Edward Quince's Wisdom Bites: Digital A's

 

We live in an age of abundance—data everywhere, insight nowhere.

Simon Winchester’s idea of “Digital Amnesia” captures the problem well. As we outsource memory and thinking to devices, we mistake access to information for understanding. Finance is particularly vulnerable to this confusion.

Enter the DIKW Pyramid.

Data Is Not Wisdom

At the base of the pyramid sits Data: prices, headlines, earnings releases. Above that is Information—data organized into narratives. Then Knowledge, which requires synthesis and context. At the top sits Wisdom, which demands judgment and restraint.

Most financial content never leaves the bottom two layers.

Checking prices feels productive. Consuming news feels informed. Neither guarantees understanding.

Why Speed Kills Insight

Markets reward patience, not reflexes. Yet the financial media ecosystem is optimized for immediacy. Push notifications, hot takes, and minute-by-minute updates ensure you are always reacting—and rarely thinking.

Wisdom requires time. It requires sitting with ideas long enough for them to settle.

The Lesson

Do not confuse checking your phone with doing research.

If something won’t matter in five years, don’t give it five minutes. Read old books. Study history. Let ideas compound the same way capital does.

XTOD

“If it won’t matter in 5 YEARS don’t give it more than 5 MINUTES attention.”