The name you give things change how you see them

Trader, stock picker, investor, business owner?

A few weeks ago, a friend introduced me to a group of friends at dinner. He said, “This is Toby, he runs a stock picking company.”

I smiled politely. But inside I was like — broo, no ☹️. That is not what we do.

And here’s the weird thing. It wasn’t just that the label was wrong. The label changed how the person across the table treated me. The immediate question directed to me is:

“Bro jadi saham apa ni lagi bagus?” (”What’s a good stock to buy now?”)

asking for a hot tip. Under such a scenario, I smile and wave like the penguins in the Madagascar Movie.

Had my friend said, “This is Toby, he runs a company that acts as a Personal CIO for busy professionals,” the conversation would have gone completely different. The person would have asked me how I think about portfolio construction. How I assess risk. How I stay convicted during a downturn.

Same person. Same dinner. Same Toby. But a different label can produce a different conversation, which could produce a different relationship.

So I’ve been thinking about this quite a bit.

A programmer taught me this first

So I studied Computer Science back in university. One of the first things you learn — before data structures and algorithms, before anything fancy (that I have mostly forgotten) - is how to name things properly.

This sounds trivial. But I have come to realise that learning about naming things properly is not trivial at all.

A code base is like an essay, akin to the one you are reading now, that serves a purpose to instruct computers on what programmers want computers to do.

So even if you don’t code, you could:

• be confused by a codebase OR

• have somewhat of an understanding what the code is trying to do.

depending on how well names are written.

For example, a variable called

data

tells you nothing about the data that it is supposed to store. But a variable called

monthlyRecurringRevenue

tells you a very clear thing. It tells you that it should be storing monthly recurring revenue.

When a developer reads the second name, they would know what the line of code does. They know what the number should look like. The name itself becomes a thinking tool.

Let me say that one more time. The name itself becomes a thinking tool.

You could imagine:

Hmmm, if the company now gets an additional stream of monthly recurring revenue, how should I update the calculation of this monthlyRecurringRevenue ?

vs

Hmmm, if the company now gets an additional stream of monthly recurring revenue, how should I update the calculation of this data ?

Do enough rounds of the 2nd scenario and I probably will start losing hair.

In software, bad naming leads to bugs. Not because the code breaks. But because the developer misunderstands what the code is supposed to do. The logic was fine but label was misleading. And the misleading label led to the wrong assumption which led to incorrect modification or improvement of code.

The same thing happens in investing

When people label what they do as “trading,” they behave like traders. They check prices hourly. They panic when red candles show up. They celebrate green candles. In short, they become a servant to the price chart.

When people label what they do as “owning productive businesses for the long term,” they behave like owners. They study the annual report. They assess the management team. They ask: is this business generating more cash this year than last year? How’s the retained earnings of the business this year like? They hold through the noise because they have a mental model that can absorb the noise.

Warren Buffett is arguably the greatest investor of all time. And it seems to me that one of his biggest edges is not just spreadsheet. But it’s his vocabulary.

He doesn’t call himself a “stock picker.” He calls himself a “business picker.” That single reframe changes everything. A stock picker looks at a ticker and thinks about price movements, entry points, and when to sell. A business picker looks at a company and asks: does this business make high returns without putting up much capital? Will people still want this product in coming decades?

And here’s where it gets crazy. Buffett watched Coca-Cola for 52 years before buying it. Yes, he sold Cokes as a six-year-old from his grandfather’s grocery store. He saw the product dominate the world for half a century. But he didn’t buy a single share.

Why? Because for a lot of his career, he was using Ben Graham’s framework, which labelled a good investment as a “cheap stock.” Coca-Cola was never cheap enough by that definition. It was only when he reframed his approach — from finding “fair businesses at wonderful prices” to finding “wonderful businesses at fair prices” — that he could see what was right in front of him.

Same Buffett. Same Coca-Cola. Different name for what he was looking for. The old label caused him to overlook the opportunity for 52 years. The new label made it obvious. Shocking.

Your emotions work the same way

Here’s where things get even more interesting. I recently read a book about how emotions are constructed by Lisa Feldman Barrett. And her core argument really shook me.

She argues that emotions don’t have universal fingerprints. There’s no single pattern in your brain or body that maps neatly to “anger” or “sadness” or “fear.” Instead, your brain constructs the emotion based on what concepts you have available.

So if you only have the word “stressed,” then every uncomfortable feeling becomes stress. You’re stressed when you’re actually exhausted. You’re stressed when you’re actually lonely. You’re stressed when you’re actually hungry. But if you have richer labels — if you can distinguish between overwhelm, resentment, restlessness, grief — you can respond appropriately. You sleep when you’re exhausted. You call a friend when you’re lonely. You eat when you’re hungry.

Better labels, better responses. Worse labels, worse responses.

This is exactly what happens to investors who lump everything under “the market is scary.” Is the market correcting because of valuation compression? Or because of an earnings miss? Or because of foreigners pulling out? Each of those has a different implication and a different appropriate response. But if your only label is “scary,” your response is confined to panic.

Recompound: Your Personal CIO

We don’t really call ourselves a stock picks service. We don’t call ourselves a robo-advisor. We don’t call ourselves a wealth management platform.

We call ourselves your Personal CIO. Chief Investment Officer. And that is deliberate 🙂

Because a CIO doesn’t give you hot tips. A CIO thinks deeply about capital allocation on your behalf. A CIO has conviction rooted in analysis, not hype. A CIO stays when things get boring — and 99% of investing is boring. And a CIO is here to serve you, the CEO.

The label isn’t really a marketing gimmick. It is our own mental model on how we should behave and do our jobs day to day. And hopefully, the mental model could shape how our clients relate to their own wealth too.

When our clients understand that they have a Personal CIO, they stop asking “what stock should I buy today?” and start asking “how is my portfolio positioned for the next 5 years?” That shift, from stock tips to stewardship, is the name of the game.

So what’s in it for you?

Here’s the practical takeaway. You don’t need to read a neuroscience book or learn to code or become a Recompound customer to apply this.

Just pay attention to the names you give things.

If you call your investment portfolio a “trading account,” you probably will trade. If you call it “my family’s long-term wealth,” you probably will put more thoughts to safeguard it.

If you call your morning routine a “grind”, it can end up feeling like suffering. If you call it “prep”, it will feel like a lifestyle with purpose.

If you call a market downturn a “crash,” you can end up feeling panicky. If you call it “a sale,” you will start asking: “how to look for bargains?”

The names you give things are not just descriptions. They become more of instructions really. They tell your brain how to feel, how to think, and ultimately, how to act.

So choose your names carefully.

Cheers.