Associating with the wise

When I was in tenth grade, I read the English translation of a small episode from the Indian Epic 'Mahabharat'. The God of Justice was quizzing his son. One of the questions he asked was :
'How does a man gain wisdom?'
The answer was :
'By associating with the wise'.

Reading a book enables one to associate with the author, a person wise enough to write a book. Reading is useful. My father would take me to a children's library and read to me when I was too young to read. Then I started reading, developed a love for it, and read story books for many hours each day as a child and as a teenager.

With age came focus. I did not read stories much more. I read things that would help me to achieve a goal - academic or otherwise. Whatever the subject, a book has probably been written on it.

Not all books are created equal. Some books are a lot better than others. They are written by wiser people. In the old days, when I went to a library or a bookstore, there was no alternative to judging a book by its cover, the author's reputation (if you knew the author), and from reading a few lines. One of the things I love about the Internet is that it has made the flow of information and opinions so easy. These days, I never buy or read a book before checking its reviews. Associating with the wisest has never been easier. And this is important, especially in fields where the world has very few real experts, and a lot of wagging tongues. This reminds me of the following experience:

I have purchased several books on finance from Amazon. Whenever I go to the website, it recommends other books along those lines, and I spend some time reading reviews of the recommended books. When the book 'Reminiscences of a Stock Operator ' was recommended, I was curious because the book has excellent reviews. It's a book on trading, or speculating, something I generally refrain from doing. But hey, reading a review cannot hurt.

The book is a biography of Jesse Livermore, a famed trader, or speculator. The reviewers heaped praise on the trading 'commandments' that the book offers, rules that any trader can repeat. Commandments such as -No stock is too high to buy or too low to sell. The book was crowned the grandfather of all books on trading, containing wisdom transferred from mothers to daughters(??) and winners to losers(!!). A sturdy foundation on which to build a successful trading career. WoW!

Another review spilled a few beans. Livermore made and lost millions throughout his life. He was worth 100 million after the 1929 crash and bankrupt by 1934. He ended up committing suicide in a bathroom.

(a moment of shocked silence)

God bless his soul. Clearly not my idea of associating with the wise...