Read the Footnotes

Thanks for explaining your original post. I thought that since your original post was promoting yourself as "doing real estate", maybe you weren't promoting yourself as doing transformational change anymore. Also, though I found your derisive comments about brokers amusing, it didn't really sound like someone who is involved in helping people get better at what they do, so I guess that also made me think that maybe you had given up on being coach or whatever you would call your role. Two other questions about your original post: 1) you mentioned ethics twice and how that is really important to you, I'm wondering how you think about ethics? 2) Based on some of the responses I've seen, I think several people are very confused about what exactly you are doing when you are doing real estate so I would be interested in learning more.

The twitter posts referenced compare a capital and most populous city in all of Scandinavia (Stockholm) to the average for all of NY State, much of which is very rural and sparsely populated. New Jersey, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maryland and Delaware all rank as more densely populated that NY State. This particular brand of false equivalency has been brought up before in this thread and seems to be a typical tactic for those who aren't really searching for the truth, but are pushing a political agenda. So we all might want to be on the look out for it before posting in the future, unless it is to point out misleading presentation of data. Stockholm and in fact all of Scandanavia are likely on average more homogeneous, and better educated than the USA. Plus they as a region have done very well at remaining cohesive by fighting disinformation and fake news, in fact I suspect these tweets would find a less receptive audience there than in the USA. Here is at least one relevant article regarding Finland, but there are many I could have chosen instead including more academic articles relevant to Sweden: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/28/fact-from-fiction-finlands-new-lessons-in-combating-fake-news The real secret to Stockholm is likely education level, cohesiveness, and a pro-social culture. With a conscientious population, there is less need to threaten or cajole, especially if they see it as personal interests aligning with self-interest, which should be the case all around the world. Evidence that they acted individually without national mandate can be seen in the data indicating a decline in mobility in Sweden which indicates they achieved similar or better social distancing without dictates. As I have been saying since February, it's a "complex, adaptive system". Human beings have agency and that complicates policy decisions and analysis. Stockholm syndrome could be useful to study for anyone who feels they are repeatedly fall prey to bad information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_syndrome

Thanks for your thoughts Spek. There are definitely some good frameworks for thinking about the issue in your comments. Here are a couple of questions. Wouldn't a 0.1% position still likely lead to regret? And how is that different from thumb sucking? Would a tracking position mainly differ by scale (0.1% vs 0%?) and the benefits of having a position might come at the cost of diworsification and increased tracking costs. Should we be looking to improve the odds of fully committing to the correct decision? I like the idea of using pepper oils to prevent thumbsucking, but I see a couple of issues: -First, have you already made the mistake by the time you are sucking your thumb, or is the thumbsucking itself the problem? -Second, we really want to encourage the right decision which is to take an action in the real world and take a risk on other people or a company, which is more akin to sucking someone else's thumb. Putting pepper oil on someone else's thumb might prevent you from sucking that thumb, but that would mainly be of use when it would be inappropriate to suck on someone else's thumb, and what we are looking for is the rare opportunity when you should encourage yourself to act in scale when an opportunity presents itself. Plus, it is a little socially complicated to try to go around putting pepper oil on other people's thumbs. So maybe we should be looking for positive reinforcement, rather than negative reinforcement?

Regret really sucks and Charlie and Warren advise us to avoid things we regret. They also often talk about their biggest mistakes being mistakes of omission, rather than commission which they refer to as "thumb sucking". So it seems like it is important to avoid thumb sucking. Does anyone have any recommendation for methods or books or anything else that helps to avoid thumb sucking? It would seem like a finger licking good opportunity to follow up on if someone has some good recommendations. So there's my post about thumb sucking and finger licking. I look forward to your responses.

I'm really confused. I thought your "tribal leadership" coaching was transformational and works really quickly. Why don't you just tribally transform them in to a high achieving organization? Wouldn't that be faster and easier? Especially for someone with a lot of coaching experience and little real estate experience?

Great article and good points. The NPR segment reminds me of a story about a bird. All jokes aside, Cigarbutt makes a good point. I have known a lot of famous musicians and have known quite a few who played in major orchestras. The truth is, if you're BS, an expert knows it immediately. If they think you're BS, they won't respect you and if they don't respect you, they all end up taking their cues from the person they do respect, so maybe the follow the first violinist and ignore the supposed conductor. In a more contemporary setting the same thing happens when the band ignores purported leader of the group and instead follows whoever they do respect such as the drummer or guitarist who becomes the de facto leader. The same thing is happening in the USA right now when people ignore Trump and the Trump administration and look to leadership from Fauci, Bill Gates, local leaders, or even random people who have shown better leadership. Unfortunately. some are also taking direction from crackpots, conspiracy theorists and very biased sources. My guess is that fewer people would do so if they trusted Trump and if Trump encouraged trust in expertise. The lack of trust is also certainly a contributing factor in the reluctance to take a vaccine once available as reported in the gallup link Cigarbutt provided.

"The Unique U.S. Failure to Control the Virus https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/06/us/united-states-failure-coronavirus.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage A couple of notable quotes:

Perfect example of coastal liberal elites expecting handouts from the government. ;)

It's the fake it until you make it generation.

Schwab, the first rule of fight club is never talk about fight club. Please delete this post.

Many of the respected posters from years ago have told me there's a reason they don't participate any more. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gresham%27s_law To the best of my knowledge, there aren't "mods". There is just one "mod". It's a pretty good result given the limited resources for policing behavior. The suggestions in the following threads won't solve all the complaints, but they will help. https://www.cornerofberkshireandfairfax.ca/forum/general-discussion/how-to-ignore-users-on-this-forum/msg400410/#msg400410 https://www.cornerofberkshireandfairfax.ca/forum/general-discussion/poll-have-you-set-the-politics-message-board-to-ignore/

Not to mention even if schools manage to get solid systems and software in place for online learning there is still the issue of teachers themselves. Online teaching is a whole different ballgame. Throw in teachers over the age of 50 who have been in the classroom for 30 years and their effectiveness dwindles. Here in PA a ton of my coworkers pulled their kids from school and rushed them to PA cyber school simply because the teachers are at least trained for online learning. You're missing the point. The school system besides other important things is a giant day care program to look after kids while parents go to work so they don't become delinquents. It doesn't work online. It needs to be physical. The timeline is also political to reopen schools and get those jobs counted again before the election. Many of the 'unemployed' are actually employed, but staying home with kids. The opposite is true too. Many are unemployed, but may still be receiving benefits and compensation and therefore cannot file for unemployment yet, and may not be counted in unemployment figures.

Ha, ha, ha! Nope. Even if you believe it was an error (it wasn't), in this pandemic that wouldn't be the greatest unforced error. The greatest unforced error was Trump politicizing the use of masks. If he hadn't done that, USA would be able to give everyone masks, open its economy, and not worry about too many COVID-19 deaths. USA could've had it's cake and eat it too, but Trump has eliminated that as a possibility. It's an insanely huge unforced error, costing both lives and the economy. Clear, honest and consistent communication (not creating confusion by calling it a hoax for example) is even cheaper than masks and might have had just as positive an impact.

You're right I'm biased. I dislike all men in green tights with green hats and bows and arrows. I'm not fond of pied pipers either. Should we take this outside to the Politics section and fight about it? ??? The truth is I'm also not fond of some of Robinhood's competitors and the recent free trading trend in general. I don't think it's free it's just that the frictions are non-obvious and the customers are unsophisticated. If you're not concerned and don't see material differences, maybe you just haven't really looked yet. Yes, I disagree with you. I think that cheap (no) commissions is great by providing access to investing to people who had less access before. Yes, I know people in Lithuania who want to invest $100 and have to pay $10 commissions to do it. That's 10% gone in one side of a trade. If you don't think that's a ripoff and creating a divide between rich and poor, that's your choice. And I think you are biased, since you are financial professional and this is threatening your and your brethren livelihood. So you'd rather see Robinhood fail. Edit: BTW, I would disallow trading options @ Robinhood. Or make them restricted to whatever large accounts. And I would probably ban forex trading for most individual accounts. Forex is a way bigger scam than Robinhood ever was and it's available and been around forever. In Lithuania too. I'm starting to think there's a virus going around CoB&F that causes members to assume the worst about each other. You're assuming a lot of things about me, all of which I believe to be false. None of which are necessary to make your points, which are valid. I have no problem with low trading costs. I have a problem as I stated before with trading costs that an uneducated investor (or maybe I should say gambler or speculator) would not be aware of. I also have an issue with platforms that sell order flow and are then designed to stimulate overtrading and potentially even high engagement that might eventually be thought of as addictive behavior. If a non-professional wants to dollar cost average in to a basket of stocks with low to know trading cost and hold over long periods of time that is wonderful, but that is not what I am talking about. The things I have been railing against is young people who don't even know that bonds are senior to equity and that being bankrupt is bad for the equity, probably shouldn't be trading options on those equities and trading in and out on a daily basis. The ease of trading on a phone is also a little disturbing. A barrier to buying and selling is not a bad thing if it encourages you to think before acting. If a small explicit fee similarly might encourage a bit more thought, then that too might be better than Robinhood. If someone really is not gambling with these platforms, then why are they superior to other low cost alternatives that would focus on broader diversification for example. If someone really isn't a sophisticated investor, do you really believe Robinhood is a better alternative to Vanguard ETF's for example?

You're right I'm biased. I dislike all men in green tights with green hats and bows and arrows. I'm not fond of pied pipers either. Should we take this outside to the Politics section and fight about it? ??? The truth is I'm also not fond of some of Robinhood's competitors and the recent free trading trend in general. I don't think it's free it's just that the frictions are non-obvious and the customers are unsophisticated. If you're not concerned and don't see material differences, maybe you just haven't really looked yet.

thanks RTF, and one more thought, as while I could talk about this until the cows come home, I need to get off my high horse (to mix metaphors). in my experience, its is the super smart kids that are most susceptible to this risk. I am not a a child psychologist but I am a guy who has actively coached and counseled teens, and I know that the kids who are sensitive, who are smart enough to know that there are expectations on them, who are at most at risk. again, there are kids that I dont know who have mental health issues, and they are a whole different issue. but it is the "healthy" kids who are well adjusted...until they fall into a crisis...which of course is not a crisis, but they will not realize that at the time...who need guidance...and you wont know that they need guidance because like it or not they wont come to you for guidance...so you have to "preguide"...not helicopter parenting, but just one big hug and a short talk, however uncomfortable it might be at the time I also think we shouldn't underestimate a potential social media component to this tragedy, to the Robinhood phenomenon and other child and young adult suicides.

Cherzeca, thanks for posting material that is kind, thoughtful, and helpful on a personal basis for people reading the forum. These are trying times and the difficulties may not go away anytime soon. Hopefully your words will help people or help them help others during these times.

This isn't all that personal responsibility bah blah, blah. Brokerages have a KYC duty. There is no new ground. Brokerages are not allowed to allow people to speculate on things they may not be knowledgeable about. Again, this has been around for a long time. To put it another way, I have client money. If I made some investments that the client can't understand the risk because of their knowledge and I loose money I have to personally eat the loss for the client. This is even if I explain the trade and the risks ahead of time. That's just what the rules are. A 20 year old kid in most cases is not knowledgeable enough to understand the risk in option strategies. The new era seems to be hey, ignore the rules if you think you can make some money, don't worry about it. This is particular in this case because companies like Robinhood seem not only to ignore whether a client is knowledgeable or not to take a certain kind of risk, but they seem to be actively encouraging risk taking in that group. That's why my view that this rises to criminal negligence. A (highly?) imperfect analogy would be tobacco companies marketing cigarettes to minors. I made a flippant joking post earlier about "moving fast and breaking things", but this is a real tragedy and I am starting to think that whenever Silicon Valley wants to disrupt something really important like our health or our wealth we should be VERY worried about our safety or the safety of those around us. I have been making fun of Robinhood for months and saying that this will all end in tears, but I have to say that I am surprised by the speed and severity with which we have our first nationally publicized tragedy. The best imaginable outcome is if this somehow helps to prevent even more trouble down the line, but I doubt those who should be most concerned will even notice this new story, hopefully others will be able to make a difference. I think this goes beyond simple KYC, which I think is shocking in this case. I think you could also argue that there is a basic consumer product safety argument that a lawyer might be able to make. Seeing how egregious this example is makes me think that there is more to be concerned with regarding Robinhood than even its most vehement detractors might have imagined. In a worst case scenario, we may be making comparisons with the irresponsible behavior at Theranos once more becomes known about what has actually been going on with Robinhood that we are unaware of.

That's not the right attitude. Remember, the right answer is "move fast and break things."

In the USA, this is a kid who likely couldn't have rented a rental car because the expectation is that his brain is not fully matured. Many people who spend time with young people believe in an extended adolescence at least in the USA. I won't debate the merits, or issues, etc, but on average, today's 20 year olds don't seem that much like the 20 years olds of days long gone or the twenty year olds in many other regions. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/extended-adolescence-when-25-is-the-new-181/

I've created a thread in the politics section, hopefully discussion of flags can move there. https://www.cornerofberkshireandfairfax.ca/forum/politics/deck-chairs-on-the-titanic-us-civil-war-edition/ I think it's really inappropriate to make accusations at other board, especially if they aren't well founded and they almost never seem well founded founded to me. On the other hand, many people do believe that many varieties of self-loathing exist, so though I discourage people from making aspersions at other members, dismissing the concept out of hand doesn't seem appropriate either. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-hating_Jew Also of interest is Roy Cohn, Trump's attorney and political mentor, who not only was the driving force behind McCarthyism, but also is widely accused of the persecution of homosexuals, despite his only sexuality. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Cohn The virus does impact the brain and cause neurological symptoms. If this thread wasn't so full of political garbage and members insulting each other, we could probably have an intelligent discussion on the topic.

Here's some Coronavirus content for the Coronavirus thread. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/the-virus/

This thread is seriously off topic. Please move the political discussion regarding the US Civil war to the Politics section. I have created a new thread for your convenience. https://www.cornerofberkshireandfairfax.ca/forum/politics/deck-chairs-on-the-titanic-us-civil-war-edition/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gresham%27s_law

;)