Tom welcomes David Murrin to the Competent Man to explore the importance of resilience and lateral thinking in navigating the challenges facing society. Murrin shares his personal journey as a dyslexic individual who developed unique problem-solving abilities through adversity. He argues that lateral thinkers, often misunderstood, possess valuable skills that are crucial for leadership and innovation, especially as the world faces increasing conflict and disruption. David emphasizes the need for educational systems that nurture diverse learning styles and the importance of parents deliberately fostering resilience in their children through exposure to hardship and challenges. He cautions against the dangers of overprotection, which can stifle personal growth and adaptability.
Murrin also delves into the dynamics of partner selection, advocating for lateral individuals to seek compatible matches to cultivate fulfilling relationships. Looking ahead, David foresees a looming “extinction event” for linear thinkers as artificial intelligence increasingly automates repetitive tasks. He believes lateral individuals, with their ability to think creatively and adapt, will be better positioned to thrive in this shifting landscape. Ultimately, Murrin emphasizes the importance of self-awareness, emotional intelligence, and a willingness to confront one’s fears as key components of building resilience and competence, both on an individual and societal level.
Guest Links:
X: https://x.com/GlobalForecastr
Website: https://www.davidmurrin.co.uk
Instagram: https://instagram.com/murrinraw
David Murrin began his unique career in the oil exploration business amongst the jungles of Papua New Guinea and the southwestern Pacific islands. There, he engaged with the numerous tribes of the Sepik River, exploring the mineral composition of the region. Before the age of adventure tourism, this region was highly dangerous, very uncertain and local indigenous groups were often hostile and cannibalistic. David’s work with the PNG tribespeople catalyzed his theories on collective human behavior.
In the early 1980s, David embarked on a new career, joining JP Morgan in London. Watching his colleges on the trading floors, he quickly identified modern society also behaved collectively. He was sent to New York on JPMs highly rated internal MBA equivalent finance program. Once back in London, he traded FX, bonds, equities, and commodities on JPMs first European Prop desk. In 1991, he founded and managed JPMs highly successful European Market Analysis Group, developing new behavioral investment techniques which were utilized to deploy and manage risk at the highest level of the bank.
In 1993, David founded his first hedge fund, Apollo Asset Management, and, in 1997, co-founded Emergent Asset Management as CIO. His primary role was overseeing trading across all fund products as well as being particularly active in the firm’s private equity business. He co-founded Emvest, Emergents African land fund, in 2008 and acted as its Chairman until its sale from the group in 2011. In addition, through Emergents Advisory Business, David was responsible for the critical fund-raising for Heritage Oil, allowing it to expand significantly by investing in its Uganda exploration program. He took full control of Emergent in 2011, combining his management of the Geomacro fund with the role of Chief Executive Officer until 2014.
David has been described as a polymath and his career of more than three decades has been focusing on finding and understanding collective human behavioral patterns including deep-seated patterns in history and then using them to try and predict the future for geopolitics and markets in today’s turbulent times. He has a remarkable track record.
Davids advisory and future trends speaking are based on his direct investment experience combined with a framework that can be used to explain and qualify decisions within an investment team, aid risk assessment and reduce biases in collective investment decisions.
In the desire to share his observations and predictive constructs, David has written four books.
