From Greed and Fear Toward Knowledge
by BigfootmmAll of us know that doing things together here on these boards reduces our risk and gives us confidence in our investment decisions. In the past, few of us would have invested tens of thousands of dollars in one stock, no matter how much fundamental analysis we had done. There is just too much we couldn't know that perhaps others did know that might have tripped us up. Diversity became the haven from excessive risk.
So just what has shifted? Is it knowledge that has made the difference? Or something else? Knowledge is always associated with ignorance. We cannot know everything, and often we know just enough to get ourselves in trouble. We have knowledge ABOUT something and as long as it is "about," it can never be complete. What we don't know is often just as important as what we do know; so I don't think knowledge alone will keep us in the chips.
The etymological meaning of the word "intelligence" is "to read between the lines." What is it that we do on these boards when we while the hours away reading? Do we take everything literally? Are there not hipsters and hypesters and crooks and criminals around here? Is there not naivete? Greed? Liars? fools (with a small-f)? Do we not sift through all the stuff and find a pearl now and then? Can we distinguish the candid from the deceitful, the Foolish from the Wise? If I may answer---"Yes we can," at least most of the time. Is it knowledge that makes the way clear? Or is it reading between the lines?
Mark Twain cautioned us about experience when he gave us an example of the cat that sat on a hot stove. The cat learned something (gained knowledge) and so would never sit on a hot stove again. But as Mark Twain pointed out, neither would the cat sit on a cold one ever again. Obviously, experience and knowledge have little to do with intelligence. Intelligence is not associated with the past (experience and knowledge), but with insight, which always occurs in the present.
The shift that has occurred, the radical change that we feel in our bones as we act with great boldness with our hard-won money is not, in my humble opinion, a shift toward greater and greater knowledge about something. No, I think the shift has something to do with observation and awareness. You read a thousand and one posts on the Iomega board, some senseless, some sensible and many in between. You read with doubt. You are skeptical. You read this one thing here and that one thing there and at some point you understand something.
There is a leap that goes beyond just the mere gathering of information. You discover meaning where there was none before. Is this not intelligence working? You observe, you are aware of all the danger, you have doubt, you read between the lines, and then, and then something entirely new comes into view. Not certainty, but something akin. You began by not knowing and you ended up with something far more valuable than knowledge. You now have the courage to act. You are a tiger and have no fear. You have seen with your own eyes what no one could ever have convinced you of in a million years.
While others are avoiding the hot stove that has burned them in the past, you live in the present and act on what you see now. You read the events every day. You keep yourself up to date on what is going on. You don't just evaluate, you discover anew what is in front of your eyes. Now that is real intelligence, to discover anew what you discovered yesterday. Experience and knowledge keep us in fear, but discovery keeps us fresh and alert and ready to play this game.
The shift, then, is to what? Integrity, perhaps? Now there is a word. Its etymological meaning is "not broken up." Do you feel fragmented when you understand something? Or just when you have knowledge, which is always incomplete?
Let's look at Iomega with integrity in mind. Are the products well-made? Does the management tell us lies? Are the Iomegans reporting back the truth about what they see in the marketplace? What confidence do you have in the numbers, i.e., the PEG, the earnings estimates, and even the shorts? Do you understand the competition? Do the products have the potential of owning the storage position in the consumer's mind? Is it simple for you to see that the romance in the name, "EZ Drive," falls far short of the names, "Zip," "Jaz," and "Ditto?" Or that a small compact portable snazzy looking drive that works would have enormous appeal to consumers in need of disks holding not just a little more than a pitiful 1.44 mgs, but a WHOLE lot more? Like 100 mgs? How about 1000 mgs? Do you readily sense that these Zip and Jaz disks are so similar to the disks people have been using and loving for years that there is no learning curve in their use, just pleasure for the enhanced value?
Do you recall how wonderful it was to move away from those clumsy 5 1/4 disks to the sturdy 3 1/2s, even though the difference was really not so much? Have you discovered that you are ahead of the market makers, movers and shakers? Do you understand the historical uniqueness of what is available to you as a Motley Fool? Have you understood that risk has become manageable through awareness of existing conditions and that you are fast on your feet? Have you understood the significance behind the fact that you are telling brokers about Iomega and they are listening to you? Have you understood that you are one of many who has a deep and abiding interest in sharing observations, wealth, and wisdom? All these things are written on these boards for us to read if we will but see to do it.
If you have understood, you are a man, my son. You are keeping your head while men all about you are losing theirs. Your integrity is not for rent, nor is it borrowed. You see for yourself the whole thing, not something broken into pieces as is information and knowledge. Each day you are alive to what is there, and now, as Goethe said, "Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it."
Let us always be humble in the presence of Foolishness.
Your servant,
Bigfoot[Editor's Note: This fribble is taken from a message posted by bigfootmm in our America Online Iomega folder on the stock boards. We're biased, of course, but we think it captures very well the spirit of Foolishness.]