Markets, Uncertainty, Forecasting
WARNING: This blog is a philosophical exploration of markets and has nothing to say about what is going on in markets right now. For those of you who are not interested in that sort of thing, I suggest you skip…
Bill Smead: Read Between The Lines: Buffett Is As Bearish As He’s Ever Been
I am not attuned to this market environment and I don’t want to spoil a decent record by trying to play a game I don’t understand – Warren Buffett, Letter To Partners announcing the closing of the original Buffett Partnership,…
Amusing Ourselves To Death
Give them bread and circuses and they will never revolt – Juvenal, Roman poet The decline of Rome was the natural and inevitable effect of immoderate greatness. Prosperity ripened the principle of decay; the cause of the destruction multiplied with…
Investing: The Last Liberal Art
In his seminal 1994 talk at USC’s Business School, Charlie Munger – the greatest mind ever to apply himself to investing – started by saying “the art of stock picking [is] a subdivision of the art of worldly wisdom”. Munger…
A Civilizational Crisis
Painting: The Romans In Their Decadence (1847), Thomas Couture There will be wars the like of which have never yet been seen on earth – Nietzsche, Ecce Homo (1888) Rome was not destroyed by external enemies, but by internal strife. The empire…
The Structure Of Knowledge And The Limits Of Physical Science
In this blog I am aim to give a synoptic account of the structure of human knowledge and its implications for our contemporary scientistic worldview. When we think of knowledge nowadays, the first thing we think of is science. And…
Historical Development Of The Culture Of Nihilism
In a previous blog, I defined the culture of nihilism as follows: We live in what I have come to term “the culture of nihilism”. It is a culture characterized by self absorption, selfishness, lack of concern for others, incivility,…
In Defense Of Elon Musk
On any given day, Elon Musk might be the hero or the villain. Call it the duality of Musk – part of the reason he confounds both supporters and critics alike with achievements that amaze and comments that appall. –…
My Philosophy Of Life At 47
When I was a young man, the country singer Tim McGraw had a song called “The Next 30 Years” in which he articulated the lessons he learned during his first 30 years and how he’d make the next 30 better….
Three Books That Changed My Life
How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book – Thoreau, Walden It usually begins with Ayn Rand. I was an aimless and unhappy college freshman at UC San Diego when…