Tue 17 Jul 2007
Let’s talk about rats. Rats are mammals, they are intelligent, and have a remarkable behavioral and biological resemblance to humans. These are the reasons that they are often used not just for biological but psychological experiments as well.
Here’s an amazing experiment that I once read about. A group of rats were divided into two groups. Both groups were conditioned to expect food at a certain spot in the complex of cages where they lived. Apparently, rats learn this sort of a thing very easily. At set times of the day the rats would turn up at this feeding station and find food waiting for them. However, immediately after eating, the rats were subjected to electric shocks through the floor of their cages. The shocks were strong enough to be very unpleasant but not lethal.
But the two groups were treated differently. While one group was given an electric shock after every meal, the other one was given the shocks after only half of the times. However, for the second group, the actual instances when they would be subjected to the shocks were chosen randomly. After some of their meals they would get the shocks and after some they wouldn’t and they had no cues to help them figure out what would happen on any given instance. The effect of this pattern on the behaviour of the two groups was interesting. The group that got the electric shocks every time quickly adjusted to what was happening and basically got on with life. They would show up for food, eat it, brace themselves for the shock and happily continue with their ratly routine after getting the shock.
The other group did far worse. They just couldn’t get used to the randomness of their ordeal. Many of them started avoiding food and would eat only when they were on the verge of starvation. All of them became significantly weaker. Get this clearly: the group that got fewer electric shocks fared far worse than the ones who were given electric shocks every single time. It was the sheer meaningless unpredictability of their lives that did them in.
From this point on, this article could be about almost anything. But since investments are my brief, I’ll just talk about how legions of investors are abandoning equity and rushing towards debt.
READ
Human beings, not being rats, should be able understand the long-term trends beneath things that look random. The rats that were treated randomly should have kept records, applied some simple statistical formula and figured out that their long-term average of electric shocks was unchanged and thus their lives were not actually random. They could even have become technical rats and figured out head-and-shoulder, or (since rats don’t have shoulders) head-to-long-tail patterns in their electric shocks. But just because the rats somehow missed this trick doesn’t mean that we humans have to, too.
Stocks look random but over the long-term, deliver better returns than fixed interest rate investments. Both play a role in a balanced approach to investing. All we need to do is deal with randomness better than even intelligent animals like rats do.
July 18th, 2007 at 12:50 am
There’s a theory that states the whole universe was born out of randomness. Charles Darwin?
Some say everything in life is coincidence.
No comments on that–that would be off topic, but I do believe that when it comes down to cold cash, intelligence works better than randomness.
Even for rats. They think and find out where the cheese is hidden.
July 18th, 2007 at 12:59 am
Hi Zakman,
Thanks for passing by mate and commenting, I think intelligence helps you cope with randomness.
Take care and cheers.
July 18th, 2007 at 2:57 am
randomness throws off my whole routine. it’s MUCH easier to cope with planned events, planned surgery, planned work, than it is to deal with unplanned events, surgery, and work.
July 18th, 2007 at 9:36 am
Hey Bryan,
Good to see you back mate and I sincerely hope you fit and healthy. You are right planned events are easier to cope with than things that happen at random.
Take care and Cheers mate.
July 18th, 2007 at 10:11 am
Planning is essential, but you must be equipped to deal with any random situation that may occur. After all what may appear to be a “bad” random shock could be the brreakthrough that puts your plans in a more effective direction.
Whilst planning is good, it is focus and clarity of what the goal is that is the most crucial in my opinion. Without clarity and vision there is more likelihood of things becoming random.
July 18th, 2007 at 1:54 pm
Hey Rob,
How you doing mate? I liked what you said “Without clarity and vision there is more likelihood of things becoming random.”
Got to be prepared for the random stuff anyway.
Take care and cheers.
July 18th, 2007 at 3:16 pm
hi, robin, this is an interesting post, i will surely be back here for more, you have very good articles, worth reading^^
July 18th, 2007 at 6:07 pm
Hi Lordmanilastone,
Thanks for your visit and welcome to FortuneWatch. Glad you liked the articles worth reading.
Take care and Cheers.
July 20th, 2007 at 8:45 am
That’s a great story Robin. A clear case of “better the devil you know than the one you don’t”.
July 20th, 2007 at 11:44 am
Hi Shane,
Thanks for your appreciation. Its really a clear case of what you said. 🙂
Take care and Cheers