Knowledge by subtraction

"So knowledge grows by subtraction much more than by addition – given that what we know today might turn out to be wrong but what we know to be wrong cannot turn out to be right, at least not easily." This insight from Nassim Nicholas Taleb perfectly captures the peculiar challenge facing today's investors, particularly in India where financial literacy has undergone a dramatic transformation over the past three decades. When I founded Value Research thirty years ago, the investment landscape was refreshingly simple in one respect: most people knew virtually nothing about mutual fund investing. The challenge then was far more basic than explaining sophisticated concepts. The bulk of my job involved informing people that something called mutual funds actually existed, explaining what they were in the first place, and demystifying elementary concepts like what NAV meant. It was like teaching someone to read; you started with the very alphabet of investing and built upwards from there. Suggested read: Bill Gates, Nassim Taleb and your money Today's reality is far more complex. The democratisation of financial information through the internet, social