Security Error | Columbia Business School

My baseline assumption is that I'm wrong, which makes it easier to change my mind.

The necessary conditions for investment excellence are having a high knowledge level, being up to date on the present state of the world, using a Bayesian process on every new piece of data, and accurately framing the four or five analytically bullish and bearish prisms through which we can look at the stock.

I am not a believer in having an investment thesis.  That is the wrong way to approach investing because what you really want to do is search for disconfirming information, not confirm what you already believe.

I believe in investment hypotheses. A hypothesis is a falsifiable statement and is used by the scientific community.

Warren Buffett has said he doesn't do due diligence. This was a statement about Precision Castparts which is one of his largest acquisitions ever. And everybody just ignored that comment, but it was a profound comment. And what he meant by it was that he didn't need to do due diligence. He had been reading every 10-K published by Precision Castpart... See more

In other words, new social networks start up and there are all these people who were not influencers on any of the existing networks that get hundreds of thousands of followers just because they were first to switch. This is why every generation wants a new social network. Status becomes ossified on these big social networks. And there's const... See more

I find things that put me into a flow state are powerful. A great ski run will do that, as will video gaming. I think in a lot of ways, it's a form of helping your mind rest when you're awake.

everybody agrees that stores have value in an online world. Even if you make no money in a store, it lowers your online cost of acquisition. This is the reason all these DTC brands are opening stores. Stores have value.

Science fiction is powerful because it opens your mind to the fact that the future can look really different. And even though the last 250 years of history have seen crazy change – from the locomotive, airplane, moon landing, computers, to nuclear power – human beings are still linear thinkers. I think that training your mind for the potential of n... See more