7 Billion Sets of Spectacles

Curiosity, Biases, and The Way Through Which Investors See the World

To see the world in a light which only highlights the positive, the good, or the optimistic point of view is to peer through rose-tinted glasses. I am certain many are aware of this idiom, oft used to convey someone’s unrealistic outlook on life. However unrealistic it may be, I would attest that someone donning spectacles of perpetual pessimism and melancholy to be equally unrealistic. When I was 18, my accounting professor shared an off-hand remark about how we should question everything, even the seemingly insignificant, and make it a conscious habit to do so whenever presented with something new. As youngsters, we are oft conditioned to take materials presented to us as fact. I assume that makes sense to some degree. Why would we question the outcome of 2 plus 2 equalling 4 in our formative years?

For other factoids we blindly take at face value, such as the sky being blue, I would think that questioning this statement bears more fruit. Spoiler, the sky is not blue. Without taking …