I decided to start writing again.
I have recently become a member of the
stock owning class.
With the birth of my daughter I decided
to save for her future university education. While there is always
the chance I will become Prime Minister and she will be offered a
secret $60,000 scholarship, I think its better to hedge her bets by
starting a university fund.
Now the pot has grown large enough,
I've invested it in stocks.
The amount is tiny, the risk minuscule and
my level of research in the relevant companies infinitesimal –
naturally I watch them like a hawk, becoming enraged when my holdings
in Wesfarmers fall by 76 cents and euphoric when Woolworths
investment grows by $1.20.
I've deepened my involvement in this
penny ante game by reading blogs, website and columnists who all claim
searing insights into the futures of listed companies they have
never worked for run by managers and directors they have never spoken
to.
Turns out their predictive ability is
no better than mine despite the no doubt countless hours spent
pouring over information.
So my issue is this: what is the
rational level of skepticism in “expert opinion”?
Obviously throwing out all expert views
and trusting to blind faith is foolish. I still hold sacred the
right to treat with derision and contempt vaccine skeptics, holocaust
revisionists and climate change deniers.
So where is the line?
Perhaps we can start with the
proposition that skepticism of established data puts you on shaky
ground. So we can be skeptical whether a new “pandemic” will
kill all human life on the planet (though hopefully it will still get
Gwyneth Paltrow), but only an idiot would argue that vaccines cause autism.
Next rule, its dangerous to trust the
opinion of a person whose salary depends on them holding that
opinion. So when my local bishop told me in school that the Catholic
church would never cover for a Marist brother involved in child
abuse, I should really have been a little less trusting.
Third rule, predicting based on an ideological stand point should be done with care. It exposes you to the risk of confirmation bias.
Last rule, real world systems are
complex. Lots of things both visible and hidden can skew predictions.
Hard simple rules don't usually have great predictive ability beyond
the obvious.
With this in mind, I vow to be less
firm in my future predictions on this blog and more open to opposing
arguments in my every day life.
I also intend to keep my stock buys to
safe blue chips.
I'm also going to try to write at least
once a fortnight, whether anyone reads it or not.
As always, your comments are appreciated...even the trolling.
