We are what we repeatedly do (Aristotle)
Last Wednesday, I went out for my daily easy run at 6 a.m.; at kilometre 5, I started listening to a podcast about GDP-based investing. I got home and, after sadly taking off my running Asics in favour of a Uniqlo shirt (strictly no-iron, so it is easier to iron), I went to the office, where I spent the whole day surrounded by ES99, exposure, market value, cashflows and lots of numbers.
Nine hours later, I walked down three flights of stairs, happily put my running shoes back on and went into the gym, listening to Mr Rip in one of his many live streams about passive index funds, IPOs and asset allocation.
Back home, showered and fed, I had a quick chat with my flatmates (one is a nuclear engineer, the other studies machine learning) and opened VS Code to work on a project on Monte Carlo simulations of leveraged portfolios through margin investing.
Change a few details, the type of training I do in the morning, what I eat for dinner (lunch is the same 5/5, thanks to Sunday meal prepping) or whether I do the second workout or go out with friends on the rare occasion... and my “working” week is pretty much always the same.
This weekend, though, thanks to a series of happy coincidences, I had the chance to think about all this and, beyond becoming aware that I live in a bubble, I asked myself:
“How harmful and potentially dangerous is all this?”
However, let me start by saying that:
- I am lucky to have a job I enjoy, one that stimulates me intellectually every day and, most important, surrounds me with people I can learn a lot from and feel good around. That is why, however much my routines may embody the evils of capitalism, I am genuinely grateful and happy about them.
- These reflections come from long conversations with my girlfriend and a few friends during a happy Zurich summer weekend, between swimming in the Limmat, gelateria di Berna and homemade pizza cooked by true Italian expats. Without them, I wouldn't have put these thoughts into writing in such a short time, thanks :)
Today's dot-com bubble
As I mentioned, the starting point for this reflection is that my life is extremely focused and specialised around specific, often niche topics: finance in the broadest sense, the use of AI in relation to our paths as students and future workers and, more generally, everything we study at university which, inevitably, is closely connected to the previous two topics.
Even though it may sound monotonous (read: sad), I am extremely happy about it. First of all, as mentioned above, these are (all things considered) topics I am obsessed with and, as a result, every conversation about them excites me and, most of the time, lets me discuss things I care about with people who, despite having a very similar experience to mine (the recurring pattern is: bachelor's at Polimi, ETH students, currently interns or workers in STEM), often reach different conclusions and challenge my beliefs.
On the other hand, I think being obsessed with and going deep on a few specific topics, at least at this stage of my life, can be extremely beneficial for my personal growth and education.
Secondly, I have noticed that conversations with “like-minded” people converge, quite systematically, on the usual niche topics (as if we were incapable of talking about football and women). Yet, beyond making me happy, energising me and stimulating me in the moment, they give me long-term insights, offer me new perspectives on how to connect dots across different problems that share a similar solution or simply switch a light on around new things, often very practical ones, to learn, implement or try (this article is the result of that...).
TL;DR: I feel this hyper-specialisation and life in a bubble are enriching me a lot.
Would you entrust your life to misfits?
On the flip side, the most obvious “negative” consequence of this lifestyle is that, in the long run, it increases the risk of losing interest in (or at least not paying enough attention to) everything else, especially what does not fit neatly inside the bubble: current affairs, cultural and social issues that change and shape the world as much as OpenAI and Anthropic do.
I cannot deny that my personal interest in these things has progressively decreased over the years and has always been negatively correlated with how obsessed I am with a given vertical.
Likewise, I notice that within STEM communities (engineering environments at Polimi and, more recently, ETH, both places where people are on average VERY obsessed) interest in public affairs, especially compared with that of our “humanities” student cousins, is shamefully low. It raises a question for me (one that would deserve pages of reflection on its own):
“Are we sure we want to give future technological development to people who, all things considered, risk being socially maladjusted?”
At the same time, when almost all of everyday life is devoted to one vertical, the chance to deep dive into and dedicate yourself to activities pursued for their own sake also fades away.
More trivial examples: reading pure fiction (I cannot remember when I last read a novel!), enjoying a film or, much more simply, going out for a drink!
This latter (dangerous) consequence is what makes Zurich, in the eyes of many students/immigrants who come to study/work in Switzerland (myself included), a controversial and difficult city.
You get the impression that most of my peers are here out of ambition, to build something or for purposes related to their careers (not necessarily for financial reasons), at the expense of a social dimension, almost as if all their time here had to be devoted to work in the broadest sense. That is why, at the end of the day, social life kind of sucks compared with other European countries.
Secondly, I feel I live with constant confirmation bias: if everyone around me does more or less the same thing, how can I truly evaluate my direction and get constructive feedback from others?
80% of Italians have a weekly aperitivo, but only 14% invest in ETFs
More broadly, living in such a narrow niche risks making us lose sight of what the world is actually like. Even without travelling to the Far East or the middle of the savannah, I would suggest getting in a car from Milan, driving less than an hour and walking into a bar in some forgotten town on Milan's outskirts or, even easier, strolling along the Navigli in Milan on a Friday at aperitivo time to grasp “real” life.
In both cases, it becomes very easy to see how the 99.x% of the Italian population (let alone the global one!) live perfectly well without wondering every day about the future of human intelligence in relation to AI, how to build a diversified portfolio while waiting for the next financial crisis or [...insert boring topic of your choice...].
The funny thing is that, if the briefly mentioned stereotypes (the young person working in Tech-Finance while living in a bubble and the rest of the “healthy” population) could meet, they would both think the other is an idiot.... which naturally makes me wonder as well!
The difference, however, is not limited to personal interests; it is also about the heterogeneity of the sample: if I compare my current daily life with my time as a student in Milan, I realise that in the past I had the chance to interact with people with far more varied backgrounds, ambitions and values. Even though they came from a still atypical reality (Milan), they made up a sample much closer to the European (Italian) population.
In Zurich, by contrast, most of my interactions are with white men aged 20 to 25, students or workers in tech/finance, likely expats and showing a hint of genius/talent/sociopathy/autism.
Another doubt I often have concerns the immense luck I feel I have had.
I think that, despite there having been (and there being to come) moments of difficulty and uncertainty, life has always smiled on me and it has allowed me, without too much difficulty, to dedicate myself to a vertical I enjoy (and which, for now, brings food on the table!) and surround myself with the “right” people.
That said, I often wonder how much this belief is “biased” by the fact that I am living this life.
Let me explain: would a third person, who does not know me and leads a completely opposite life, think the same about the luck I have had if they observed my everyday life?
Probably, in their eyes, the “luck” I am talking about manifests itself in other ways, and they see no value in what I do. Here too, I ironically wonder which of the two of us is “right”... still aware that there is no real concept of right or wrong in this regard.
Maybe a Coca-Cola by the lake is better...
What most people struggle to understand, though, is that, however strange it may seem, I (and most people who share this way of thinking and living in a “bubble”) am happy with all this or, at the very least, recognise its value and how rewarding it can be in the medium and long term.
By that, I am not denying the pleasure of a spritz at a fancy place (even if a non-alcoholic Coca-Cola bought at Migros and drunk with company by the lake is Pareto-superior for me), but rather arguing that, in the grand game of life, these are ultimately trivial things compared with leading a daily life with purpose, intentionality and alignment with one's values and passions.
In short, do I live in a bubble?
Yes, and almost certainly my moments of escape are all limited to my trips back to Italy and the days I spend with my girlfriend. Still, I do not think it is necessarily a bad thing: as long as it remains a conscious choice and not the only lens through which I see the world, I think it can be a good way to maximise one's human capital!
