On the nature of change

 Greg Berman -Same As Ever by Mogan Housel, a partner at a venture capital firm and a frequent blogger, is a unique product. I hesitate to call it a book. It does come packaged like a book, with hundreds of pages bound together between two covers, but it is really something else — a loose collection of stories, quotations, and aphorisms. In fairness, Housel’s approach may well be a model for future authors. For those who find their attention spans shattered by modern technology and all of the distractions at our fingertips, Same As Ever will be a perfect fit, with each tiny chapter standing on its own and taking just a few minutes to consume.

As a writer, I can’t help but admire Housel’s chutzpah. He has done essentially no original research. Instead, he places enormous faith in his ability to draw meaningful insights out of anecdotes about famous figures and historical incidents, many of which are well-known and more thoroughly documented in other places. Housel’s self confidence is not unjustified. He does indeed have a gift for extracting and communicating simple life lessons. Historians and others with relevant expertise will likely quibble with many of his interpretations. No doubt things are much more complicated than Housel presents. Nonetheless, there are valuable insights here. More