Long Term Investing in People | Lorenzo Swank

Long Term Investing in People

May 14, 2023

Day trading is fun. Degen shortingdegen some crazy crypto-nonsense is also wild. Thrilling. I'm sure it's thrilling in the same sense as trying to pick up someone attractive at the airport on a layover, even though you both know it's probably not going anywhere because you both are going somewhere.

But it very rarely goes anywhere. It's not long-term thinking. It's short term thinking. It's putting a coin in the one-armed banditbandit and hoping you'll strike it rich.

Charlie Mungermunger said, "Warren and I don't focus on the froth of the market. We seek out good long-term investments and stubbornly hold them for a long time."

Stubbornly.

This is going to sound really familiar to some of my closest friends. They already describe me as stubborn in so many ways.

I am stubborn about long-term thinking in relationships. This evolved out of the whole Adult Third Culture Kid thing. Adult Third Culture kids have this tendency to skip the early stages of getting to know someone, jumping straight to sharing their risky opinions.

This can be a wonderful signaling thing if you meet someone who has also grown up across cultures and nations. However, it can be off-putting if you're meeting someone who hasn't had those experiences. They might misread your intent, because they've never had anyone be real with them in their entire life so far.

I try to be careful in the way that I signal when speaking Englishenglish. I am striving to be very deliberate in the way that I interact with others when I am friendly.

I ask myself, can I see myself being friends with this person for 20, 40, 60 years? If not, we can be acquaintances, colleagues, or associates, but we are likely not friends. Friendly, yes. Friendsfriends, no.

This long-term thinking also applies to romantic relationships, hopefully, the lastlastrelationship great relationship in one's life. A wise man once shared an interesting thought with me on this. He said that he was surprised that people got married because people's feelings for each other don't necessarily align in intensity or timing. With a long-term approach to one person and one relationship, you accept that you once hit a crucial threshold of affection and care that it is possible to get back there again. Your feelings fluctuate on a day-to-day basis, but you know that how you once felt is a goalpost for how you can feel again, given the right circumstances.

The most important thing my AP European History teacher taughtapeuro me was this: a good marriage should not be 50/50. Instead, each person should be willing to put in 60% of the work of the relationship. If you both aim to consistently contribute 60%, you'll always have a surplus. Sometimes you'll have 40% days, or even 20% days. If you're with someone who can go up to 60% even on your worst days, you'll still be doing pretty well as partners. If you're both in it for the long haul, cranking it up to 60% as needed is not a big dealsickness.

Whether it's investing, forging friendships, or maintaining a romantic relationship, success lies in adopting a long-term perspective. The daily fluctuations in weather temporary, but with a long-term view there is very little that is impossible to overcome.


  1. "Degen short" is crypto slang for taking a wild, risky bet by shorting, or betting against, a cryptocurrency. Basically, it's like gambling on a coin's price to plummet big time, but it's super risky because crypto prices can swing wildly.
  2. A slot machine with a lever on the side that you pull to spin. The lever is the "one arm" of the bandit.
  3. He's a famous investor; slightly less famous than Warren Buffett, his business partner.
  4. It's much easier in Korean. Holding someone at emotional arm's length can be done very directly in speech.
  5. Someone who you can confidently and unapoligetically call at 3:30 AM because you need help with something, and they will be there for you unquestioningly; you, of course, will do the same for them.
  6. Because you grow together. As someone wisely said to me, "To an extent it's also like vines. You grow the direction of your support structure, and it seems hard to imagine a world where when you start aligned, you don't also end up aligned."
  7. He also taught me about Dinklesbühl, which has a Children's Festival every year. Apparently when the Swedish army came through to rape and pillage, the town sent out their children. The Swedish general thought that one of the kids looked like his son, and he decided to spare the town. Or maybe he said, "This is as far as our rape and pillage goes today, boys. Pack it up." It wasn't on the test, which I passed with flying colors. But I would argue that the marriage advice was far more useful than the Dinklesbühl story.
  8. I mean, unless there's major illness involved. Then it's a big deal but hey, you committed. Everyone cuts me slack for not getting married prior to my transplant for not wanting to put someone through that. Glad I don't have that baggage anymore.
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