Where the autist wins

Many years ago, when I was 17 or 18, I really thought that I could be a musician. I learned musical theory by myself, trying to create chords with what I knew. And I tried to write songs with complex chords, because C, D and G were for losers.

I spent a lot of time, practicing guitar and bass. I remember spending hours with my favorite CD's on my stereo, playing over and over the same songs with my guitar or my bass.

You have to be a little bit autist to do that kind of thing. You have to be very focus. You have to listen to one song, to try it, again and again to recreate the song in a perfect way.

When I was about 26 or 27, I stopped writing songs and recording them. I started to teach music to some people. And once again, the autist stuff came back. Because it was learning things and repeat them, over and over. That's the only thing that works: try something slowly, then try it quicker and quicker and quicker. Very often the same stuff, but quicker.

I finally realized, somewhere in my mid-twenties, that I would never be a professional musician. And probably not a semi-pro musician either. But I never gave up on guitar or bass. Because I liked playing music and I still like it.

Recently, I bought a new bass, for my birthday. I started to play once again, after more than one year without practicing bass at home. It felt great. And I've started to play new songs. And I realized that, when you try to play a complex song, it's about the same thing as learning to invest:

You have to be very careful on details. You have to understand what you do and what the band is doing. If you want to play a song perfectly, you'll have to play it a lot of times. That's where many people won't understand. Because most people don't want to put the effort in something. They'd rather lay on the couch with their phones, watching people masturbating on Tik-Tok or taking a crap on Instagram. Most people want to rest their brains at the first occasion.

Well, I really like to rest my brain. Actually, it's probably my favorite hobby. But, once in a while, I like to stimulate my brain or another part of my anatomy. That's why I like to invest on the stock market and why I like to play music.

Both are an intellectual challenge. And they're two of few places where the autist wins over normal people.

Yeah, if you're a good investor, you're probably a fucking autist.