“Opposites are complementary.” - Niels Bohr In investing as in life, labels are useful in small measure but potentially fatal if abused. Many labels are no more than marketing slogans, or some are pejoratives designed to diminish the other side. More importantly, labels are simplifications. They create neat black and white categories whereas reality is messy and full of grey. Investing examples will always come first for me. There is no magic line between "defensive" and "gro

“The best thing I did was to choose the right heroes.”- Warren Buffett Asia trip reflections I had three vivid experiences while travelling this summer. All three made me think about heroes: who we celebrate, what we celebrate them for and what those choices say about us. The first was at the Forbidden City in Beijing, which is built on a scale of grandeur unlike anything I had seen before. Our tour guide told us something so striking that I checked it with her twice and then

"How do we stay in the room and hear things that are difficult? How do we make sure the parameters around conversation are ones that are open to conversations?" - Rabbi Charley Baginsky Apparently as you get older time speeds. I have felt the exact opposite so far this year and it seems from conversations with friends and family that I’m not the only one. When I remember to, just before summer holidays and / or at Christmas I tend to review what has happened. This has include

"There can be few fields of human endeavour in which history counts for so little as in the world of finance." — J.K. Galbraith A recent podcast guest (The CIO Chair) guest suggested reading "The Great Crash 1929" by John Kenneth Galbraith. This is a finance classic written in 1955 and chronicles the actors and actions of the Wall Street Crash. It is hard not to see the parallels with the exuberance we are living through. This week's blog is about the stories we tell ourselve

"Reason is and ought only to be the slave of the passions." — David Hume When I started writing about decision-making 163 blogs ago, I started from the perspective that we reach our views through a mostly “rational” process. We gather evidence then weigh it, apply challenge to it, and only then conclude. Emotions were a fly in the ointment that we should acknowledge and weigh. I no longer believe it is done that way, or for most decisions, especially for contentious, high s