Predictions and Markets

Investing deals with prediction and some people are far better predictors than are others. They are able to see patterns and trends before others do. These people are very valuable to any culture; and in fact, they are the most valuable people in the culture, as the culture depends upon them for its survival. The problem is that they are very rarely listened to at the time that they make the prediction. Why is that? Because predictions are opinions and everyone values his or her opinion above the opinions of all others and if an opinion is contradictory to a belief, especially if that belief is so ingrained that it has never been challenged before, the prediction, no matter how perceptive, will be ridiculed. In practical matters, it is fairly easy, for instance, to predict trends in stocks and securities in financial markets; but because the predictions won't be listened to, it's best to keep the prediction to oneself and to act upon it immediately by oneself; rather than in trying to make the prediction public where it would not be listened to anyway.