My view is that all books that point out that human do not generally pursue their self-interest through rational decision-making make us all better investors by teaching us to be wary of Passive Investing (the dominant model for understanding how stock investing works). Passive assumes that we are engaged in the rational pursuit of our own self-interest. It’s because it gets that premise wrong that its strategic recommendations are so wildly off the mark. And it’s the idea that investors are rational that is the primary cause of the economic crisis we are in today.

We need to become humble enough to acknowledge that we are often not rational. Accepting that opens the door to all sorts of exciting strategies rooted in a real-world understanding of how investing works.

Rob

I found the part about hiring employees to be interesting. I believe that they suggest that having an unstructured interview is valuable, after somehow assessing the potential employee’s aptitude. They discuss how asking pat questions such as “What are your strengths and weaknesses?” doesn’t really tell you much about the perspective employee, as most of us can easily learn and practice these types of questions (and who hasn’t!). Instead, the authors recommend that you, as the person with the hiring power, try to evaluate how you would get along with this person that you will be working with on a daily basis as well as their understanding of the company’s workings, job position, etc.