Fairfax Lollapalooza 2016

[shalab]

My bet is that it was Biglari  ;D. Or it may be oddball  :P

 

Seriously - does any one have notes of the meeting?

 

[oddballstocks]

My bet is that it was Biglari  ;D. Or it may be oddball  :P

 

Seriously - does any one have notes of the meeting?

 

Ouch!! I almost didn't get a seat because I kept talking outside the room after everyone went in.

 

This year was an excellent event, I really enjoyed the dinner and speakers.  Most investment pitches don't move the needle for me, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't going to look for stocks in Greece..

[NoCalledStrikes]

Near the end of the shareholder dinner when Peter Kaufman took the stage, he answered a question from the audience about a type of psychology of human misjudgment that he described as something like "Galilean Train Relativity".  What he was referring to was our human inability to understand certain ideas until we've had certain life experiences because until then, we lack the appropriate reference frame to appreciate or understand the idea.

 

He compares this to a passenger on a train holding a ball in his hand.  To the passenger on the train, the ball appears to be stationary, but to a person not on the train platform, the ball (and the train) appear to be moving by at 50 mph.  Sometimes our ideas are like that the ball in the passenger's hand, if we hear an idea at age 16 from someone who is age 50, we are likely to reject the idea, because we lack the worldly experience to see the wisdom that makes the idea seem valid. This explains why ideas that make such perfect sense to us parents can be so hard for us to transfer to our children because we are trying to transfer ideas across reference planes. This also explains why their are things we will learn in 2026 and say why didn't I know this back in 2016 and it is because we don't yet have the knowledge set today that we will have in ten years in the future which may be required for us to appreciate that idea.

 

My question for the forum, is if anyone remembers the name that Peter gave this type of misjudgment?  It was something like Galilean Train Relativity, but I don't think it was that exactly.  As a dad, I just love this idea, as it explains why my kids do not appreciate it when I share the latest Munger-ism that I learn to them. If I want to have any chance of transferring the idea to them, I need to get on their train.

[merkhet]

I don't know the term of art he used, but that is a fascinating and excellent framework to keep in mind!

[Jurgis]

I believe what he said was Galilean ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_Galilei ) Einstein Relativity. I think the name of his own invention, i.e. I doubt you'll find more references to what he's talking about by searching using the name.

 

The name is also not precise in realm of physics, since Theory of Relativity ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_relativity ) is not what he's talking about. He's actually talking about relative velocity ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relative_velocity ), which in everyday world is based on Newtonian mechanics and is only relatively :P related to Galileo or Einstein. ;)

[shalab]

Thanks oddball. Can others chime in on the investment details? Interesting to know. ( though most ideas from the past haven't worked out well )

 

 

My bet is that it was Biglari  ;D. Or it may be oddball  :P

 

Seriously - does any one have notes of the meeting?

 

Ouch!! I almost didn't get a seat because I kept talking outside the room after everyone went in.

 

This year was an excellent event, I really enjoyed the dinner and speakers.  Most investment pitches don't move the needle for me, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't going to look for stocks in Greece..