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low expected return but volatile plays are the ONLY way to get equality with open access to compounding systems. outside of financial products this includes things like personal networks, knowledge systems, political capital, personal maturity, etc...

e.g. someone who is 10 years older than you is going to have 10 years of base advantage but also is GROWING faster than you. not only are you behind, but the absolute distance is increasing faster and faster. this can feel incredibly unfair.

if someone has read 10 years more worth of books, their understanding of the world will accelerate faster than you and you will never catch up. the knowledge interlocks but also has higher order benefits like knowing what NOT to read and skimming faster b/c of better fundamentals

chances are you can never catch up to your favorite philosopher/writer/whatever unless they start getting senile/crazy/dead/villainous/self-deluded/etc...

same for capital. unless it’s poorly mismanaged you can never catch up with the “best” play. your only hope is a worse play with higher volatility!

this is why an overly competitive mindset can ruin you. if you hyper-focus on catching up to someone because you want to “win” your plays will becoming increasingly desperate. sure some will win, but most will lose. high volatility plays are the essence of lottery tickets

the thing is though, even though the absolute difference is increasing, the time difference is not. the person who is 10 years ahead is always 10 years ahead (until death)