A Dozen Things I have Learned From.....
Two financial and investment bloggers that I follow on a regular basis are Barry Ritholtz and Ben Carlson. Another blogger whose content that I also read is Tren Griffin. Griffin runs 25IQ, a blog about business models, investing, technology, and other aspects of life that he finds interesting. He works for Microsoft; Previously he was a partner at Eagle River, a private equity firm established by Craig McCaw.What is interesting about Griffin is that his posts focus on a dozen things that he has learned from people. Recently his posts focused on what he has learned from Ritholtz and Carlson. Below are a couple of points from each of Griffin's two posts.A Dozen Things I have Learned from Barry Ritholtz about Investing
- “Understand your own psychological make up.” As Feynman famously said, the easiest person to fool is yourself. Genuine self-knowledge is hard-won knowledge since no one has perspective on yourself by definition. On this topic it is wise to read Charlie Munger.
- “Be intellectually curious.” It is in “the micro and the obscure” where one can learn things which others do not know. To make a bet that is contrary to the consensus of the crowd you must possess knowledge that the consensus has not adopted. You will mostly likely find that non-consensus knowledge on the frontiers of your own knowledge. Really great investors read constantly and actively seek out alternative viewpoints. Shutting out views you disagree with is a step toward an echo chamber.
- “The all-time great investors – Buffett, Marks, Dalio, Klarman, Munger and even Gundlach – have the ability to translate their ideas into simple terminology. Not only are they brilliant, but they all simplify their message when explaining their process.”
- “If you study Buffett, Marks, Soros, Lynch, Dalio, etc. you will find that even though their strategies differ, they all share the ability to control their emotions and make clear, probability-weighted investment decisions based on past experiences.”