In his recent interview with William Green on The Investor’s Podcast, Jason Zweig recalled one of the most important lessons he learned from Daniel Kahneman and that is looking at everything we do with a clean slate. This should include our investing strategy and portfolio. Here’s an excerpt from the interview:
Zweig: And I remember at one point we were just making small talk about something and my kids were very young at that point. And I said something along the lines, it was true small talk, just filling the empty time. I said something like, “Oh, my wife and I were, we’re kind of sort of strict parents.” And he turned to me and said, “Why?”
And I suddenly realized I didn’t know. And I was like, “I do do that. I don’t know.” And another time we were walking along the street and someone came by sort of gushing over their dog, like the dog was on the leash and the person was sort of goo-goo talking to the dog.
And then he said, “That’s something I know nothing about. Why do people do that?” I said, “Oh, dogs are wonderful, Danny.” And he said, “No, but why do people love dogs as much as they love people?”
And that ability to look at the world is if you’ve never seen it before is really extraordinary. And to take every, sort of take every fact that’s presented to you and just treat it as some kind of alien object that you know nothing about, that was the … He gave me many gifts when we worked together, but I think that was the greatest along with letting go of sunk costs, which I think is so important. And he really taught me that.
You can listen to the entire interview here:
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