• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Your Brain on Stocks

  • Home
  • About
  • Work with Brendan
  • Press
  • Contact

It’s Not Rocket Science

August 30, 2019 by Brendan Mullooly

“It’s not rocket science”, is a phrase commonly invoked to indicate a topic’s simplicity. As Duncan Watts laments in his book, Everything is Obvious, this refrain is often unfairly applied to social science:

“Well, I’m no rocket scientist, and I have immense respect for the people who can land a machine the size of a small car on another planet. But the sad fact is that we’re actually much better at planning the flight path of an interplanetary rocket than we are at managing the economy, merging two corporations, or even predicting how many copies of a book will sell.”

For whatever reason, it seems that we accurately value the difficulty of physical science, but undervalue the difficulty of social science. This is ironic, as social science deals with the universe’s biggest wild card: us. We are literally the reason why social science gets a bad rap. Because we are unpredictable. As Richard Feynman said, “Imagine how much harder physics would be if electrons had feelings!”.

According to Morgan Housel: “Investing is not the study of finance. It’s the study of how people behave with money.” I agree, and believe that investing is far closer to sociology than it is to physics. We require formulas and spreadsheets, but only to an extent.

Things we deem to be, “not rocket science”, often fall into the category of “simple, but not easy”. These are things we know we should do, and still don’t. They taunt us psychologically because the answers are right in front of us, but implementation is way easier said than done.

I think this is why many of us try to transform investing into rocket science. We prefer, “not simple or easy”, to “simple, but not easy”. This doesn’t help anything, but makes us feel better. After all, failing at something complex appears more laudable than struggling with something that’s, “not rocket science”. When we don’t like the rules, we change the game.

But no matter how elaborate an investment formula is, it will never be a scientific law. No matter how convincing somebody sounds, they do not have all the answers. And no matter how good a backtest looks, it means very little about the future.

While it’s true that investing is “not rocket science”, I don’t think we should take that to mean it’s easy. It just means the emotional challenges will outnumber the intellectual challenges as we pursue success, which is certainly no walk in the park.

Filed Under: Behavioral Finance, Investing Tagged With: investor psychology

Previous Post: « Well, Technically
Next Post: Pucker Factor »

Reader Interactions

Trackbacks

  1. Tim’s Top Links – 8/30/19 | Living With Money says:
    August 30, 2019 at 10:58 am

    […] ‘It’s Not Rocket Science’ – Brendan Mullooly – Your Brain on Stocks […]

  2. Sunday links: rocket pseudoscience | AlltopCash.com says:
    September 1, 2019 at 1:37 pm

    […] (Brendan Mullooly) Chart of the Day […]

Primary Sidebar

Brendan Mullooly, CFP®

Brendan Mullooly, CFP®

Brendan Mullooly is a New Jersey based CFP® professional and investment advisor at Mullooly Asset Management, Inc.

Recent Posts

  • “Some Worry”s
  • The Most Difficult Decision in Finance
  • How a CFP® Professional Handles Monthly Cash Flow
  • All at Once
  • A Newfound Appreciation for Risk

Archives

  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • March 2021
  • December 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019

Categories

  • Behavioral Finance
  • Financial Planning
  • Investing
  • News

Footer

Disclaimer

The content on this website reflects the personal opinions, thoughts, and analysis of Brendan Mullooly. It should not be taken as a description of services provided by his employer. The opinions expressed on this website are for general informational purposes only and are not intended as specific or personalized financial advice. The views on this website are subject to change at any time without notice. Nothing on this website constitutes investment advice or a recommendation that any particular security, portfolio of securities, transaction, or investment strategy is suitable for any specific person. Any mention of a particular security and related performance data is never a recommendation to buy or sell. Investments in securities involve the risk of loss. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Copyright © 2025 Your Brain on Stocks on the Foodie Pro Theme