I once read an article describing this basically as "farming" vs "trapping" tactics. For a farmer, there is basically always more work to do (weeding, sowing, h

I once read an article describing this basically as "farming" vs "trapping" tactics. For a farmer, there is basically always more work to do (weeding, sowing, harvesting, maintaining tools and buildings, looking after animals etc etc etc) and often more work directly results in more profit. Trapping on the other hand is not like that. Once you have set your traps, you must now sit still and wait. Checking every 5 minutes if an animal has walked into the trap yet is actually counterproductive. The premise of the article was that investing is more like trapping than like farming. Since most of us come from societies with a long history of farming and the resulting cultural norms have permeated through said societies, many people feel like they "must do something" to tend to their investment crops properly. I'll add my own speculation that in many western societies the industrialization and class warfare rhetoric has created a meme that "only work deserves compensation", implying that supplying capital is an unworthy state of existence. (See for example the many posts on HN decrying every single landlord as a parasite on society) If you want to invest but also want to hold on to your identity as a wholesome "middle class" American (definitely not one of those nefarious "elites" you keep reading about in the news!), just sticking your money in an index fund and doing nothing else may feel dangerously capitalist. Fiddling with it gives you some emotional satisfaction back by "working" on the investments.