Hi Maxim. My name is Jason Janczak. I live in Madison, Wisconsin, and I have been trying to push my way through the program. I am in the middle of a self-made cycle to be a mechanic. I have taken a complete 180 degree turn in my life from working in a warehouse driving a forklift to now working in an auto shop, working my way to getting my certification. I guess what I am saying is thank you for doing this blog. It has kept me focused on my path. It reminds me that even through the dirt and the grease, that this hard work will be worth it in the end and I have much more to look forward to, including all of the learning that has yet to come!
Jason, so great to hear about what you’re doing and that The Preparation has been useful to you. A self-made mechanic cycle sounds great. Those skills are underrated. And thank you. It means a lot to hear that. I’m happy that this blog has been beneficial to you on your own path as that’s part of what I hoped it would do when I first started. Good luck on your path, I wish you the best. Hopefully we can meet sometime in the future.
Max,.... I am so glad that you are focusing on the markets and how to interpret investments by the world's events. You are so blessed to have your father to work with you on this. No one ever thought the markets were easy (if they have half a brain), and it takes years to understand trades. Glad your health is back on track, and that you are studying all this.
Great write up, and I totally agree with your synopsis. While I’m not expert either, my eyes were opened wide when I first learned about bonds, QE, and fractional reserve banking. The whole time I was thinking of how shitty and risky this system operates. The world is held together with band aids. I’m glad I’m not the only one who feels that way.
Discussing the different forms of inflation would be good. You discussed the various ways currency debasement occurs, but asset price inflation and cost push inflation are also important to understand. Without the means, the understanding of the end result is impossible.
Book Recommendations:
“The Psychology of Money” by Morgan Housel is a good book to understand behavioral economics, which is what drives a lot of equity valuations.
“The Creature from Jekyll Island” is good for understanding the Federal Reserve and the debt creation & financing mechanisms.
“Fed Up” by Daniell DiMartino Booth is a scary view into the Federal Reserve’s internal operations.
“Confessions of an Economic Hitman” by John Perkins is great for gaining a view into how debt creation ties in to geopolitics and the international USD system.
I am in my 50s and listen to your dad and Doug every week. I have learned a great deal and just feel such gratitude to be able to sit and listen.
I also found your explanation of basic economic and financial principles helpful. There concepts are the sorts of things that one thinks they understand - but it is most useful to actually read an explanation of them and solidify them in our minds.
With regard to QE and fractional reserve banking, money printing, etc., it feels as if we are just all suspended in thin air. We are no longer standing on anything solid.
I just learned so much, thank you for these excellent summaries. The financial system really is a Ponzi scheme! Watching “The Big Short” should be part of the Investor cycle curriculum. Love me some dividends!!
The counterintuitive thing about dividend stocks is the companies that return money to investors (through dividends or buybacks) don’t actually need your money or have anywhere better to put it. If they did have a better place to invest money, they wouldn’t be giving investors the money they have lying around.
Hey Max, hope you get this in time. There's an opportunity if you want to take it to join the Chess Vibes Academy. I'm not affiliated, I'm actually a student myself just joined. Nelson Lopez is a pretty good instructor, just check out his older stuff and I think you'll agree and the new videos on the platform are just as instructive:
Heck even his current youtube content is great, but the academy will be 1 week long course, 20 minutes of instruction per day with 30 minutes of homework. You can ask questions and Nelson will answer, plus a live stream with academy members where you can submit questions ahead of time or during the live broadcast and he will address them
Bootcamp Agenda is:
Month 1: Blunder-Proof Protocol: Learn a system to prevent blunders
Month 2: 50 Tactics You Must Know
Month 3: Winning Middle Game Plans
The prework was to look at my last 20 games and count how many I lost to blunders. I am 1100elo in rapid and I had 7 lost to blunders, 1 to time, and 12 wins.
First bootcamp starts on May 4th. Still time to sign up if you want, but it'll close soon as boot camp begins and it'll stay closed until July after the 3rd one. Wanted to let you know about it, I think the first 3 boot camps will be excellent if you have the time for it
For example one thing Nelson helps with is about openings. He thinks if you're a player below 1500 you shouldn't study openings, instead he recommends learning the Kings Indian Defense as you can play it for both black and white.
Reasons were pretty convincing to me:
1. If you play E4 you need to know all the lines for Sicilian, Caro-Kann, French, Scandinavian, and all the variations of each. For Kings Defense it's very straight forward, just stick to the same system
2. Play Kings Defense for black and white, play 100 games it's the same. If you do the same for E4 you may see the same lines 10% of the time, so more repetition in Kings Defense
3. Kings Defense is strong enough opening you'll get to the middle game in good shape far more often and be able to just play chess from there without losing to tricky opening lines
Even if you don't join the academy maybe this small tip from Nelson will be useful for you. I'm going to do this and see how it goes. Often many of my blunders were from obscure openings the opponent knew well and the game was lost by move 10
Hi Maxim. My name is Jason Janczak. I live in Madison, Wisconsin, and I have been trying to push my way through the program. I am in the middle of a self-made cycle to be a mechanic. I have taken a complete 180 degree turn in my life from working in a warehouse driving a forklift to now working in an auto shop, working my way to getting my certification. I guess what I am saying is thank you for doing this blog. It has kept me focused on my path. It reminds me that even through the dirt and the grease, that this hard work will be worth it in the end and I have much more to look forward to, including all of the learning that has yet to come!
Jason, so great to hear about what you’re doing and that The Preparation has been useful to you. A self-made mechanic cycle sounds great. Those skills are underrated. And thank you. It means a lot to hear that. I’m happy that this blog has been beneficial to you on your own path as that’s part of what I hoped it would do when I first started. Good luck on your path, I wish you the best. Hopefully we can meet sometime in the future.
Thank you, you too! I appreciate the reply! Best of luck with the next cycle!
Wow that's awesome!! Congrats!
Max,.... I am so glad that you are focusing on the markets and how to interpret investments by the world's events. You are so blessed to have your father to work with you on this. No one ever thought the markets were easy (if they have half a brain), and it takes years to understand trades. Glad your health is back on track, and that you are studying all this.
Bravo Maxim. Already wise beyond your years. Your Dad is an awesome resource.
He certainly is. I’m very lucky.
Great write up, and I totally agree with your synopsis. While I’m not expert either, my eyes were opened wide when I first learned about bonds, QE, and fractional reserve banking. The whole time I was thinking of how shitty and risky this system operates. The world is held together with band aids. I’m glad I’m not the only one who feels that way.
Discussing the different forms of inflation would be good. You discussed the various ways currency debasement occurs, but asset price inflation and cost push inflation are also important to understand. Without the means, the understanding of the end result is impossible.
Book Recommendations:
“The Psychology of Money” by Morgan Housel is a good book to understand behavioral economics, which is what drives a lot of equity valuations.
“The Creature from Jekyll Island” is good for understanding the Federal Reserve and the debt creation & financing mechanisms.
“Fed Up” by Daniell DiMartino Booth is a scary view into the Federal Reserve’s internal operations.
“Confessions of an Economic Hitman” by John Perkins is great for gaining a view into how debt creation ties in to geopolitics and the international USD system.
I am in my 50s and listen to your dad and Doug every week. I have learned a great deal and just feel such gratitude to be able to sit and listen.
I also found your explanation of basic economic and financial principles helpful. There concepts are the sorts of things that one thinks they understand - but it is most useful to actually read an explanation of them and solidify them in our minds.
With regard to QE and fractional reserve banking, money printing, etc., it feels as if we are just all suspended in thin air. We are no longer standing on anything solid.
I just learned so much, thank you for these excellent summaries. The financial system really is a Ponzi scheme! Watching “The Big Short” should be part of the Investor cycle curriculum. Love me some dividends!!
The counterintuitive thing about dividend stocks is the companies that return money to investors (through dividends or buybacks) don’t actually need your money or have anywhere better to put it. If they did have a better place to invest money, they wouldn’t be giving investors the money they have lying around.
Hey Max, hope you get this in time. There's an opportunity if you want to take it to join the Chess Vibes Academy. I'm not affiliated, I'm actually a student myself just joined. Nelson Lopez is a pretty good instructor, just check out his older stuff and I think you'll agree and the new videos on the platform are just as instructive:
https://youtu.be/Bo93mIhnDz4?si=sNQwqVTweBwAfM1h
Heck even his current youtube content is great, but the academy will be 1 week long course, 20 minutes of instruction per day with 30 minutes of homework. You can ask questions and Nelson will answer, plus a live stream with academy members where you can submit questions ahead of time or during the live broadcast and he will address them
Bootcamp Agenda is:
Month 1: Blunder-Proof Protocol: Learn a system to prevent blunders
Month 2: 50 Tactics You Must Know
Month 3: Winning Middle Game Plans
The prework was to look at my last 20 games and count how many I lost to blunders. I am 1100elo in rapid and I had 7 lost to blunders, 1 to time, and 12 wins.
First bootcamp starts on May 4th. Still time to sign up if you want, but it'll close soon as boot camp begins and it'll stay closed until July after the 3rd one. Wanted to let you know about it, I think the first 3 boot camps will be excellent if you have the time for it
https://chessvibes.net/chess-vibes-academy/
For example one thing Nelson helps with is about openings. He thinks if you're a player below 1500 you shouldn't study openings, instead he recommends learning the Kings Indian Defense as you can play it for both black and white.
Reasons were pretty convincing to me:
1. If you play E4 you need to know all the lines for Sicilian, Caro-Kann, French, Scandinavian, and all the variations of each. For Kings Defense it's very straight forward, just stick to the same system
2. Play Kings Defense for black and white, play 100 games it's the same. If you do the same for E4 you may see the same lines 10% of the time, so more repetition in Kings Defense
3. Kings Defense is strong enough opening you'll get to the middle game in good shape far more often and be able to just play chess from there without losing to tricky opening lines
Even if you don't join the academy maybe this small tip from Nelson will be useful for you. I'm going to do this and see how it goes. Often many of my blunders were from obscure openings the opponent knew well and the game was lost by move 10