Observers change what they observe
A person cannot fully know reality, because their own actions keep changing it in continuous feedback loops. Understanding is never complete, since acting on a belief alters the very situation the belief was about.
Investing
Soros: The Life and Times of a Messianic Billionaire
United States · 20th century
9 ideas
Buy on AmazonA biography of George Soros spanning markets, reflexivity, philanthropy and political influence.
Surviving oppression shapes later giving
Having had to escape persecution can leave someone with the firm belief that all people are entitled to live without fear of oppression. Wealth gained later can then be turned toward that belief, funding free speech, education and civil liberties in other countries.
Give through local groups, not around them
One way for an outside donor to push for open societies is to work through existing organizations and grassroots activism inside a country rather than building everything from scratch. The aim is to loosen restrictions on speech and to advance education, science, economic growth and civil rights from within.
Markets feed on their own beliefs
Prices are driven not only by underlying facts but by how other investors react to one another and to outside pressures. Those reactions build trends that can run all the way to a full boom or a full bust, so the trend itself must be analyzed, not just the asset.
Success breeds after-the-fact theories
People who succeed often build theories to explain why they acted as they did, and those closest to them may see much of it as invented afterward. A self-critical mind can search its past for reasons and still not find the real ones, which is why outsiders sometimes fall back on the word 'genius' for results that resist simple explanation.
Living by an unfinished philosophy
A person can spend a lifetime applying a philosophy while still refining and defining it. Practice and theory then shape each other: the work tests the ideas, and the ideas are reworked to fit what the work reveals.
Quiet records draw insider attention
An investor can shun interviews and the press entirely and still become an object of fascination among insiders, purely through results. Within a closed professional world, a track record speaks louder than publicity.
Big donors attract praise and suspicion
When private wealth pays for political and civic causes across many countries, it gains influence well beyond markets. The same giving can earn nominations for peace prizes from some and draw fierce criticism of motives and methods from others, especially in the countries where it operates.
Concern for refugees crosses loyalties
A steady commitment to the rights of refugees and the displaced can lead someone to take positions that cut against groups they might be expected to side with. Consistent principle, applied across cases, produces stances others find surprising.