Keep It Simple, Fool

During the height of his career, Albert Einstein was in the middle of hearing his notes dictated to him by his secretary when he stopped and asked her, "Did I really write that? I could have put that so much simpler."

-
Just as Einstein was able to simplify even the most complex concepts, the world's top investors have a knack for focusing on the two or three big factors that lead to a successful investment, ignoring the meaningless noise of millions of other factors.

-

....................

-

On the topic of Einstein, I am listening to Walter Isaacson's excellent book on him and I highly recommend it (Book, Audio Book), as did Charlie Munger at the Wesco meeting this year.

-

There are also a couple of great quotes relating to Einstein that I keep in mind:

-

"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler." --
Albert Einstein

-

“Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.” --sign that hung in Albert Einstein’s office at Princeton

-

And the brief story mentioned by Peter Bevelin in my interview with him: When I hear them [Buffett and Munger] at the annual meeting, I am thinking about Einstein’s reply to a student. The student had challenged Einstein’s statement that the laws of physics should be simple by asking: "What if they aren’t simple?" Einstein replied, "Then I would not be interested in them."