Saturday, I woke up with incredible abdominal pain.

I’ve never had pain like that before, and certainly not there.

So, as any curious person would be apt to do, I opened up the computer and Googled my symptoms.

Within the blink of a microprocessor, I found out the diagnosis:
I’M DYING!

I have diverticulitis. A bowel obstruction. Cancer.

Maybe I’m suffering from all of the above at once!

After all, Google had described my symptoms and spit out a diagnosis to a T.

Or perhaps I simply had an oblique pull.

“That can’t be it,” I said to myself. Too simple. Lacks the requisite drama.

I must be dying, I thought.

And all of this from Google!

One minute, you have some minor ache, pain, or a little sniffle, so you take out your smartphone. With just a few taps of the keypad, the next thing you know, you are facing the distinct possibility that you’re dying from some insidious and painful infection that you can only contract in the Congo.

(The only problem is that I have never been to Congo, but details are second to fear when it comes to Google!)

Ironically, I was going in for my physical that same week, which was great because my Congolese flesh-earing cancerous bacteria hadn’t disappeared from my gut. The doctor examined me, took my blood, etc.

“Good news,” he said. “You’re not dying. You don’t have diverticulitis or cancer.” (I hadn’t even shared my worst fears with him.)

“But you do have a severe oblique strain.”

To say I was relieved should be on the Mount Rushmore of understatements.

Now, I consider myself mildly intelligent and reasonably stable. But with all this information at our fingertips and how easy it can create misinformation, it creates unnecessary concern, abnormal stress in our lives.

They say the average person today takes in more information and messages in one day than the average person 100 years ago did in their entire lifetime!

I am not saying we should go back to the dark ages, when we could not research things and had no filters. But at the end of the day, one must do the work and understand what is real and what is not.

The same thing is true in the financial markets, where we see wild swings based on emotions (typically fear or greed). However, those are usually inaccurate depictions of what is or is not happening.

Fundamentals that impact value simply do not swing that much, that fast, or that often.

Have patience. Do the work. Research. Balance your initial reactions. Trust those around you who have been there before.

Ask questions – of me or of others.

And whatever you do, I implore you never to Google your medical symptoms!

-J.D.