On December 12th 1953,Chuck Yeager, the first man to break the sound barrier, was trying to regain his speed record by flying at more than twice the speed of sound. His previous record had been beaten by a US Navy pilot just three weeks earlier, Yeager (a US Airforce pilot) was determined to beat the Navy’s new record of Mach 2. At the time it wasn’t known what these speeds would do to the human body and pilots were flying into uncharted territory. Several of his generation of pilots had died pursuing the original goal of flying faster than the speed of sound, that he had achieved.
Yeager managed to regain his record on his first attempt, piloting his X-1A but unfortunately as he hit Mach 2.44, and at 80,000 ft, he lost control of the aircraft. Unbeknownst to anyone at the time, it wasn’t the human body that would fail at this speed but the aircraft itself.
He was the first person to experience inertia coupling, where an aircraft simultaneously rolls, pitches and yaws. There was no way he could know how to deal with such a reaction from the aircraft and he was losing altitude fast.
Within 60 seconds Chuck Yeager, widely regarded as the best pilot ever, had lost 51,000 ft and was in serious trouble.
Chuck battled with the controls of the plane but nothing he did seemed to correct his fall. He was now being tossed around so violently that he cracked his helmet against the cockpit plastic and cracked it.
The X-1A was plummeting towards the barren Mojave desert floor.
Chuck was using all of his pilot experience to try to control an aircraft against a force that he hadn’t experienced before.
Chuck realised this and eventually stopped trying to control the fatal falling, spinning and bucking of the aircraft.
At 29,000, with no pilot input, the inertia coupling ceased and Chuck Yeager was faced with just a spin and was able to get his X-1A safely into land.
He later said that if the X-1A had been fitted with an ejector seat he would have fired it, but most experts agree that at that speed it would have killed him instantly.
In her podcast the Happiness Lab, Dr Laurie Santos, argues that he only had two options; try to be in control of an uncontrollable situation or to stop making matters worse and stop intervening. There are plenty of other examples of this in the world, for example goalkeepers tend to dive left or right when statistically more penalties go close to the centre. The problem is that the goalie doesn’t want to be seen not to do anything.
Masterful or watchful inactivity is a powerful approach to some situations.
The same is true of investments. The temptation of humans is to keep ‘doing’ things to maximise the return. Selling this company and buying that one instead, changing investment managers as just two examples. Most investors continue to do this in the face of all the evidence which suggests that the best returns are achieved by leaving well alone.
In fact there is a huge and lucrative industry producing advertising, tv channels, books, podcasts and whole investment management firms to create enough noise in the here and now, to persuade you to take action. Much of the coverage is excitable and breathless, suggesting that if you don’t take some action now, you will be harming your future wealth. The action is often pointless in hindsight, but by then the circus has moved on to the next urgent action.
What if the best solution was the actually the simplest and easiest. In his brilliant book Subtract: The Untapped Science of Less, Leidy Klotz looks at the research about how humans find it easier to add complexity in the pursuit of a solution, rather than taking away. He gives multiple examples of how solutions to problems were found by stripping them back and doing less.
Masterful inactivity is not complete inactivity, you should set your portfolio up to match your risk need and appetite and then leave it alone. What you should adjust for is tax and costs (both downwards if there is any confusion) and this will then free up a huge amount of mental time and space to go and take action elsewhere where it might make more of a difference. If you employ an adviser these two actions will be keys parts of their value add, giving you even more time back.
Perhaps you could spend the time gained with family and friends (the most common regret of those at the end of their time).
You’re welcome.
For a good summary of this problem and a great account of Chuck Yeager’s record breaking flight in the X-1A listen to Laurie Santos’ crossover podcast with our hero Tim Harford, ‘Do Nothing, Then Do Less’ here.