Investing is Einstein’s Cat, or, The Thales Fallacy

This is a cat named Einstein not Einstein’s cat, but isn’t he gorgeous? You can see his person reflected in his eyes. Photo from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Einstein_(7996196819).jpg Two or three thousand years ago, Indo-European speakers who had turned back at the Khyber Pass decided that some of the gods of their fathers, the daevas, were malevolent spirits.1 Their relatives in the Indus Valley disagreed and so the languages and religions diverted. Twenty or thirty years ago, I was growing up a science-fiction fan without ever having met one in person. From yellowing paperbacks and early websites I became a twentieth-century humanist well inoculated against some of the follies which clever young men are prone to. I did not know that in California the same movement was festering into something proudly un-democratic, full of longings for yesterday’s tomorrows and resentment that not everyone recognized them as the rightful rulers. I cannot stop them, that work is for…