To: Eric L who wrote (53742 ) 3/22/2003 10:59:23 PM From: Stock Farmer Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 54805 Quite a juvenile response: attack the person rather than their ideas. This and your next post. I am asking a fundamental and simple question: "why bother with identifying Gorillas"? and following up responses with questions. It's not as if only an idiot would fail to notice the practice has been supremely profitable under all circumstances. So the question is legitimate. It may come as a complete surprise to you, but I am genuinely interested in what people think is an appropriate answer. For several years Moore's Gorilla Game has been an object of curiosity for me. Unlike you, I chose not to merely "absorb" Moore's assertions. Instead I have tried to understand his fundamental basis. From what I can tell, its success depends on the degree to which the parties in the transaction are correct in valuing hypergrowth markets. If the seller gets it wrong on the low side, as Moore asserts is generally the case, Gorilla buying will be profitable. If, however, the buyer gets it wrong on the high side, as some have discovered is possible (an eventuality Moore failed to contemplate), then the hunt is worse than a waste of time. At least this is my thinking. Now, maybe that makes me stupid and insipid in your eyes. Maybe you are so exalted and all knowing and superior a "semipro" investor that dealing with a straight forward question on its face is below you. Me, I am an just an amateur investor. My own success to date is due in no small amount to numerous fortuitous accidents: like investing heavily in tech since 85; bailing in '00; and getting into stuff that's gone up since then; and recently changing stance towards the private equity markets for some dumb reason. Musta been pure fluke luck that someone so clueless as me could do stuff like that. Kudos to you for having done so well based solely on your intellectual prowess. Obviously you are much smarter than me. I'd doff my hat to you, if only your ego didn't take up so much of the planet that there's barely room to move. So please forgive me if I don't. Especially since I was asking a civil question of someone else who has the time and patience and intellectual honesty to answer. 'Cause Jurgis is one of those individuals. Thank goodness for unmoderated threads. Otherwise all knowing opinion Nazis who can't even moderate their own behavior might decide in advance who is worth listening to and who isn't. Moderate yourself. If that isn't too much to ask. If you find that I have nothing to offer, feel free to use the ignore feature. Or don't respond. Surely those who lurk here and post here can make up their own minds whose posts are worth reading and whose are a waste of bits. Seems to me that even JHP's occasional injections have more merit in their content (style aside) than some of the spew you've posted here. And as far as issuing the thread leader's salutation? Like the monkey's paw, that has proven to be quite unfortunate for those who choose to use it. Use at your own risk. John