Peter Attia

So again, those are the five categories.

Just kind of keep that in mind as we apply our judgments to these things.

And keep in mind as well that these are fluid.

Things can move up and down these chains in the presence of new information.

Yeah, look, I think first and foremost, that's an attribute of great scientists.

So if you look at what separates good scientists from great scientists, that would probably be one of the characteristics.

A great scientist is not married to being right.

They're married to knowing what is right, and they're going to go wherever the data take them.

But honestly, the first time I heard that expression to have strong convictions loosely held was actually from a friend of mine who at the time was running a hedge fund.

He's since retired.

But he said, look, that's the key to being a good investor is you have to have strong convictions because you're going to be putting a lot of capital at risk.

But those convictions have to be loosely held.

So the moment that data emerge that change your thesis for investment, you have to be flexible enough to move as opposed to double down.

And the reason I think that this is such an important part of investing is in science, if you're wrong, the price is not that severe.

In fact, without calling out or embarrassing anybody, there are lots of people who have taken positions on things that are just so patently incorrect 20 and 25 years later, and yet they just can't let go of their baby.

They can't kill their baby.

And so, frankly, they just make fools out of themselves, continuing to cling to ridiculous beliefs.

But there's actually no real price they're paying for that, other than within the scientific community they're laughed at.

But you can't be an investor, you can't be a money manager with that type of mentality, because you'll be out of business.

And so in the final analysis, the dollars talk louder than anything else.