Quotes
Brilliant article by John Kay in the Financial Times – “Sex, lies and the pitfalls of overblown statistics”. Questioning is vital when dealing with data: what does it really mean, where did it come from, what is it trying to answer, is it the best data to answer that question, what are the incentives of the source of the data, what are my own incentives and biases in interpreting this data… and so on. In fact, one should start with the right questions, but that’s another subject. Skepticism and intellectual honesty makes for a hard way to live one’s life, but there’s really no choice if one is to minimize the traps of “data”.
In this Q1 2010 report, we describe how the last few months were a period of much study and few operations. We have found ourselves in a phase with few new situations in which we could have great convictions. We also announced the “Prêmio Investidor Profissional de Arte – PIPA” to our clients.
In this second post looking back to memorable moments in IP’s own letters to its shareholders, we continue to discuss our company’s “inner workings”. Again, the idea is to reveal as much as we can about the processes that should, over time, generate favorable outcomes for our investment ideas.
We’re looking back to our recent letters to our shareholders and every now and then we’ll post some quotes we’d like to share with you. Since this is the first installment in this series, we’ll dwell a little bit longer in one specific subject – risk management.
“The CEO of a public-owned company is no more its owner than the CEO’s chauffeur is the owner of the executive limousine”. George P. Schwartz
“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty” – Winston Churchill
“In evaluating people, you look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy. And if you don’t have the first, the other two will kill you.” – Warren Buffett
