Paul Graham wrote an interesting essay back in 2010 called The Top Idea in Your Mind. He writes about two situations that can take over your thinking in the sense that they push out other ideas. One is getting money (fundraising, if you are a startup), and disputes. I had never thought about this, but it's absolutely true; fights are such a mental energy sink that the only people who do them well are those who are essentially professional fighters: activist hedge funds, litigators, certain types of real estate investors, etc.
