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Life and Trading Lessons from Hemingway

As I work on brushing up writing skills for a potential book on my journey as a caregiver to my wife for 30+ months, I happened across a collection of advice for writers Hemingway sprinkled through his correspondence with colleagues over the years. Wisdom for the ages?

Life lesson:

“Listen now. When people talk listen completely. Don’t be thinking what you are going to say. Most people never listen. Nor do they observe. You should be able to go in to a room and when you come out know everything that you saw there and not only that. If that room gave you any feeling you should know exactly what it was that gave you that feeling. Try that for practice. When you’re in town stand outside the theatre and see how the people differ in the way they get out of taxis or motor cars. There are a thousand ways to practice. And always think of other people.”

And for traders as well as writers:

“Dostoevsky was made by being sent to Siberia. Writers are forged in injustice as a sword is forged.”

It makes me think of all the injustices bestowed upon newer traders; complexity, bad prices, one’s own emotional state, the non-obvious inner circle game– the list is endless.