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To: tekboy who wrote (25801)	6/4/2000 2:03:00 AM
From: Mike Buckley	Respond to of 54805

Tekboy, I think I understand your point now. Thanks! I can't stand absorbing all the information and then doing nothing with it. Or rather, I'm generally too immature to accept that doing nothing is in fact doing something, and usually a very good something indeed. Immature is too strong a word. Don't forget that I've met you and immature ain't it. But I do understand the emotional gyrations we tend to go through when we see data or any information that is valuable. It's natural that we want to act on it. Acting on newly found information tends to be equated with changing something. In our case, that means buying or selling. If we don't buy or sell, we aren't changing anything. Instead of equating "acting" on information with "changing" something, we should instead equate it with "doing" something. Doing doesn't necessarily require change. In this case, doing something would be confirming that no change is needed. By consciously acting out the mental process of deciding that the same or better reasons to hold a stock apply today that applied yesterday, our need for acting in response to new information is fulfilled. Fulfillment of that need can be even more realized by having a simple statement addressed to tekgirl that begins and ends with one sentence: "There's some new information about our company confirming that we should leave everything as is." If she's interested enough to ask what the information is and why it's confirmation of something so important as leaving things as is, you'll get even more fulfillment of feeling that you've consciously "done" something. Dr. Id, how am I doing? :) I've come to the conclusion that investing--like, say, being a thread leader--is 1/3 brains and 2/3 temperament. On a very serious note, that's why I've made a point of fostering the term, carpetologist. There's certainly nothing about brains implied in that term. And as daunting as the subject of technology was for me despite my best efforts to grasp it from about 1995 to 1998, frankly I wasn't smart enough. Then one day a manual by Geoff Moore was published that put it all in context -- even for me. As for whatever it takes to be a thread leader, it takes a lot less brains and a lot more temperament. I'd put it more at 10% brains and 90% temperament, not really any different from being a wildly successful long-term investor. --Mike Buckley