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← Back to List2026.07.04#EvolutionOfInvestment#Epilogue

Epilogue: Investing is Not Predicting the Market, but a System to Manage Oneself ​

Evolution and the DNA of Investment Philosophy

I am not an economist. Neither an analyst, nor a fund manager. I am just an ordinary engineer who has been developing system software for 18 years.

Therefore, this text was not written to create some grandiose new investment theory. Rather, it began as an intense record of how my mindset fundamentally changed through the painful failures of learning how to invest.

Initially, I simply looked for individual stocks that were likely to go up. I believed that finding better companies would make me a better investor. But as bitter times passed, I discovered ETFs, pondered over portfolios, and finally started studying asset allocation.

Then, at some point, it struck me like a lightning bolt. The problem wasn't the ETFs I chose. Nor was it the ratio of my portfolio. The most difficult and uncontrollable variable in investing was not the market, but 'myself'.

When the market crashed, I was shaken by fear. Conversely, when it skyrocketed, I became anxious about missing out. Every time I saw provocative news, my investment philosophy wavered. And the moment my returns temporarily worsened, I doubted the very principles I had established.

Looking back, the market was always just being the market. The thing that changed the most, and most capriciously, was always me.

From that moment, the focus of my investing completely shifted. Instead of asking 'What should I buy to make how much?', I began to fiercely ponder: 'How can I remain unshaken amidst this extreme volatility?'

1. Designing an Unshakable System, Not Perfect Predictions ​

Developing system software for a long time taught me one thing to the bone. A truly 'good system' is not a perfect system that never throws an error. Even when a fatal error occurs, it doesn't completely collapse. It meticulously logs the cause, and continuously improves itself to ensure the same mistake is never repeated. That is a truly great system.

I believed our investments were no different. I didn't arrogantly want to create a system that perfectly 'predicts' market directions. Because shallow human predictions are bound to miss eventually.

Instead, when a massive Black Swan strikes and the market violently shakes, when my emotions wildly oscillate between greed and fear, I wanted to build a survival system that forcibly brings me back to 'cold principles'.

This is the exact reason why this long journey is titled Evolution of Investment. Evolution is not just about making things more complex and knowing more. It's about clearly distinguishing between 'absolute principles that must be kept' no matter how the environment changes, and 'tactics that must be flexibly adapted' according to the changing environment. That is the true meaning of evolution I believe in.

2. There Is No Right Answer: May You Reach a Different Conclusion ​

So, to be completely honest, there is no magical right answer that beats the market unconditionally in this writing. There is no new investment secret that guarantees 100% returns. Great investors recorded in history have already preached the importance of 'long-term investing, diversification, low costs, and rules' ad nauseam for decades. By organizing my thoughts into text, I may not have discovered a single new principle that didn't already exist.

Instead, I fiercely pondered from an engineer's perspective: 'How can an ordinary, frail individual uphold those great masters' principles without giving up for a lifetime?' Perhaps this is how I, accustomed to handling system software, looked at the harsh ecosystem of investing and struggled to survive.

So please, I hope readers of this text do not blindly copy my portfolio. I also hope you do not think my investment method is the sole right answer applicable to everyone. Rather, after sharing this journey with me, I sincerely hope you don't stop at my conclusion but arrive at your own completely new conclusion and philosophy.

However, there is just one seed I hope remains in your heart after you lazily close the book.

3. A Purpose-Driven Life and 'Stay the Course' ​

Someone once asked me, "Why do you invest so fiercely?" In the past, driven solely by the desire to add another digit to my account, I used to wake up every morning rejoicing or despairing over last night's US stock market gains.

Then, I received a massive shock, as if hit by a hammer, reading a great investor's phrase: 'One Billion Dollar Donation'. While someone was dreaming of a massive give-back that could change the world at the end of their investment journey, I was so buried in numbers that I had completely forgotten the true purpose of why I was trying to make money.

Of course, not all of us need to become great figures who donate a billion dollars. A warm and modest financial cushion to protect our loved ones, the ability to buy a secure home, or simply the 'independent freedom' to choose the life we want without being swayed by money—these everyday goals are already more than great enough as an investment purpose. What truly mattered was not the 'money' stamped as numbers itself, but asking myself what the true 'Purpose' of my investment was that would support me.

And along with that, I deeply engraved another great phrase by John Bogle as the compass of my investment life.

"Stay the Course."

This great phrase by John Bogle is widely known to mean "Never sell even if the market shakes, and stubbornly stick to your portfolio." However, I embraced this phrase in a slightly different way, uniquely my own. It does not arrogantly mean to forever stick to my shallow stubbornness or blind faith, but to maintain the grand course heading toward my 'Purpose'.

As long as I do not lose that grand course, I will never be swayed by the shallow emotions created by the market and news. Yet, if better logic emerges to prove me wrong, I will have the true courage to willingly shatter my old raft and transfer to a stronger ship. That is the newly defined 'Stay the Course' as an evolving investor.

Perhaps the title of this writing is grandly named Evolution of Investment, but what actually evolved during this past journey wasn't the investment method I chose, but my very mindset toward the world and money itself.

After completing this journey, it's okay if readers don't remember my investment system. It doesn't matter at all if you forget every specific ETF I chose. Instead, at the moment you close the final page, I want you to ask yourself just one profound question.

"When the market shakes with a fear that feels like the end of the world, what is my 'DNA' that will support me and bring me back to my principles?"

The right answer to that question is nowhere in my writing. That answer can only be found by yourself through your own fierce life trajectory and experiences. And the very moment you begin to ponder to find that answer yourself, that is when your own great Evolution of Investment will truly begin.

4. Why the Epilogue is Chapter 99, Not Chapter 11: Unending Evolution ​

You might have noticed, but I assigned the number 99 instead of 11 to the end of Part 1, which concluded with Chapter 10.

In biology, evolution is the process of adapting to a given environment and continuously changing to 'survive' according to selection pressure. My evolution of investment is the same. As of 2026, I have completed my '1st Commit' with the system up to Chapter 10, adapting to past painful failures and the current market environment.

But the massive nature called the market will continuously change in the future. If unpredictable Black Swans strike, or better thoughts and great theories I didn't know about emerge in the world, I will unhesitatingly absorb them and transform my system once again.

Just as living organisms leave their DNA to the next generation in the providence of evolution, I will also flexibly evolve according to the changing environment while unshakeably preserving the following two 'DNAs of Investment Philosophy'.

  • Evidence over Ego
  • Purpose over Profit

The numerous empty chapters from 11 to 98 are the blank spaces left for the harsh selection pressures the market will throw at me in the future, and the new records of survival I will write down while defending these two DNAs against them.

5. The End of Part 1, and the 'Macroeconomic Survival' Across the Storm ​

"When the market shakes, what brings me back to my principles?" My first answer to this profound question was the 'Evolutionary Core (VOO, SCHD, SPMO)' that I fiercely built up throughout Part 1. The journey of Part 1 was the process of piecing together a heavy raft to tie my ankles firmly, so that frail human like me wouldn't be swept away by the massive waves of the market.

However, there is a painful limitation hidden within this raft: the trap of 'Look-ahead bias'. SCHD's index rules—such as dividend continuity and financial metrics—were designed using historical data. Even if they reduced exposure to weaknesses seen in a past crisis, no one knows whether the same rules will prevent losses in a new kind of crisis.

Let's compare this to the world of System Software. A 'Governor' responsible for system optimization looks at a 'filter window' containing recent past states to determine its next action. This technique relies on the premise of 'Time Locality', assuming that "the near future will flow similarly to the recent past." But what happens if a sudden and extreme load (change) hits the system, breaking this time locality? The governor, constantly looking backward, fails to adapt to the change, resulting in massive performance degradation and power loss.

Factor ETFs also use indicators and rules defined from historical data. They may provide the intended exposure while past relationships persist, but shocks such as hyperinflation, a change in the monetary regime, or abrupt rate increases can make them behave differently from what investors expect.

No matter how sturdy a raft you've built, the voyage is never over. Perhaps a much more painful and greater task remains than building the raft. It is the task of getting on that raft and directly crossing the endless macroeconomic storm on that raft.

  • How will I control the 'frail emotions' gripping the raft (portfolio) in the face of the terror of crashes and the greed of FOMO?
  • To not lose my life to the market every day, how will I root a mechanical and regular 'automatic buying (DCA & KCA)' system in my daily routine?
  • When massive crises and collapses strike, how will I reach the state of 'Antifragility', growing stronger by feeding on the storm rather than breaking?

We must now move beyond the excellent tools found in Part 1 and talk about the 'Operating System (OS)' and 'Mindset' that operate these tools without wavering. Not a simple stock recommendation or a secret guaranteeing 100% returns, but the humble survival record of an engineer slowly increasing his 'probability of survival' in an unpredictable world.

That true voyage will leave the empty chapters behind for a moment, and calmly continue in Part 2, Macroeconomic Survival.

May you find your own North Star of principles even in the pitch-black darkness. And I sincerely pray that you willingly 'Stay the Course' in the face of any rough waves.

(End of Part 1)

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