The Endgame

Newsletter #54 - The too hard pile

Toronto, February 4, 2024

The too hard pile

What do you do when something or someone is not worth the aggravation?

When I practised law a colleague would sometimes say, as we puzzled over a complex legal problem, “let’s put that one on the too hard pile.” The expression “too hard pile” was coined by Charlie Munger, the legendary Berkshire Hathaway investor. When asked how he and Warren Buffet chose investments, Munger said, “At Berkshire we have three buckets: yes, no, and too hard.”

You might be critical of the too hard approach. After all, isn’t it a professional’s job to solve any and all problems, and not shove the difficult ones to one side? My answer is no, that’s not his job. Part of what a professional must do is decide what matters and what doesn’t. A good lawyer or doctor or engineer won’t waste time on marginal issues. (Of course, you might feel differently if your doctor ignores vital test results because he can’t figure them out.)

A related skill is knowing when to stop. An issue may be worth your attention, but how much of your attention and for how long? Sometimes it takes as much time and effort to figure out the last ten per cent of a problem as the first ninety per cent. Is that last ten per cent really worth it? Should that last bit go on the too hard pile? Yes, it should, most times. Time to stop.

The too hard principles don’t just apply to abstract issues. They also apply to personal relationships. Some personal relationships aren’t worth the trouble. They belong on the too hard pile, right from the start. Other relationships may be worth pursuing, but not forever and not at any cost (although it’s okay nostalgically to regard an abandoned relationship with affection). This may sound cold-hearted, ruthless even, but I don’t think that’s the case. Judicious application of the too hard principles to personal relationships will, over time, surely increase the net amount of human happiness.

But how do you figure out when something or someone is just not worth bothering about? How do you know when it’s time to apply the too hard principles to a thing or to a person?

Experience helps. The older you are the better you’ll be at working the too hard pile. Once bitten, twice shy. There’s some advantage to playing in the endgame.

But what if you’re semi-callow, a bit short on experience? You can always fall back on intuition. Intuition may be superior to experience. Albert Einstein thought so. Reputedly he said, “All great achievements of science must start from intuitive knowledge. At times I feel certain I am right while not knowing the reason.” Steve Jobs agreed with Einstein. Jobs said, “Intuition is a very powerful thing, more powerful than intellect.” And Einstein and Jobs knew a thing or two, what with general relativity and the iPhone.

Also, a certain degree of education and culture might help shore up your intuition and make you less reliant on experience. Readers of this newsletter will all have studied Montaigne’s essays and carefully read and re-read Middlemarch and Coriolanus (“I banish you”), thereby improving their skill in applying the too hard principles. I can’t help but think, Einstein and Jobs notwithstanding, that the more experience and education you have, the better your intuition will be. A doctor is more likely accurately to intuit your medical condition if he’s seen it many times before and stays up at night reading medical journals.

One last point. You can make a mistake when you apply the too hard principles. You may be turning aside someone who, given a chance, would have become the love of your life.

Comment from a reader on #53

A reader perceptively commented: “Isn’t it interesting that when comparing the king and Lloyd Austin, it is the king who one might have thought would epitomize British reservedness, a reflexive preference for privacy, and living by the adage to ‘never complain, never explain,’ who decided to be forthright about his health, and it is the American who notwithstanding stereotypes and national characteristics of going on about everything as loudly and publicly as possible who opted for silence?”

By the way, the king and I are both doing well following our BPH surgery last week. Here’s a picture of the king as he left the hospital: