*Dan experienced technical difficulties involving his camera restarting periodically during the second half of the episode. As such, there are moments where the layout shifts and displays Ben, Cameron, and Ted, without Dan until his camera successfully restarts, and recording his video feed can continue. Meet with PWL Capital: https://pages.pwlcapital.com/en-ca/contact-us?utm_source=content&utm_medium=youtube&utm_campaign=rationalreminder_yt Avoid Online Scams https://pwlcapital.com/stay-safe-online/ Ben Felix or any PWL employee will never reach out to you on social media platforms or WhatsApp to give financial advice. These are scammers trying to commit fraud. In this episode, Ben, Cameron, and Dan are joined by Ted Cadsby, former executive at CIBC, author of The Power of Index Funds, Closing the Mind Gap, and Hard to Be Human. Ted brings a rare combination of experience in both finance and cognitive psychology, having helped introduce index investing to Canada before turning his attention to how human thinking itself often misleads us. Ted shares inside stories from his time at CIBC—how he tried to make the bank an indexing leader in the late 1990s, the pushback he faced, and why he still believes so deeply in indexing today. Then, the conversation turns to human cognition: why our brains evolved for simplicity, certainty, and emotion, and how those traits can sabotage both our portfolios and our peace of mind. From “greedy reductionism” and “certainty addiction” to emotional overreaction and competing selves, Ted unpacks the five cognitive design flaws that make it hard to be human—and how metacognition and mindfulness can help us overcome them. Timestamps: 0:00:00 Intro 0:05:10 Describing Ted's roles at CIBC (The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce) 0:06:46 What Ted's work evaluating and interviewing active managers taught him about active fund performance 0:10:09 What made Ted “see the light” so to speak about index funds 0:17:31 The innovative ideas that Ted wanted to communicate in his book "The Power of Index Funds: Canada's Best-Kept Investment Secret" 0:22:14 How the folks at CIBC received the book 0:27:23 The influence John Bogle and Vanguard had on Ted's mission to bring index funds to Canada 0:31:20 Whether Ted's views on index investing changed since he wrote the book more than 25 years ago 0:37:03 In the face of a mountain of evidence in their favour, what the slow adoption of index funds tells us about the foibles of human thought 0:40:40 The biggest cognitive flaws that humans grapple with 0:42:13 Number 1: Greedy Reductionism 0:44:04 Number 2: Addiction to Certainty 0:46:07 Number 3: Emotional Hostage 0:47:22 Number 4: Complete with Ourselves 0:49:54 Number 5: Misguided Meaning 0:51:44 How the modern world we all live in exacerbates these flaws 0:58:31 How people can set themselves up to engage in metacognition 1:03:07 Cognitive biases that cannot be overcome (at least not easily) even if we are aware of them 1:10:52 How people can systematically deal with the reductionist reaction we have to the complex systems we interact with 1:17:00 Why our desire for certainty is problematic and whether it's related to overconfidence 1:20:10 What people can do to overcome overconfidence 1:27:17 Ted defines success in his life Links From Today’s Episode: Rational Reminder on iTunes — https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-rational-reminder-podcast/id1426530582. Rational Reminder Website — https://rationalreminder.ca/ Rational Reminder on Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/rationalreminder/ Rational Reminder on X — https://x.com/RationalRemind Rational Reminder on TikTok — www.tiktok.com/@rationalreminder Rational Reminder on YouTube — https://www.youtube.com/channel/ Rational Reminder Email — info@rationalreminder.ca Benjamin Felix — https://pwlcapital.com/our-team/ Benjamin on X — https://x.com/benjaminwfelix Benjamin on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjaminwfelix/ Dan Bortolotti — https://pwlcapital.com/our-team/ Dan Bortolotti on LinkedIn — https://ca.linkedin.com/in/dan-bortolotti-8a482310 Cameron Passmore — https://pwlcapital.com/our-team/ Cameron on X — https://x.com/CameronPassmore Cameron on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/cameronpassmore/