Hello Honeybees,

Thanks to your positive reception, we are continuing our experiment in mini-video blogs – this time discussing the vital difference between investing and finance (in just one minute!).

I believe that investing is a primary, connected activity, focused on exchange and mutual benefit – a natural biological system (or ecosystem, if you prefer). Finance, though, consists of all of the secondary activity that surrounds investing – it is more linear, more engineered, and more disconnected – a mechanical system. Those mechanical tools are not bad – in fact they are very useful – but their dynamics are very different from natural systems. Usually mechanical systems are designed for maximization , linearity, and growth, whereas natural systems are designed for optimization, complexity, and development.

This distinction between investing and finance has led to my increased focus on the study of natural systems and their importance to investing – much more to come as that work continues to develop.