{"id":17609,"date":"2025-09-16T06:33:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T14:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/?p=17609"},"modified":"2025-11-13T11:13:54","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T19:13:54","slug":"changing-my-mind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2025\/09\/16\/changing-my-mind\/","title":{"rendered":"12 Things I Changed My Mind About After Researching for Foundations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week, I talked about my process<\/a> for doing intensive research combined with building new habits that I\u2019ve been using this past year in my Foundations<\/a> project.<\/p>\n

One question that sometimes comes up when I emphasize the value of doing research is whether reading a lot of books is necessary. Did you really need to read books to tell you that exercising was important? Or that you shouldn\u2019t eat junk food? That you should get to bed on time?<\/p>\n

I think this \u201cI know that already\u201d problem infects a lot of areas of self-improvement. In brief:<\/p>\n

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  1. Hindsight bias is strong.<\/strong> Everything is obvious<\/a> once you know the answer. The value of research is usually in telling you which of two plausible theories is true, or which advice from different, seemingly sensible approaches works best.<\/li>\n
  2. Reading is attentional, not just informational. <\/strong>My heavy<\/a> reading<\/a> lists<\/a> didn\u2019t<\/a> just<\/a> teach<\/a> me<\/a> new<\/a> things<\/a> about<\/a> each<\/a> topic, they also forced me to think about those themes for the entire month. Since much of improvement is simply focusing on something long enough to make a change, this shift in focus is much easier to sustain if you do a lot of reading.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    However, even if I think we rarely overhaul our entire belief system upon deeper research of a topic,<\/span>1<\/sup><\/a><\/span> I wanted to talk about some areas where I changed my mind during the last twelve months of research.<\/p>\n

    For each foundation, I\u2019ve picked the belief that I changed my mind about that made the biggest difference in my actual behavior.<\/p>\n

    1. Fitness: Cardio matters more than lifting weights for health.<\/h2>\n
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    As I mentioned in my fitness day one update<\/a>, for years I had largely done strength training. Some of this was the classical vanity of a skinny twenty-something kid wanting to bulk up. But part of it was also that, at the time, I enjoyed lifting weights more than running or cycling.<\/p>\n

    Coincident with that preference was the belief that exercise was exercise. You should exercise to be healthy, but otherwise the choice was up to you.<\/p>\n

    Now I largely believe that while both strength training and cardiovascular exercise have benefits for health, the benefits are largely distinct<\/a>. Strength training helps build bone and muscle mass, something that is especially important as you age. But cardiovascular exercise has the stronger relationship<\/a> with health and reduced mortality outcomes.<\/p>\n

    2. Productivity: Happiness, not stress, leads to productivity.<\/h2>\n
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    We\u2019re taught a confusing mix of messages about work and productivity. We need to hustle, but also to have balance. We need to lean in, but also practice self-care. Results come from straining ourselves in deliberate practice<\/a>, but also from flow<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    I now think a lot of strain is overrated. The research shows<\/a> that people are most productive at work when they have more positive emotions. And that positive inner work-life comes largely from feeling like they are making progress.<\/p>\n

    In other words, forget the masochistic talk about grinding and hustling. Focus instead on the steady drip-drip-drip of making incremental progress towards your big tasks.<\/p>\n

    3. Money: Bonds are riskier than stocks in the long-term.<\/h2>\n
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    Most investors shouldn\u2019t be picking individual stocks. I\u2019d even go further and say that most investors shouldn\u2019t even be putting their money with experienced advisors who pick stocks. Buying a low-cost index fund<\/a> is the right choice for most people.<\/p>\n

    But even though I’ve long been persuaded of the efficacy of index investing, which was amply confirmed doing the research that month, one area I changed my mind with had to do with asset allocation.<\/p>\n

    Traditionally there\u2019s an understanding that you should hold a mixed portfolio of stocks and bonds<\/a>. Stocks tend to be riskier, but also higher return. So, for younger investors with more time until retirement, a high-stock portfolio is best. But this should slowly add in more bonds, as this leads to greater security (at the price of lower returns).<\/p>\n

    Interestingly, I\u2019ve now become largely convinced that, in the long-run, stocks don\u2019t just perform better, they\u2019re actually less risky than bonds<\/a>. Bonds have some undesirable features so that, even if their volatility is lower, the actual risk of holding them goes up over longer time horizons. \u2028\u2028Practically speaking, this didn’t change my actual portfolio. But it does suggest that the reason to hold a mixed portfolio should depend much more on your time horizon rather than your risk tolerance.<\/p>\n

    4. Food: Saturated fat is still bad for you.<\/h2>\n
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    Until this project, I had mostly a passing interest in nutrition. From that, I had basically imbibed a pretty common message about the changes in research-grounded advice that goes something like this:<\/span>2<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n