Alex Dobrenko

To paraphrase Buffett and Munger – decision-making is not about making brilliant decisions, but avoiding terrible ones. Mistakes and dumb decisions are a fact of life and I’m going to make more, but as long as I can avoid the big or “fatal” ones I’m fine.

Someone living in fear does not stretch their wings. They hide behind them. They defend themselves from their source of distress. It’s a matter of survival: you can only safeguard yourself arduously. Then you become stuck in that garrison. You become some Greek myth of a story: forever hiding behind your wings. Dread and angst at your seemingly... See more

To protect this brittle and distorted version of reality, we resort to extreme defensiveness. We frame opposing arguments as a threat to our identity and values. In psychoanalytic terms we call this the paranoid-schizoid position. We all tend to drop into this state of mind when we’re under extreme threat. In certain circumstances, it can allow for... See more