Are we baking or cooking?

Posted on by MIKE
Though a recipe, this was cooking.

Most of life is a cooking problem. Should you pay off your mortgage or invest? That’s a cooking problem. Cooking problems have leeway because there’s not a lot of interaction. If you get things mostly right you’ll be fine.

For cooking problems the biggest issue is inception. Just start. Cooking problems suffers from paralysis by analysis. Cooking problems should be ‘rough consensus and running code’. Cooking problems are easily fixed and have multiple potential solutions. I made General Tso’s last week. It was a cooking problem. Did I need exactly three scallions? No, as the picky eaters (12, 10) scooped around them anyway.

Baking problems are different. Baking is chemistry and chemistry is balance. Math is precise balance too, so is physics. For baking problems it pays to pay attention. When my daughters make cookies it’s a baking problem; you never want too much baking soda in a batch. Flying planes and medical diagnosis are baking problems too.

Baking problems have tight feedbacks within closed systems and single solution aims. Kill virus, land plane, eat cookie. Baking problems require domain expertise.

Most of life though is cooking.

Baking is recipes. Cooking is mental models: like this pay-what-you-want pdf of ideas from Tyler Cowen. If you like Cowen and podcasts, here is an RSS feed for you.

7 thoughts on “Are we baking or cooking?”

  1. One of your best!

    On Mon, Oct 19, 2020 at 5:05 AM The Waiter’s Pad wrote:

    > > > > > > > MIKE posted: ” > Though a recipe, this was cooking. > > > > Most of life is a cooking problem. Should you pay off your mortgage or > invest? That’s a cooking problem. Cooking problems have leeway because > there’s not a lot of interaction. If you get things mostly right you’ll b” > > > >

    Like

  2. […] StrategyHow permabears peddle their wares. (retirementfieldguide.com)Compounding can only be shown, not taught. (theirrelevantinvestor.com)AlternativesThe pandemic has given a boost to those looking to diversify their portfolio by investing in art. (riaintel.com)How royalty exchanges are not unlike a ‘reverse mortgage’ for musicians. (news.yahoo.com)CompaniesFacebook ($FB) is going free to attract users to its streaming game platform. (wsj.com)Disney+ is becoming an increasingly important part of Disney. (theringer.com)Some of Quibi’s shows will find a home elsewhere. (wsj.com)IPOsThe Ant Group IPO will be the largest in history. (cnbc.com)The ten companies that the EquityBee community most want to see come public. (news.crunchbase.com)Pandemic financesThe boost in personal savings in pandemic is not just a US phenomenon. (wsj.com)It’s not just Americans who are trading like crazy in pandemic. (evidenceinvestor.com)GlobalWe can declare a winner of the US-China trade war, and it’s not the US. (cnn.com)Governments around the world are struggling to deal with ‘pandemic fatigue. (wsj.com)Earlier on Abnormal ReturnsAdviser links: an inclusive workplace. (abnormalreturns.com)Jon, thanks for including us in your journey. (abnormalreturns.com)What you missed in our Sunday linkfest. (abnormalreturns.com)What everyone was reading last week on the site. (abnormalreturns.com)Every Friday I send out five links for advisers to help them think a little differently about the world. Sign up now! (newsletter.abnormalreturns.com)Mixed mediaSeth Godin, “If you’re not having any second thoughts at all, it’s probably because you’re not thinking it through enough.” (seths.blog)When it comes to survivorship bias sometimes the best we can do is acknowledge it. (fs.blog)Baking and cooking are different. (thewaiterspad.com) […]

    Like

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.