53 Comments

I always thought the generic advice to read a lot was incomplete and I think you spell. out why in a very convincing fashion. Well done!

Expand full comment
Nov 1, 2021Liked by Frederik Gieschen

Thanks for this great article

Expand full comment

I love this! It reminds me of a similar misconception about writing — an image of Thoreau going into the forest to be a hermit and write Walden. Modern writing is about assembling existing pieces, and a way to accelerate learning is through talking to people.

Expand full comment
Oct 5, 2022Liked by Frederik Gieschen

There is no one thing people should do that leads to success. Life and success is not that simple.

There is no best way to do anything and if there was soon others would do it and reduce its effectiveness.

One observation is commonly quoted that reading is a path to success. Reading is only useful if you think about what you learnt and then use that insight to change the way you view the world and change your strategy/actions.

The quality of what you read is important. Most of what you read is rubbish and most news is noise.

I have made a conscious effort to read better quality books and fewer newer books because they are newer doesn't mean they are better.

Excellent article, the quotes from the books were interesting and helped support your ideas and entertain.

Expand full comment
Mar 20, 2022Liked by Frederik Gieschen

Yesterday I went down the rabbit hole called Insecurity Analysis. I couldn’t be happier. Leave me alone.

Expand full comment
Feb 18, 2022Liked by Frederik Gieschen

You are going to rub a lot of reading fanatics the wrong way ! :D But thanks for showing the mirror as I am reading obsessed as well.

Expand full comment
Nov 15, 2021Liked by Frederik Gieschen

Valuable read. Appreciate the well supported dose of reality

Expand full comment
Nov 7, 2021Liked by Frederik Gieschen

Great piece

Expand full comment
Nov 1, 2021Liked by Frederik Gieschen

Perspective…

Expand full comment
Oct 31, 2021Liked by Frederik Gieschen

Fantastic piece

Expand full comment

An excellent essay and reminder that over-emphasizing any one variable can lead you astray. As they say in the game of chess, see the whole board.

Expand full comment
Nov 1, 2021Liked by Frederik Gieschen

Absolutely fantastic! Separating rhetoric from reality. You just rebalanced my thinking. Thank you!

Expand full comment

This was a beautiful piece.. it struck a note with me since I give into reading for umpteen hours under the impression that I am compounding my knowledge.. But every time I discuss with another analyst, it creates a more nuanced perspective on the stock I was researching on.. It's like you get additional pair of eyes that you can look at the same problem from.. Your piece was a wake up call to indeed pick my phone more often.. Thanks..

Expand full comment
Oct 31, 2021Liked by Frederik Gieschen

Great thesis about Buffett doing more than just reading and your writing and book excerpts certainly proved he was doing more. Thanks for sharing your perspective on something well covered. I learned and you got me thinking! 🤔🌟

Expand full comment
Oct 31, 2021Liked by Frederik Gieschen

This is an interesting piece. It is much easier to find quality, relevant reading material (increasing the relative returns to reading) and it is now much easier and cheaper to collaborate remotely - you can't as easily build trust without meeting in person but subsequent collaboration is much easier online. There is also definitely a trend where many in-person events were replaced by transcripts, which are much faster to consume and make it easier to go back and focus on a topic.

Buffett has also warned about too much collaboration leading to groupthink, and the value of living in Omaha where by default the majority of your time will be thinking and reading. At the very least he could curate who he spent time with.

I see this as being a very relevant topic outside investing, where every organization is trying to figure out the optimal organization post-Covid - locate everyone remotely, bring everyone in the office, or a hybrid?

I know there is some research where people have tried to figure out if the internet has lowered to value of being an academic researcher at a prestigious institution - part of the value was that it was easier to collaborate with other top researchers in the same office, but you can measure the % of highly cited papers written by collaborators at distant institutions and I think it's gone up. I just can't find it right now.

Expand full comment
Dec 2, 2023Liked by Frederik Gieschen

Wow.This has been helpful as it has saved me from many troubles.

Expand full comment