. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”

Humans believe they are thinking, but they cannot artificially interfere with their thought processes. This means you cannot deliberately manipulate human consciousness. While memory can be artificially altered, thinking processes cannot. If it were possible, the individual might be a psychopath. Human consciousness is governed by the unconscious. So, if you want to solve an unresolved problem, don’t focus on it directly; instead, briefly use your consciousness, and then the unconscious will handle it. Over time, at the right moment, the unconscious offers a solution to the conscious mind. Inspiration occurs at this point. Therefore, don’t get too caught up in it. Also, give your brain a rest. That’s why sleeping and sometimes being dazed are so important for creative inspiration. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”