Last month I read How to Get Rich in American History by Joseph S. Moore. It’s a history book that outlines the strategies Americans used to create wealth and climb the economic ladder over 300 years. Chapter 2, “Fast Time, Slow Time,” described the concept I found most intriguing. You can see my thoughts about and explanation of the fast time vs. slow time concept here.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been thinking about this concept from an investor’s perspective more. I went back and read notes and highlights from books about super investors. My takeaway so far is that the investors who’ve generated outsize returns essentially used slow time, fast time as a core part of their investment evaluation.

While everyone else focused on the current state, these investors waited until the current state wasn’t sustainable (i.e., an asset price was extremely appreciated or depressed). They thought about what the likely future state would look like (without being able to predict when) based on their own analysis of that asset’s prospects. They acted decisively based on the future state they believed had a high probability of becoming reality. While everyone else was positioned for the present to continue, they positioned themselves for the future. This often meant that their actions were the opposite of everyone else’s, which sometimes exposed them to criticism. But once they’d made their move, they sat back and waited for the future they’d predicted to arrive. For weeks, months, or even years. If their predictions were right, when they finally started to play out, they did so rapidly, and the investors realized outsize returns.

I’m still thinking this concept through, but those are some of my current thoughts.