1. S&P +1.5% 3 Days in a Row…History
Consecutive gains. From Tuesday-Thursday, the S&P 500 was up “at least 1.5% for three days in a row. This isn’t stuff you see in bear market rallies or short covering rallies. You see this before times of strong performance. Higher 10 out of 10 times a year later and up 21.6% on average.”
Ryan Detrick
2. Gold Articles All Over the Weekend Financial Press
All told, there is now an estimated $4 trillion worth of gold held by central banks, and $5 trillion by private investors. Calculated against $260 trillion for all financial assets, including stocks, bonds, cash, and alternatives, that works out to a global gold portfolio allocation of 3.5%, a record.
Barron’s
3. Major Indexes and Max Drawdowns
Liz Ann Sonders
4. Foreign Investors are at Max U.S. Equities with Little Currency Hedging
Bloomberg
5. Household Wealth -$6T YTD
MarketWatch
6. Despite Volatility…10-Year Treasury is Back to March Levels
Bespoke
7. Americans Still Spending
WSJ
8. Asian Countries Opinion of China
Semafor
9. The Sinking Birth Rate in U.S.
Eric Finnigan
10. 6 Under-the-Radar Mindsets You Need to Excel
How to problem-solve at a higher level.
Key points:
- Seek unsolved problems to enhance pattern recognition and problem-solving skills.
- Innovate by sourcing knowledge from unexpected fields and perspectives.
- Embrace abstraction to apply concepts to diverse challenges.
Via Psychology Today: The mindsets that separate extraordinary from average aren’t just about productivity or career advancement. They’re the same patterns that help you navigate life’s complexities.
While most self-improvement advice focuses on discipline and routine, these six under-the-radar mindsets develop something more fundamental: your capacity to learn, adapt, and discover what others miss. They’re about seeking novel challenges, embracing unexpected discoveries, and finding connections where others don’t look. Whether you’re wanting to excel at work, at self-management, at home, or at sports, these mindsets can help you be more innovative, resilient, and a better problem-solver.
1. You Need To Be Attracted To Problems You Haven’t Seen (Or Solved) Before
School and corporate life train us to feel most comfortable applying familiar formulas to familiar problems, again and again.
But to excel, you need to seek out problems you haven’t already seen and solved. That’s what grows your problem-solving skills and intuition.
Why it’s important for excellence: Knowledge comes from recognizing patterns — and you won’t encounter enough different patterns without exposing yourself to new kinds of problems.
2. You Need To Be Open To Learning Something More Important Than What You Set Out To Learn
The history of science and innovation is full of examples of unintentional discoveries that turned out to be more important than solving the intended target problem. For instance, French polymath Henri Poincaré expected his approximations would solve the problem he was working on. When they unexpectedly didn’t, it led him to develop chaos theory!
The problems we solve or discoveries we make along the way often end up being the most valuable part of the experience. This applies psychologically too.
Why it’s important for excellence: If you’re not open to this, you’ll miss your biggest discoveries.
3. You Have To Be Interested In Abstraction
Abstraction allows us to carry ideas like tools and apply them to new problems. For example, I was recently introduced to two paradoxes. First, the “Barber Paradox”: If there’s only one barber on an island who shaves everyone who doesn’t shave themselves, the question is: who shaves the barber?
Next, consider the “Baldness Problem”: If a person has no hair, they’re bald. With one hair, still bald. A few hairs? Bald. But when do they stop being bald? How many hairs is too many?
Within a week of learning about these ideas, I encountered situations these paradoxes helped me understand. They had seemed like curious puzzles at the time, but they turned out to be unexpectedly useful.
For example, the Baldness Problem might help you understand tensions arising from different people’s definitions of “clean.” The Barber Paradox can help you spot self-referential patterns of circular logic.
Why it’s important for excellence: Without abstraction, it’s hard to carry knowledge with you. We need this to spot patterns we wouldn’t otherwise recognize. Another example here.
4. You Have To Be Interested In A Variety Of Ways Of Solving A Problem
Imagine a non-curious person learning math. They learn one method for solving a specific type of problem—say quadratic equations—and once they’ve got it, they’re not interested in learning any others. Why would they do that? It seems inefficient, like flogging a dead horse.
Now, contrast that with a curious person who, after learning one method, sees a video showing nine other ways to solve the same problem and is excited to try them all.
Why it’s important for excellence: We need to build mental flexibility and the intuition that problems can generally be solved in many different ways. For example, if storming a castle’s main gate isn’t working, we step back and try to view the problem from a completely different angle. Shifting how we approach familiar problems helps us apply the same flexibility to more complex, unfamiliar ones.
Knowing multiple ways to solve a problem also builds resilience. If your usual method isn’t available, you’ll have other strategies. Again this applies psychologically. For example, if you’re injured and can’t exercise to relieve your stress, you need other methods.
5. You Have To Be Interested In Exploring The Long Tail Of Your Strengths
We often focus on obvious strengths that influence success, like a visionary entrepreneur or a runner with a high VO2 max.
However, at elite levels, everyone possesses these top strengths. What sets people apart is the long tail of their strengths, like fast recovery from hard workouts or high-carb fueling tolerance.
Why it’s important for excellence: Without understanding your full range of strengths, you won’t fully appreciate how to use them. It’s crucial to recognize them, see how they might be applied in unconventional ways, and be willing to experiment—even if it means stepping outside conventional methods.
6. You Have To Be Interested In Finding Knowledge In Unexpected Places
Imagine a running coach who only looks for new methods from other running coaches or running journals. Now, picture a coach who also seeks ideas from cycling. Or someone who explores models of recovery, mental toughness, and innovation from fields completely outside of sports. Then, think of a coach who disagrees with another on almost everything but decides to adopt an interesting method they come up with.
Why it’s important for excellence: We become more innovative when we’re open to learning from a wide variety of sources, not just from the usual places or our buddies.
Your Mindset Determines Your Approach to Challenges
Mindset shifts change your approach in ways that routine and discipline alone cannot. They push you beyond applying familiar formulas to familiar problems. While most people scramble for quick wins, your mindset can help you see deeper connections between knowledge sources that others miss. Excellence isn’t just working harder—it comes from sharpening your reasoning skills and problem-solving intuition.
If you’re interested in improving your reasoning further, try this guide.
