Maybe Even Something True

Some of you already know me and my work. If you do, you can tell from the first post that this is going to be different. I’m going to use this space to explore some new ideas and new directions.

Please allow me a quick introduction: I live in a few different worlds. In my first career, I was a professional classical musician (pianist, harpsichordist, pipe organist, and composer). I have spent much of a lifetime refining my skills in this field, and I continue to compose avidly. I will bring insights from the creative process to my writing here.

I also work as a trader in financial markets. This is interesting work, for a number of reasons. There are many ways to analyze and to think about financial markets, and, to be blunt, most of those ways don’t work very well. Within the universe of “things that work”, there are several groups of techniques. I gravitate toward a style that incorporates human discretion into a rigorously statistically-informed framework.

Many traders see these as opposites, so, even here, I enjoy the tension between these dynamics and the fact that all complexity is collapsed to a single result for each trade—you either make money or you lose money. I’ll share some insights from this world, as well.

I enjoy teaching, and have hundreds of hours of interviews, lectures, and courses on trading techniques. I have written millions of words on the subject, and am the author of two best-selling trading books. The time I’ve spent structuring topics for teaching and writing has repaid itself a thousand-fold with clarity and understanding. Teaching is a great way to learn and it has made me a better thinker.

But this space, this new project, has been provoked—I think that’s a more honest word than the tried-and-true “inspired”—by some experiences I’ve had in recent years. I will likely not be sharing details of these personal experiences, but the outcome is that they have strongly suggested to me that the consensus reality we take for granted is not quite as real as we assume.

Reality is not what we take it to be. You can’t trust your perceptions, and you certainly can’t trust your assumptions.

I’ve collected other experiences, opinions, and pieces of evidence as I’ve gone along. And, given my quantitative mindset, I’ve collected some statistics that undeniably point to the reality of “something weird”.

There’s no denying that much of this will look foolish or stupid. The orthodoxy of today is Materialism, and the rulers have new, modern fire for today’s heretics. But wait until you see what I have to show you about the work of the skeptics and what they have worked so hard to hide. Yes, I know where the bodies are buried!

So, buckle up, this is going to get weird.

In all of this, I’m trying to find a balance between being precise and comprehensive, while also being easily understandable. This is not so easy to do, especially in the evolving world of online content. I will think carefully about what I write here, and you’re going to have to think carefully too, and probably come back to some of these ideas as they grow in you over days and weeks.

I’m going to work hard to make this accessible. There may be some spots (and one early one) that call for academic precision, but I’m seeking flow and conversation more than mere exposition. I don’t want you to have to read this with a dictionary, but one of the lessons I have learned is that some profound secrets are hidden in plain sight, nested among the words we so easily use. These revelations are meaningful—essential even—and some of them are probably cosmic jokes. (For instance, the word psychology does not mean the study of the mind.)

Let me try to sketch a map for you so you know where we are going. The big topics I’m going to address are three:

1. The nature of reality itself

2. What we can know and what we know about that knowledge

3. What it’s like to experience reality as a conscious being

From those big topics, many others flow naturally. In fact, they are demanded. If we’re really going to talk about the big things, then we are obligated to consider things like this:

• Probability and uncertainty

• The uses and limitations of rational thought

• Ritual and rhythm

• The creative process

• Contradiction

• Altered states of consciousness

• Liminal spaces, places, and people

• Meaning

• Myth and fiction as Truth

That gives you an idea. I hope to challenge you—but not to confuse you. I hope to offer you some tools that may push back the horizon for your own experience. I hope to show you the world you know in a new light.

I know that many of my readers are multi-lingual and that English may not be your first or most comfortable language. I will work to write with simplicity and clarity where possible, but I will also call upon language to do other things. Some of those things are imprecise and evocative, so translations may be unreliable. I can promise you that nothing will be random or unconsidered—if you’re asking “why doesn’t he just write what he means” it’s because words can’t do what I need them to do at that spot in the way we wish they could.

So, if you’re ready to be a bit uncomfortable and can handle some contradiction, if you are open to thinking around some corners, and if you can handle a little awe, I invite you to take this journey with me. Maybe we’ll uncover something valuable.

Maybe even something true.