I came across this description in the interwebs today (UK Guardian money section), and it's just so true..
"...the more powerful driver, though, is a fear of being made a fool. John Lanchester described how most people's attitude to finance, of any sort, is to be confused in anticipation, before the explanation has even begun. He described it as being pre-baffled...
If you don't believe your judgment to be underpinned by comprehension, the next best thing is to make it the same judgment as everybody else. Realistically, how can you all be wrong?
Even now, when we've seen how easy it is to be all wrong at the same time – indeed, how much likelier it is that, travelling with a herd, you will end up wrong, this fear remains."
My firm belief is that the learned technique of questioning everything, especially finance related, is the number one/joint 1st criteria to get anywhere in the Western/developed world. To play the game, you gotta a) know there's a game, b) learn the rules of the game and c) learn which rules can be bent and which can be broken.
And to do that you gotta ask questions, even if you're frightened that asking the question might make you seem ignorant or foolish.
"...the more powerful driver, though, is a fear of being made a fool. John Lanchester described how most people's attitude to finance, of any sort, is to be confused in anticipation, before the explanation has even begun. He described it as being pre-baffled...
If you don't believe your judgment to be underpinned by comprehension, the next best thing is to make it the same judgment as everybody else. Realistically, how can you all be wrong?
Even now, when we've seen how easy it is to be all wrong at the same time – indeed, how much likelier it is that, travelling with a herd, you will end up wrong, this fear remains."
My firm belief is that the learned technique of questioning everything, especially finance related, is the number one/joint 1st criteria to get anywhere in the Western/developed world. To play the game, you gotta a) know there's a game, b) learn the rules of the game and c) learn which rules can be bent and which can be broken.
And to do that you gotta ask questions, even if you're frightened that asking the question might make you seem ignorant or foolish.