(Context: I've been reading biographies of local politicians and some of the issues that would have changed the value of commercial real estate in the city, and I was just curious what other sources of information people have found to generate successful investments)
That was my best investment. I’m 30+ now.
Jokes aside, PUA material has been incredibly helpful in my experience.
Sure, you need to sift about all the canned jokes which work 1%, a few criminals and a bunch of fraudsters - but the community helped me out to find out good resources to become a better salesman (basically a bunch of studying psychology) and improve every aspect of your life (from gym routines, to earning more money, to fashion, etc) ultimately ended up becoming a "sure, you had your fun , now use your PUA skills to conquer the one you love".
15 years later I'm still in touch with some of those people and, while someone is still lost in the number game trying to hit some ridiculous pokemon-like numbers (the pure selfish hedonists who believe the world will end soon and we shouldn't burden the world with more children), most actually moved on and are preaching about having a loving monogamous relationship and kids.
A lot of us think chasing women for status was a waste of energy (even if it was a chance to get better psychological knowledge and self improve) and we would have been better off as virgin until marriage.
Learn about playfulness. Then understand how you're already playful by nature and hook into that (that took 3 years, once I got that down I got the results I wanted). Be playful and let her know sometimes (aka every 3 hours a small compliment) you're romantically interested in her. Some people see it as "playful and confident". If you can do that, that's it. Yes, really!
Learn how to deal with rejection (you'll get rejected a lot).
Have a solid strategy. Mine is: volume * conversion = amount of women who are romantically interested in you. My conversion is around 1%. So I need to talk to at least 100 women (during the day time or on Tinder).
Tinder, I can't say a whole lot there (I can coach you on it, email in profile). I don't think the folks on Tinder like my approach, but the women I've dated do!
Meditate. I went to a 10 day Vipassana retreat a few times, got me more connected to my body and emotions. It is direly needed. This is the reason why my name is mettamage (metta means loving-kindness in pali [1]). I did my retreats at dhamma.org
Also, Brazilian treasuries. Our interest rates are ridiculously high here.
Basically if someone tells you you can have low risk and high reward you should immediately assume they're lying to you.
Accidental City: The Transformation of Toronto
Unbuilt Toronto: A History of the City That Might Have Been
In a world where almost everyone above college age is a fat slob it's not at all difficult to set yourself apart.
But yeah saved a lot of money, lost a lot of weight.
Also made some good investments in lithium at the right time. Pick a couple industries and go deep, like DEEP, and then do some classy gambling.
Usually big shifts like this - war, famine, pandemics etc. -- are good times to make moves/gamble on because of the volatility.
As the pandemic eased, I had noticed AMC hadn't recovered (before it became a reddit craze), whereas the pandemic was easing at least in people's minds.
So I bought call options that expired a year later, since I didn't know when the rebound would happen, but knowing that it would.
I made 5x on it. If I had held 48-72 hours longer it would have been a 20x.
Seemed like a stupid easy way to make a good ROI.
IIRC my best return so far is AMD at $8 a share and ASML when it was similarly cheap, as I was reading a lot of EE/tech news at the time.
I heard that investment funds, or monkeys randomly placing orders, are on average doing better than DIY investors.
More boring: A startup, I decided to invest only after talking with the C-suits and understanding they had what it takes to sell to investors and good numbers. I tried to use my past experience as a founder and think if with their skills and with their numbers I would be able to sell the company.
So far I got the best return on TSMC shares. I bought them way before the Intel to Arm transition, I believe that's when many realized the potential of the company. TSMC also pays decent dividends. Others in my portfolio that did great - Apple, Amex, Visa, BRK.B.
