When to Unlearn What We Have Learned

We rely less and less on certain investing tools over time, but you have to master them first before casting them aside.

Science and Charity, Pablo Picasso, 1897, oil on canvas (Museu Picasso)

I spent about 11 years as an alpine ski racing coach. I mainly worked with high school and college-age kids. By this time, they had been in racing programs for at least 5-6 years and would spend 2-4 days a week on snow. They had more or less mastered fundamentals and technique, and had a decent sense of navigating a course at the fastest speed possible. I wasn’t working much with beginners.

At this time in their racing careers, I think the most common thing I would say to them was, “ok, now that you have mastered how to do this one thing, throw it out.” Many things you are taught early on don’t necessarily apply when you have invested a certain amount of time into a pursuit. Kids had to unlearn many things to go from a good skier navigating a course to a good racer looking to squeeze every one-hundredth of a second out of their finishing time. 

The world of investing is no different. We, as investors, need to learn a core set of skills over time: Detach ourselves from our base emotions of fear and greed, read financial statements, identify competitive advantages, etc. Over time, we need to unlearn some of the lessons to improve our investing prowess.

---

Shoutout to Koyfin, one of the best financial data platforms I’ve ever used. Koyfin has become an integral part of how I screen for, track, and analyze companies. It has made the analysis process much faster thanks to having a decade's worth of data at my fingertips instead of manually going through stacks of quarterly and annual filings.

Up your analysis process by Signing up for Koyfin. Click on the link below and receive 10% off your annual subscription.

Disclaimer: I have an affiliate partnership with Koyfin and receive compensation if you sign up via the link above. It helps me fund this endeavor. I would still recommend using it even if I didn’t have this partnership because it’s an awesome product, but I’d be stupid to turn down a revenue opportunity. You get a discount, Koyfin gets new business, and I get a commission. Win-win-win).