The generation that survived the Great Depression in the 1930s was in many ways scarred for life. Many required enormous surpluses of financial resources to feel even remotely secure. In the early 2000s, many investors that had gotten burned by the bursting of the internet bubble didn’t dare to invest in the stock market for years or even decades.

To be honest, I have frequently shared my view on the parallel between the Internet bubble and what could be considered an AI bubble. In many ways we all are the result of our past experiences and tend to view the world through those glasses. However, although the saying is that history never repeats itself, but it does rhyme, the current situation is likely not even rhyming with earlier experiences. For instance, the AI companies right now, by and large, make real money and have PE ratios that are roughly in line with long term averages for the stock market. We may well be in an AI spending bubble, but the current situation is very different from 2000.

The challenge for each of us is to make sure that we don’t allow ourselves to fall too easily into the trap of our past experiences and instead adopt the Buddhist beginners mindset. And that requires us, dear reader, to be aware of the experiences that shaped us.