I’ve spent over a decade working in the financial services industry for a European investment bank and the older I get, the more I notice that many of my colleagues are very average compared to the people I meet elsewhere.

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It didn’t use to be like this. When I started in this industry, everyone I met seemed to have a brilliant intellect. Either I was fooled, or they have become more boring as they age.

Sadly, I think it’s the latter. The problem with financial services jobs is that people are under the cosh all the time. No one has the resources they need. Costs are constantly being cut and people are under pressure to do more with less.

It means that people in financial services jobs simply don’t have time to learn. I don’t mean to learn about their jobs, but to learn more broadly. There’s no time to read around a subject, to develop broader interests, or to become a more interesting human being.

Oaktree Capital co-founder Howard Marks highlights the issue in his distinction between 1st and second level thinkers. He says first level thinkers are simply able to process and execute work. Second level thinkers can think around the issue: they will present multiple different scenarios and creative solutions.

Being a second level thinker is only possible if you’re constantly reading around your subject matter, and beyond. You need to read about financial services, but you also need to read about history, geopolitics and philosophy.

This is what most people in banking don’t do. As time goes on, they lose their edge and become less interesting than many people outside the industry. Brilliant 22 year-olds turn into mediocre 30-somethings.

The best people get it. They are the ones who make time to read voraciously, who understand human nature and why the market works in a particular way, who look at history and who understand philosophy. If you want to stay in the industry, this needs to be you. Otherwise you will be spat out, and will be far less interesting when you are.

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