George Bernard Shaw on false knowledge

Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance.

~ George Bernard Shaw

Charlie Munger on circle of competence

I try to avoid being stupid...  The single most important thing is to know where you are competent and where you aren't.  The human mind tries to make you believe you are smarter than you are.

~ Charlie Munger, Vice Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, California Institute of Technology interview

(As quoted in the January 2 issue of Barron's.)

John Kenneth Galbraith on forecasting

We have 2 classes of forecasters: Those who don't know...and those who don't know they don't know.

~ John Kenneth Galbraith

Rob Weir on libertarianism

Q: Is libertarianism pseudo-intellectual?

A: No. Libertarianism is really orthogonal to any stance on intellect.

Say you are dissatisfied with the level of obesity in America today. An intellectual approach might to look into its causes, via the scientific method, and find out ways that it could be reduced. An anti-intellectual approach might be to adopt some diet because it came to some guru in a dream. A pseudo-intellectual approach might be to use a bunch of fancy words to hide the fact that one does not actually know anything about obesity whatsoever.

These various stances are all orthogonal to the libertarian program. The real comparison is between statism and libertarianism:

A statist would take whatever solution the state’s experts have devised to reduce obesity, and mandate the solution, on all in the realm. Whether the solution had a sound scientific basis, whether it was anti-intellectual or whether it was pseudo-intellectual does not matter, the statist would have it mandated on all, under penalty of law. (See, for example, the Soviet Union’s promotion of the anti-Darwinian, or the Nazi promotion of “racial science.”) To a statist, these are not questions of the intellect, but political questions, answerable to political will.

A libertarian, on the other hand, would not mandate a solution to obesity. He would allow anyone to offer a solution if they wished, and anyone to consume a solution if they wished. Solutions of an intellectual, anti-intellectual and pseudo-intellectual nature would freely compete, in the market. So would experts, reviewing, rating and recommending one solution or another.

That's the key difference, I think.  Libertarianism is about liberty, not about one group thinking it has a monopoly on knowledge.  Libertarians believe that no one and no group has all the answers.

~ Rob Weir, "Is libertarianism pseudo-intellectual?," Quora, January 31, 2019

Albert Einstein on learning and knowledge

The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don't know.

~ Albert Einstein

John Templeton on investing and the limits of knowledge

An investor who has all the answers doesn't even understand all the questions.

~ Sir John Templeton

Dylan Grice on the paradox of risk management and risk managers

In the broadest sense possible, the greatest and most fundamental risk is the risk of not knowing what you're doing.  To the extent these "risk models" trick "risk managers" into thinking they do, they are dangerous because they blind users to the true nature of risk.  The paradoxical outcome is that such risk managers are making the financial world much riskier than it would otherwise be.

~ Dylan Grice, "The Language of Inflation," Edelweiss Journal, November 4, 2013

Thomas Sowell on the cause of great tragedies of history

Few of the great tragedies of history were created by the village idiot, and many by the village genius.

~ Thomas Sowell

Charles Munger on knowing the limits of your knowledge and competence

People chronically misappraise the limits of their own knowledge; that’s one of the most basic parts of human nature. Knowing the edge of your circle of competence is one of the most difficult things for a human being to do. Knowing what you don’t know is much more useful in life and business than being brilliant.

~ Charles Munger, "Charles Munger: Secret's of Buffett's Success?," The Wall Street Journal, September 12, 2014

Value manager Bob Goldfarb does not see a repeat of the 1930s thanks to Bernanke

I do not believe we are going to revisit the 1930s. Bernanke is a student of the '30s and his policy responses are a reflection of his deep knowledge of the '30s.  So I do not think we are going to see a replay of the 1930s.

~ Bob Goldfarb, Lead Manager of Sequoia Fund, Ruane, Cunniff & Goldfarb Investor Day, St. Regis Hotel, New York City, May 17, 2013

Nassim Taleb on Platonicity

Medieval man was a cog in a wheel he did not understand; modern man is a cog in a complicated system he thinks he understands.

~ Nassim Taleb, The Bed of Procrustes, p. 57

Fred C. Koch on the value of failure

I hope your first deal is a loser, otherwise you will think you're a lot smarter than you are.

~ Fred C. Koch, founder, Koch Industries, to his son Charles G. Koch upon joining the family business, as quoted in "The Science of Success", 2007, pg. 10

George Bernard Shaw on politicians

He knows nothing; and he thinks he knows everything. That points clearly to a political career. 

~ George Bernard Shaw, Major Barbara (1907)

Jim Grant on leverage

Ignorance about tomorrow is a constant of human affairs. Submission to this truth is what’s variable. In finance, submission entails a healthy fear of leverage.

~ James Grant, editor, Grant's Interest Rate Observer

Will Rogers on knowledge

It isn't what we don't know that gives us trouble, it's what we know that ain't so.

~ Will Rogers

(This quote is likely misattributed.)