Divya Mangotra's Reviews > Same as Ever: A Guide to What Never Changes

Same as Ever helps one understand what doesn’t change in this ever-changing world. When we think about the future, we think about forecasting, which is hard to predict every single time. However, things that never change are significant because once you recognise them, you can understand how they influence the future.

The book contains insightful advice on taking risks, seizing opportunities, and living to the fullest. The stories are easy to follow and will make you ponder as you flip through the pages.

My top 5 lessons from the book are:
1. Invest in preparedness, not prediction: The biggest risk is always what no one sees coming because if no one sees it coming, no one's prepared for it; and if no one's prepared for it, its damage will be amplified when it arrives. The biggest news, the biggest risks, the most consequential events are always what you don’t see coming.

2. How much money is too much money?: Money buys happiness in the same way drugs bring pleasure: incredible if done right, dangerous if used to mask a weakness, and disastrous when no amount is enough. We tend to take every precaution to safeguard our material possessions because we know what they cost. But at the same time, we neglect things which are much more precious because they don't come with price tags attached: The real value of things like our eyesight or relationships or freedom can be hidden to us because money is not changing hands (Peter Kaufman).

3. People you admire aren't perfect: Something that's built into the human condition is that people who think about the world in unique ways you like almost certainly also think about the world in unique ways you won't like.

4. Pessimism Sells: Bad news gets more attention than good news because pessimism is seductive and feels more urgent than optimism. The odds of a bad news story, a fraud, a corruption, a disaster occurring in your local town at any given moment is low. When you expand your attention nationally, the odds increase. When they expand globally, the odds of something terrible happening in any given moment are 100 percent. Optimism and Pessimism seem like conflicting mindsets, so it's more common for people to prefer one or the other. But knowing how to balance the two has always been, and always will be, one of life's most important skills.

5. Stress focuses your attention in ways good times can't: A constant truth you see throughout history is that the biggest changes and the most important innovations don't happen when everyone is happy and things are going well. They tend to occur during, and after, a terrible event. When people are a little panicked, shocked, worried, and when the consequences of not acting quickly are too painful to bear. Militaries are engines of innovation because they occasionally deal with problems so important- so urgent, so vital- that money and manpower are removed as obstacles, and those involved collaborate in ways that are hard to emulate during calm times.