Who am I?

Hi, I am Josh Ting

Spent my childhood in Taiwan and New Zealand and now in Australia as a Medical Doctor. I spend most of my time trying to understand the world, much like how we categorise diseases in medicine, I seek to categorise the world. An investor lens is what I have found most useful and I currently work towards becoming a great investor.

Tendencies

Despite being gifted academically with a seemingly structured medical career path charted ahead of me, I have been always drawn to the dynamic business world from a young age. To me it's the best lens I have to explain how "the world works". Specifically, functions like strategy & finance and blanket over the economy gives a very satisfying sense of "making sense" of the world.

Idiosyncracies

I tend to view the world via an intricate binary system of black and white to map to various shades that exist in real life. An excel spreadsheet best resembles how my mind works... and no I have no shame in saying this :)

Evolution

As I’ve matured, some aspects of myself have remained consistent, for example, my strong value of family. Other aspects have evolved significantly. My risk appetite has increased as my perspective on risk has changed (i.e. starting my first business during university, seeing how well-supported unemployment is in a country like Australia) My introversion and preference for solitude have remained, and I’ve leaned further into them, recognising the strength in reflection. My assertiveness has also improved as I've learned to “win” through hyper-rational thinking rather than relying on traditional displays of force or dominance.

Views

Much of the reality of the world is not obvious. Here are a few that I have had to confront having grown up from the healthcare services world.
1. Hospitals operate like businesses, even public and non-profit ones despite the veneer of altruistism. If you sit in a strategy room of hospital executive, it is run with a commercial lens on.
2. Chasing money and status is natural, even if it’s not always politically correct to say so. Many people are motivated more by financial security and influence than an endless chase.
3. Many pursue money and status, even within medicine, and that is OK! My pet peeve is those that excel at virtue signalling or masking self-interest. (Take a look at any scholarship application essays vs who they are in real life!)
4. Career choice is heavily influenced by cognitive bias. Conformity and deference to authority, along with status quo bias, are particularly strong in certain cultures, making it common to cave to parental, societal, or peer expectations. Others are motivated by loss aversion - the fear of “wasting” high grades or interview opportunities by not pursuing a prestigious path.
5. Prestige wears off quickly. I always chuckle about this because a few yeas into a medicine, you can very easily spot who came into the field for the prestige. They leave early, sees the process as endless hoops to jump through, and struggels with day to day realties of patient care.
6. System is imperfect. Unfortunately, I have observed situations that are uncomfortable & ethically complex. Whether its a hospital taking aggresive legal positions to outlast the patient's financial resources, or providers subtly financially incentives to alter optimal patient care.
7. Medicine is highly expert-driven, with very high thresholds for authority. Even a doctor who has practiced for 10+ years and just qualified as a specialist is considered a junior consultant. By contrast, in business, someone with less than a year of experience can demonstrate “functional expertise” in certain areas. In medicine, evidence carries weight only if it meets rigorous standards: clinical trials, systematic reviews, or meta-analyses with robust study design. Opinions from key opinion leaders, figures, or just any peer-reviewed papers alone are insufficient to justify a strong position in clinical discussions.