IBM创始人: 我没有天才,但我会待留在我聪明的地方
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So silly that the article (Ref. 1) uses the title figure but completely miss the point as Warren Buffett states:
"The size of that circle is not very important; knowing its boundaries, however, is vital." ( 这个圈子的大小不是很重要;但是，知道它的边界是至关重要的。)
"“我没有天才,但我会待留在我聪明的地方。“ ( 汤姆沃森, IBM创始人) (Ref. 2)
Don't want to be misled? Gotta do your own job by reading the original English, below.
The 'Circle Of Competence' Theory Will Help You Make Vastly Smarter Decisions - Crystal-clear memories of the boundaries of your own circle of competence protects you from stepping up to say something really stupid and regreted you got later on.
Don't be "know-it-all scientist" even you're a Nobel Laureate as you're only human - you know little beyond the circle of competence. Without realizing your own limitation (boundary), you might likely got sucked up to your ambition/greedy nature of humankind, without return.
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Farnam
“I’m no genius. I’m smart in spots—but I stay around those spots.”
— Tom Watson Sr., Founder of IBM
The concept of the “Circle of Competence” has been used over the years by Warren Buffett as a way to focus investors on only operating in areas they knew best. The bones of the concept appear in his 1996 Shareholder Letter:
What an investor needs is the ability to correctly evaluate selected businesses. Note that word “selected”: You don’t have to be an expert on every company, or even many. You only have to be able to evaluate companies within your circle of competence. The size of that circle is not very important; knowing its boundaries, however, is vital.
It’s a simple concept: Each of us, through experience or study, has built up useful knowledge on certain areas of the world. Some areas are understood by most of us, while some areas require a lot more specialty to evaluate.
“我没有天才,但我会留在我聪明的地方"
- 汤姆沃森, IBM创始人
多年来，沃伦•巴菲特（Warren Buffett）利用“竞争力圈”的概念，将投资者重点放在只有在最了解的地区进行业务。这个概念的骨头出现在他1996年的股东大会信中：
投资者需要的是正确评估所选企业的能力。请注意，“选择”一词：您不必是每个公司的专家，甚至是许多。您只需要能够评估您的能力范围内的公司。这个圈子的大小不是很重要;但是，知道它的边界是至关重要的。
这是一个简单的概念：我们每个人通过经验或学习，在世界某些地区建立了有用的知识。我们大多数人都理解一些领域，而一些领域需要更多的专业来评估。
** Ref. 1 **
成大事者：简单、正直、无私与坚韧！（深度好文）
巴菲特定性 三者合一
** Ref. 2 **
The 'Circle Of Competence' Theory Will Help You Make Vastly Smarter Decisions
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Dec. 5, 2013, 1:11 PM
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55,968
Farnam
“I’m no genius. I’m smart in spots—but I stay around those spots.”
— Tom Watson Sr., Founder of IBM
The concept of the “Circle of Competence” has been used over the years by Warren Buffett as a way to focus investors on only operating in areas they knew best. The bones of the concept appear in his 1996 Shareholder Letter:
What an investor needs is the ability to correctly evaluate selected businesses. Note that word “selected”: You don’t have to be an expert on every company, or even many. You only have to be able to evaluate companies within your circle of competence. The size of that circle is not very important; knowing its boundaries, however, is vital.
It’s a simple concept: Each of us, through experience or study, has built up useful knowledge on certain areas of the world. Some areas are understood by most of us, while some areas require a lot more specialty to evaluate.
For example, most of us have a basic understanding of the economics of a restaurant: You rent or buy space, spend money to outfit the place and then hire employees to seat, serve, cook, and clean. (And, if you don’t want to do it yourself, manage.)
From there it’s a matter of generating enough traffic and setting the appropriate prices to generate a profit on the food and drinks you serve—after all of your operating expenses have been paid. Though the cuisine, atmosphere, and price points will vary by restaurant, they all have to follow the same economic formula.
That basic knowledge, along with some understanding of accounting and a little bit of study, would enable one to evaluate and invest in any number of restaurants and restaurant chains; public or private. It’s not all that complicated.
However, can most of us say we understand the workings of a micro-chip company or a biotech drug company at the same level? Perhaps not.
But as Buffett put so eloquently, we do not necessarily need to understand these more esoteric areas to invest capital. Far more important is to honestly define what we do know and to stick to those areas. The circle can be widened, but only slowly and over time. Mistakes are most often made when straying from this discipline.
* * *
The concept applies outside of investing.
Buffett describes the circle of competence of one of his business managers, a Russian immigrant with poor English who built the largest furniture store in Nebraska, thusly:
I couldn’t have given her $200 million worth of Berkshire Hathaway stock when I bought the business because she doesn’t understand stock. She understands cash. She understands furniture. She understands real estate. She doesn’t understand stocks, so she doesn’t have anything to do with them. If you deal with Mrs. B in what I would call her circle of competence… She is going to buy 5,000 end tables this afternoon (if the price is right). She is going to buy 20 different carpets in odd lots, and everything else like that [snaps fingers] because she understands carpet. She wouldn’t buy 100 shares of General Motors if it was at 50 cents a share.
It did not hurt Mrs. B to have such a narrow area of competence. In fact, one could argue the opposite: Her rigid devotion to that area allowed her to focus. Only with that focus could she have overcome her handicaps to achieve such extreme success.
In fact, Charlie Munger takes this concept outside of business altogether and into the realm of life in general. The essential question he sought to answer: Where should we devote our limited time in life, in order to achieve the most success? Charlie’s simple prescription:
You have to figure out what your own aptitudes are. If you play games where other people have the aptitudes and you don’t, you’re going to lose. And that’s as close to certain as any prediction that you can make. You have to figure out where you’ve got an edge. And you’ve got to play within your own circle of competence.
If you want to be the best tennis player in the world, you may start out trying and soon find out that it’s hopeless—that other people blow right by you. However, if you want to become the best plumbing contractor in Bemidji, that is probably doable by two-thirds of you. It takes a will. It takes the intelligence. But after a while, you’d gradually know all about the plumbing business in Bemidji and master the art. That is an attainable objective, given enough discipline. And people who could never win a chess tournament or stand in center court in a respectable tennis tournament can rise quite high in life by slowly developing a circle of competence—which results partly from what they were born with and partly from what they slowly develop through work.
So, the simple takeaway here is clear. If you want to improve your odds of success in life and business then define the perimeter of your circle of competence, and operate inside. Over time, work to expand that circle but never fool yourself about where it stands today, and never be afraid to say “I don’t know.”
Circle of Competence is part of the Farnam Street latticework of mental models.
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Heritage landmarks of my horizons (我的视野的传统地标 ) - - -
** Epilogue **
转载授权说明 - Postscript(epilogue) - 阅读我写博文的视野角度 -
链接地址：http://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-847277-1071424.html
四位一体, 四愿读写博文 Postscript(epilogue) for governing all my blog posts
独立的时空, 自由的思写。劳作 (Labor)、艺术 (art)、游戏 (game)、学问 (knowledge), 四位一体; 四愿读写博文: 正义(Justice)、良知 (conscience)、自由 (freedom)、独立 (independence)- leading to integrity, compassion, and mutual respect 。照镜验心,久而久之习惯自然, 我手写我心,写出心安而淡然、端然、坦然。
I can't ask or practice wisdom as I believe it's not by gain of your own effort but given by God like kindness, grace and mercy.
劳作（劳工），艺术，游戏，学问（知识）-
我不能要求或实践获得智慧，因为我相信这智慧不是因为你自己的努力而得到的，而是像上帝的慈爱，恩典和怜悯所给予的。
http://210.75.240.149/blog-847277-1076194.html
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