Your Nightly Mash 07.09.2026

 The words were put finally to a thought I've been mulling around a bit for a few weeks now. 

Mine chiefly that the divide is not between Right and Left (Constrained or Unconstrained) though we certainly view the world differently. Rather the divide is between short-term thinkers and long-term thinkers.

This divide is observed quite readily and is advancing its share amongst the relatively-further educated. Mostly in-part to their nondischargeable in bankruptcy, debilitating loans. 

While I'm fair game to speak of the effects of a certain president guarantee'ing these loans skyrocketing the rates, it's also true that the effect is observed in the UK where this individual was not in power (theoretically, he may have been. What do I know).

Those aforementioned are becoming short-term thinkers as they can no longer see the end for their past decisions in undergoing massive indebtedness. I worry that they will vote themselves out of debt in the future. 

Ah I got distracted. The words for my short-term and long-term thinkers more aptly put is Opportunity-Minded (OM) or Efficiency-Minded (EM). Rory Sutherland made the distinction as one of his main points has to do with innovation and markets historically underinvest in innovation. 

I was thinking about this in the car today. Radio off, took 60 tonight (longer and more secluded). It occurred to me that investing in innovation is psychotic! I think there's a lot of odd discourse against angel investors (like Marc Andreessen or Peter Thiel) but they really are doing something insanely valuable that I do not believe they receive credit for. I have a lot of respect for Peter Thiel actually. I heard a Hoover Institution interview years ago where he was talking about Ticker-Tape parades. Fascinating individual. 

I'll have to make a video on them. Why I respect Thiel. And why I respect George Soros. It's reasonable to despise them for their political involvement; however, both of them are the true embodiment of their world-view. Soros is the Alchemist. In the traditional sense of the word, he seeks the truth. Even if he has to make it. 

Back to the original thought. One of the recent econ-talk episodes I enjoyed, Russ and the guest were talking about Schumpeter's innovation. Where new technology creates new combinations that were never possible to solve problems that people didn't know they had.  Rory talks about when the steam engine was replaced by electric motors. Apparently, in the past, factories had very large steam engines. Large boilers and the like. Towering monstrosities of pipe and valves connecting each station to a central beast. When electric motors took over, the original thought was to just replace the big old one with a big new one. Only through time and new thought did they realize they could utilize the new tech differently. More efficiently. Installing individual motors at each station that could be flipped on or off at once. Something about thinking about a problem entirely different. I'm a big Rory Enjoyer, he's grand really. 

Okay the divide is between EM and OM. Latter take risks that generate massive value or nothing at all. Former take calculated risks that give a more narrow range.