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Notes To Adam Smith’s Book, “The Money Game” by Redfield, Blonsky & Co.
April 11, 2007
I recently read 1976 edition of “The Money Game,” by Adam Smith. For me, this was a fantastic book and a very enjoyable read. Adam Smith was the pen name for Harvard and Oxford trained, George J. W. Goodman. You can read about George Goodman at this link http://en.wikipedia.org:80/wiki/George_Goodman . I forget which of Warren Buffett’s letters suggested reading this book. Buffett’s old letters can be accessed here http://rbcpa.com/WEB_letters/WEB_Letters_pre_berkshire.html Very often I write these notes as a future reminder to me for what I found interesting, or perhaps items I would like to save for future reference. These notes could be error filled, and I apologize for any inadvertent errors. Although George Goodman allegedly wrote this book, I refer to him as “Smith” in my notes. Throughout this paper you will see a slew of quotes from the book. Please keep in mind that all of the plagiarisms from the book, are indicated as such with “quote marks.”
- “The market motion is more violent, not really conducive to serenity, and yet, as one wise investment counselor says, the end object of investment ought to be serenity.”
- “The first thing you have to know is yourself. A man who knows himself can step outside himself and watch his own reactions like an observer.”
- This quote appears in Chapter 2, “Mister Johnson’s reading list.” I am not certain if Smith was a believer of this concept or not. Perhaps it is total sarcasm, but I did enjoy the quote. “The market is a crowd, and if you’ve read Gustave Le Bon’s “The Crowd” you know a crowd is a composite personality. In fact, a crowd of men acts like a single woman. The mind of a crowd is like a woman’s mind. Then if you observed her for a long time, you begin to see little tricks little nervous movements of the hands when she is being false.”
- “What is it the good managers have? It’s a kind of locked-in concentration, an intuition, a feel, nothing that can’t be schooled. The first thing you have to know is yourself.”
- Throughout the book he sarcastically refers to the term “Australopithecus.” According to Wikipedia, Australopithecus, “are a group of extinct hominids that are closely related to humans.” “The brains of most species of Australopithecus were roughly 35% of the size of that of a modern human brain.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australopithecus I think he is relating to human behavior patterns that were inherited from our former human ancestors. I believe that Smith finds it important to observe and try to understand various behavior patterns. Once again referring to knowing yourself. Here is a section I previously wrote on this and how knowing ones self relates to my life. http://www.rbcpa.com/2006_09_14.html “I have studied Marty Whitman, Martin Zweig, James Rogers and countless others over the years. They have a common theme of always being concerned. Marty calls it, “always run scared.” As I get older, I