October 2025 Newsletter
- bespoke62
- 21 hours ago
- 5 min read

The Power of Zooming Out
The single most important skill in long-term wealth building isn’t predicting what happens next. It’s the ability to maintain a proper perspective on what has already happened.
Yet even the most rational investors struggle with this. Recent experiences feel more real and urgent than abstract historical data because our brains evolved to prioritise immediate, vivid information over distant statistics. This isn’t a lack of intelligence. It’s human nature. Behavioural economists call this recency bias, and it affects everyone from Nobel Prize winners to seasoned investment managers.
The challenge becomes acute during extended periods of either strong performance or significant declines. After a few years of solid returns, it’s easy to assume this will continue. After a sharp correction, it feels like the world will never be the same again.
Smart investors recognise this psychological trap and consciously fight against it. Without this awareness, investors make costly permanent changes based on temporary conditions.
The Power of Extended Time Frames
The simplest habit of fighting this human urge is to force yourself to extend the time frames you are looking at. By zooming out, you are consciously extending your analytical timeframe beyond recent events. Instead of focusing on this month’s returns or this year’s market movements, you examine patterns over multiple years or decades.
This shift reveals something crucial: most of what feels significant in the moment becomes statistical noise over longer periods. The market correction that dominated headlines for weeks becomes barely visible on a ten-year chart. The three-year run of strong returns, which feels so reassuring, represents just a small sample in market history.
Extended timeframes also reveal the true nature of investment returns. They don’t arrive in neat packages. Years of strong performance cluster together, followed by periods of disappointing results. Volatility isn’t a bug in the system; it’s an inherent feature that creates the opportunity for long-term wealth building.
This broader perspective works both ways. It prevents the panic that leads to selling at market lows, but also prevents the overconfidence that leads to poor decisions during good times.
When you understand that current conditions are temporary, you’re less likely to make permanent changes based on temporary circumstances.

Today’s Context and Historical Perspective
We’re approaching the end of what could be the third consecutive year of solid global equity returns. This creates a unique psychological challenge. Investment returns that should feel exceptional start to feel normal. Investors begin building mental models around recent success, unconsciously extrapolating current conditions into the future.
Historical analysis tells a different story. Consecutive years of above-average returns are relatively rare and never last. Market cycles are characterised by periods of strong performance followed by periods of below-average returns or outright declines. This isn’t pessimism, it’s pattern recognition. Mean reversion is one of the most reliable principles in financial markets. We can’t predict the catalyst or timing, but we can prepare for this reality.
The investors who navigate cycles successfully aren’t the ones who avoid volatility; they’re the ones who expect it. When you zoom out and view current market strength within the context of normal cyclical behaviour, you’re more likely to stay disciplined when conditions change.
Developing This Discipline
Building the “zoom out” habit requires conscious effort, especially when recent results support your natural biases. The goal is to maintain analytical objectivity regardless of current conditions.
Before making significant portfolio changes, ask whether you’re responding to temporary noise or permanent shifts in fundamentals. Most market events that feel momentous prove temporary when viewed through a longer lens.
The investors who consistently zoom out compound wealth over decades rather than chasing short-term results. We’re here to help you maintain this perspective, especially when it feels most difficult.
Read
How to increase your surface area for luck [5 minutes]. The more you engage with the world, the more chances you have to discover valuable collaborations and experiences.
Life Isn’t a Spreadsheet [3 minutes].
True fulfilment comes from experiences, relationships, and moments that bring joy and meaning, rather than just financial calculations.
The Powerful Thinking Skill Nobody Ever Taught
You [5 minutes].
Avoiding mistakes and thinking in terms of what could go wrong is crucial for successful investing.
You Need to Be Bored. Here’s Why. [4 minutes].
Embracing boredom can lead to greater self-reflection and a deeper understanding of life’s meaningful questions.
The Riddle of Rest [5 minutes].
True rest allows for a genuine experience of peace and presence in the moment.
Golden Lessons [2 minutes].
The children’s book that serves as a timeless parable about human behaviour.
Rational Optimism
The media is not a friend of the disciplined and patient investor. Ignoring the key determinants of lifetime investor returns, the media focuses on short-term returns, market predictions, and negative news.
We present the following as an antidote to the onslaught of negative news:
Apple Introduces AirPods Pro 3 with Live Translation Feature
Apple’s presentation ventured into what was once sci-fi territory with live translation via Apple Intelligence, which is basically Star Trek’s universal translator—just a little bit clunkier.
Global Child Poverty Has Been on a Steady Decline Since 2014
In 2024, an estimated 412 million children aged 17 or younger were residing in households living on less than $3 a day, the extreme poverty line used for low-income countries. Globally, child poverty has been on a steady, if slow, decline since 2014, when an estimated 507 million children lived in extreme poverty.
Waymo’s Most Serious Crashes Are Rarely Waymo’s Fault
Waymo estimates that its vehicles get into injury-causing crashes (including that detached wheel crash) 80 percent less often than human drivers. Crashes that injure pedestrians were 92 percent less common.
Visuals
Why Rare Earths Are Critical to EV Motors
Electric vehicles are reshaping the demand landscape for rare earth elements. As EV sales surge worldwide, the motors that power them are becoming one of the fastest-growing sources of demand for rare earth magnets.
Sinking Fertility Rates in the World’s 10 Largest Countries
Over the last half-century, fertility rates have collapsed around the globe. This demographic shift will result in a shrinking workforce, potentially adding a burden to pension and healthcare systems.
In this infographic, we visualize global fertility decline from 1960 through 2023, focusing on the world’s 10 biggest nation.
The Size of European Economies by GDP in 2025
While many people picture Europe’s prosperity through the lens of its Western powerhouses, a closer look at Europe’s GDP by region reveals a more nuanced regional picture.
The visualization breaks down purchasing-power-parity (PPP)-adjusted output in 2025, showing how different parts of Europe contribute to the continent’s collective wealth.
The data for this visualization comes from the International Monetary Fund.
A PPP-adjusted GDP equalizes price levels across countries to provide a more apples-to-apples view of economic size. It is measured in International dollars, (Int$) which can hypothetically buy in each country what $1 buys in America. Regional classifications are sourced from the United Nations Geoscheme.


