Mark Twain, Framing and Scarcity
In the second chapter of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer the protagonist is in a spot of bother. He has been involved in another scrap and as punishment is tasked by Aunt Polly to spend his precious Saturday whitewashing ‘thirty yards of board-fence nine feet high’. It seemed that a bleak day lay ahead for…
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Among Social Scientists, A Vigorous Debate Over Loss Aversion
WHILE MOST PEOPLE have likely never heard of loss aversion, the concept — arising in the social sciences some four decades ago — is among the most influential in the behavioral sciences. In a nutshell, it holds that when people make decisions, the impact of losing something carries greater weight than the impact of gaining something of…
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The Other Side of a Mania
“As Ben Graham said: ‘In the short-run, the market is a voting machine – reflecting a voter-registration test that requires only money, not intelligence or emotional stability – but in the long-run, the market is a weighing machine.’” – Warren Buffett (1993 Berkshire Hathaway Letter) More here – Compound
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The Role of Luck in Life Success Is Far Greater Than We Realized
What does it take to succeed? What are the secrets of the most successful people? Judging by the popularity of magazines such as Success, Forbes, Inc., and Entrepreneur, there is no shortage of interest in these questions. There is a deep underlying assumption, however, that we can learn from them because it’s their personal characteristics–such as talent, skill, mental toughness,…
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