Negative Convexity

Sign in Subscribe

Akash Kanojia

Ex–Wall Street bond investor turned entrepreneur. I explore how money, risk, and human psychology collide, writing essays on finance and decision-making at Negative Convexity.

📍 Austin, Texas, USA

Planning for Your Worst Day of the Year

Bad days are inevitable—even for the most careful planner. This essay explores why mistakes happen, how to reduce their damage, and how to build the emotional and practical reserves to survive them. Planning well means preparing for your worst day of the year.

Attention as Capital

Attention is your scarcest resource. Like capital in a portfolio, it needs to be allocated deliberately. This essay explores how we waste attention, how to budget it better, and how to invest it in the goals that matter most.

Cosplaying as a Rich Person

Many chase the appearance of wealth or knowledge instead of the real thing. This essay explores why signaling matters, why it’s incomplete without substance, and challenges readers to show their real value without fear of looking fake.

Buy High, Cry Later: The Calm Investor (Part 3 of 3)

The final piece in a 3-part series on the emotions of investing. This post explores what happens when we consistently apply systems: the fear fades, execution becomes automatic, and we evolve into calm, disciplined investors. Mastery is boring—and it works.

Buy High, Cry Later: Systems Save You When Your Brain Melts Down (Part 2 of 3)

How to use systems—like diversification, budgeting, and stop-losses—to protect yourself from ego, fear, and impulsivity in investing. Part 2 of a 3-part series on the emotional challenges of investing and how to build resilience through structure.

Buy High, Cry Later: Welcome to the Emotional Hellscape of Being Wrong (Part 1 of 3)

Investing is emotionally rough because being wrong feels like failure—loud, public, and painful. This essay explores why the emotional toll of investing is so high and sets the stage for tools and mindset shifts to help you panic less next time the market crashes.

Everyone Wants the Wisdom, But Nobody Wants to Do the Thinking

In a world obsessed with shortcuts, we’re tempted to let AI do the thinking for us. But effort isn’t just the cost—it’s the value. This essay explores why people still willing to put in the effort will build the best careers.

Why Getting to the Top and Thriving at the Top Are Two Different Things

The skills that get us promoted aren’t the same as the skills that help us succeed once you get there. In many careers—consulting, law, finance—we have to grind through years of technical, detail-heavy work before we're allowed to do the thing we're actually great at.

Copy First, Create Later

Many high performers learn by tracing—copying others' actions, styles, or thought patterns as a way to move through fear and build fluency. This piece explores how tracing can evolve from a safety mechanism into a path for identity-level transformation.

Learning Is Hard Because It’s Emotional

Many people struggle to learn new things because they feel shut down and overwhelmed. This piece explores the emotional architecture of learning--the process of starting, getting overwhelmed, persisting, and eventually reaching an "aha" moment.