Zen and the Art of Investment

The latest is not always the greatest.

A 16th Century Japanese sumi-e illustration showing a traditional tradesman and a monk in Buddhist robes within a Buddhist temple courtyard. The composition includes wooden temple architecture with intricate but weathered carvings, stone lanterns, cherry blossom trees with faded blooms, and a modest Zen garden. Executed in an old inkwash (sumi-e) style with subdued brush strokes, strong contrasts softened by faded ink, and a monochromatic palette with muted earth tones. Features aged paper texture and intentional ink bleeding to enhance the antique look.

A broker came to see a Master, and said: “Master, I am so excited. I am going to apply Agile principles to all my investment decisions. I will be the first Agile investment broker!”

“I see,” said the Master, thoughtfully. “Enlighten me, what are those principles, and how are they good?”

“Well, I don’t know, Master. The Agile school of thinking has already modernized many other branches of industry. I’ll just be the first to use them in investment. All those Agile businesses can’t possibly be wrong!”

“Is that so,” said the Master. But the broker was not listening. He greeted and rushed off, eager to modernize his business.

When the broker returned a few weeks later, he looked forlorn and dejected.

“What happened?” asked the Master. “Were the Agile investment principles not successful?”

“No, Master,” said the broker. “I did everything by the book. But every investment decision turned out to be incorrect. I lost all my customers’ money, and then I lost their business. Now I am broke, and have nothing left.”

He bent his head in shame and started sobbing.

“Do not despair, my Son,” said the Master. “Why don’t you go to the soup kitchen across the temple yard? Brother Kono may have some leftover porridge for you.”

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Article index

Testing: Specification by Example for Reluctant Product Managers ★; Software Testing for Reluctant Product Managers ★; Why You Need a Staging System for Acceptance Testing, and How to Set It Up; Don’t Use Consumers (or Users) as Guinea Pigs; Beethoven, Obama, and the Perils of A/B-testing; Zen and the Art of Rubber Duck Debugging
Risk management: Don’t be a data hoarder; Why the Risk Matrix is Broken – and What to use Instead
Project management: In Praise of the Messy Development Cycle; Lost in Translation? Build a Project Dictionary; Why the Project Trilemma Doesn’t Apply to Application Development; The Importance of Marrying the Right Project Management Tool; Zen and the Nature of Flow; The Nature of Flow; Stop Asking for Estimates; The Art of Creating More Value With Less Work; How to Achieve Flow in Software Development; A Student and her Tardy Teachers; Zen and the Contest of the Two Teams; A Game of Okaloa Flowlab; A Game of Prisoner’s Dilemma; How to Reduce Lead Times; Why Two is a Great Team Size; How to Turn Around a Stalled Development Process; Two Ways of Achieving Nothing
Scrum: A Scrum Koan; A Daily Scrum Koan; Scrum and the Road to Enlightenment; The Developer who did Everything Right; The Pathway to Heaven is Paved with Thoughtful Questions; A Story Point Koan; Zen and the Definition of Done
Security: A Lightweight Information Security Management System (Part I) ★; A Lightweight Information Security Management System (Part II) ★; A Lightweight Information Security Management System (Part III) ★
Communication: A Developer’s Guide to Collaborative Communication; On The Law of Demeter and the Power of Nuanced Discourse; Marshall Rosenberg and the Angry Luthier
Technology: A Return to Simplicity
Collaboration: An Inquiry into Liberating Structures (part I) ★; Zen and the Paradox of Liberating Structures; Exploring the 1-2-4-All Micropattern (An Inquiry into Liberating Structures, part II) ★; Scattered to the Four Winds; Exploring The Nine Whys (An Inquiry into Liberating Structures, part III) ★; Zen and the Nature of Scale
Design: The Masterpiece; Design as an Emerging Property of User Needs; Zen and the Case of the Blue Roses
Legal: Dev Agencies, Drop the Fine Print! It’s Plain English That Reluctant Product Managers Need
Off-topic: My Festive Season’s Wishes to all Reluctant Product Managers
Science: A Guide to Understanding Scientific Studies (part I) ★; A Guide to Understanding Scientific Studies (part II) ★; Beware the Man in the White Coat: A Guide to Understanding Scientific Studies (part III) ★; Zen and the Art of Listening; The Story of the Little Fact
Business: Zen and the Art of Gambling; The Sunk Cost Fallacy in Software Development; How Cost of Delay Improves Investment Decisions; Zen and the Discovery of Cost of Delay; The Sorcerer and the CFO; Zen and the Nature of Ideas; Zen and the Confident CEO
Hiring: How to Find Great Developers
Contracting: How to Minimize Vendor Lock-In as a Reluctant Product Manager
Marketing: SEO (Mostly) Doesn’t Matter. Focus on the Audience Instead (Part I); SEO (Mostly) Doesn’t Matter. Focus on the Audience Instead (Part II); The Three Shoemakers
Philosophy: Zen and the Principles of Construction; Zen and the Lazy Workers’ Boss; Zen and the Three Door Problem; Zen and the Art of Decision-Making; Zen and the Overzealous Student; Zen and the Feelings of AI; Zen and the Complaining Students; Zen and the Quest for Truth; The Tradesman’s New Kimono; Zen and the Meaning of Why; Zen and the Art of Collaboration; Zen and the Nine Whys; Zen and the Perils of Micromanagement; Zen and the Nature of Quality; Zen and the Nature of Thought; Zen and the Art of Investment
Books: The Books on the Reluctant Product Manager’s Bedside Table
Product management: When is a Product “Viable”? When it’s Finished
Domain modeling: Zen and the Shopkeeper’s Enigma