Comments on: Which investment news is worthwhile?

By: Ancient Wisdom For Dealing With The Financial Crisis | Simoleon Sense

Ancient Wisdom For Dealing With The Financial Crisis | Simoleon Sense — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 17:38:00 +0000

[...] Use Socrates test of three [...]

By: Presh Talwalkar

Presh Talwalkar — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 19:53:01 +0000

Alex:
Yes, I’ve heard that punchline too but it didn’t sit well–though it does point out the downside of the test.

By: Alex

Alex — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 12:22:14 +0000

That’s a good test, but when I heard it, it was the reason Socrates never found out his student was sleeping with his wife.

By: Presh Talwalkar

Presh Talwalkar — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 04:57:33 +0000

DrObviousSo:
Great point–rumors become “useful” in predicting how foolish people will act. Often stupid people can drive an irrational equilibrium. This principle once saved my professor about $250 when teaching a course:

http://mindyourdecisions.com/blog/2008/03/18/game-theory-tuesdays-winning-a-%E2%80%9Cbeauty-contest%E2%80%9D-or-how-my-professor-gambled-250-teaching-a-lesson/

Paul:
True, people learn in different ways, but I wouldn’t take the rule of three too seriously…it’s more of an amusing idea that we spend too much time on gossip. And if more people used that rule, well, we might not have as many paranoid rumors turning into self-fulfilling prophesies!

By: Paul

Paul — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 22:07:41 +0000

Clearly Socrates was an introvert. Introverts often prefer maximum information density delivered in an efficient manner. The acquaintance above is an extrovert. He just wants to chat and gossip, and learn by copious amounts of talking.

Just taking a wild guess here, but I expect an extrovert would prefer to get their financial news by TV (talking heads), and chatting with others, and possibly doing something like an “investment club”, or “financial adviser”, with whom they have a “relationship”. An introvert is more likely to digest large quantities of written material, such as books, and websites like seekingalpha.com