Some Wisdom From Ed Thorpe

Enough is a rare thing

Highly recommend the entire podcast from Tim Ferris, (transcript here) but here’s my favorite story from it:

Edward O. Thorp: Joseph Heller wrote his famous book, Catch-22, of which they made a movie way back maybe 50 years ago. I’m not sure exactly when. But it was very well known and famous at the time.

And Kurt Vonnegut is well known too for a variety of books. And Joseph Heller died, I’m not sure when, maybe early 2000s. And Kurt Vonnegut was writing in The New Yorker about him. And he said, “Joseph Heller and I were at a hedge fund mogul’s house.” I’m not sure if it was hedge fund mogul, but somebody very, very rich in New York.

“And I said to Joseph Heller, ‘You’ve made a lot of money out of Catch-22. This guy makes as much money in a day as you’re ever going to make. He’s got penthouses and yachts and jets and villas and models falling off his arm and so on.'”

And Joseph Heller looked back and said, “I have something he’ll never have.” Kurt Vonnegut was puzzled and he said, “What’s that?”  Heller said, “I have enough.” And that’s something that people who endlessly chase money to the end don’t figure out: that you can have enough and it’s better than not having enough.

Keep in mind Ed Thorpe was generating nearly 20% returns on a very low risk-adjusted basis at his hedge fund. He is one of the true practitioner GOATS. If you want to learn more about him and a life truly inspired by curiosity, buy his book, A Man for All Markets.

I just re-ordered a hard copy for the library