Forming too many opinions

I recently started developed interest in the cryptocurrency market, with a particular interest in technical analysis and conducting trades off of it. My first biggest observation was that everyone has an opinion, and everyone is sure that they’re right.

It’s my guilty pleasure to see people start losing money and panicking on Discord channels – because oh: “Surprise surprise, everything you’re saying was based off of a tweet you saw and not actual research and trend analysis. And well done, your loud voice lost other people money too.”

Blind opinions
Everyone has an opinion on everything, and I learnt that to trade well – I needed to shut off those opinions and focus on the facts. Now – cryptocurrencies are different from people. They have whitepapers, websites, company profiles, live charts and the likes etc etc.

All the information is provided to you so you can make good judgement (or for you to ignore and pose as a know-it-all who ends up losing everything – this has actually started to make me sad, since people are losing their grandparents’ pension and mortgages).

TLI (Too little information)
People don’t have so much exposed – and we’re not telepathic either. So it blows my mind when people spend time forming opinions about other people. The reason I don’t suggest engaging in opinion forming is simple:

It’s usually triggered by bad intentions
There is not enough information to arrive to a valid conclusion
No productive end goal
Those should be enough red flags to stop you from doing it. Of course, I appreciate that opinions aren’t formed to arrive to any valid conclusions, but to make us feel better about ourselves. Which poses the larger issue: Finding joy and validation externally.

The danger of external validation
External validation dependency is a disease that is consuming the human race. I see it with Black South Africans – buying expensive clothes, expensive cars and expensive alcohol – all for external validation – forgetting to invest in things that will legitimately make their lives better. I understand and sympathize with the root of this problem, and it deserves an article of its own.

I see it with Cape Tonians today. People watering their gardens with the hose on, chatting away – so that people don’t form bad opinions about them based on their garden. Or young people spending hours on the perfect selfie with the perfect filters so that others can form good opinions about them.

When do you find time for yourself?

Ignoring opinions
Although we can never say opinions don’t affect us (unless they are from people we consider far below us) – we need to develop filters. The reason to ignore opinions is in the word itself: they are opinions. Everyone has one. Everyone’s opinion is likely unique and not based off of enough data points that cause it to be valid. For those reasons, listening to, not just forming, opinions is a waste of time.

If you’re told that carrots improve vision for long enough, you’ll start to believe it.

An alternative
In some cases, we may need to form judgement when we want to form friendships, or hire someone – in which case:

The intention is good
We should find enough information (their childhood, CV’s, education etc)
The end goal should be productive
Additionally, and undoubtedly, isolation is a recipe for disaster. We need to know our weaknesses and flaws, and have them evaluated, or pointed out if you’d like, without too much bias.

It’s not difficult. Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but deceitful are the kisses of an enemy. Receive wounds from friends, not foes. Receive kisses from friends, not foes. Make sure your friends aren’t foes.

We need to take a better approach to how we source validation and energy; I can’t boast having the answers to this – but I can be sure to say that sourcing them externally to keep emotionally afloat, is a great danger. And if we’re going continue towards the populated future caring more for our gardens than the availability of drinking water – I’m pessimistic.

We don’t need all these stamps of approval – the likes, the shares, the comments from strangers and the illusions of grandeur! Of course, you may be a model or entertainer, in which case these propel your goals, but it’s important to realize everyone has the same 24 hours in a day. The Elon Musks and Oprah Winfrey’s weren’t given 48 – but their passion dictated how their time was spent.

Days to day zero:

90 days

Days to dream realization:

unknown_t + time_wasted_on_the_unnecessary