DOING NOTHING IS THE HARDEST—AND SMARTEST—SKILL

Thirty-five years ago, in a lecture at Stanford Law School, Warren Buffett made an observation that has only grown more relevant with time.

- DHIRENDRA KUMAR

"Activity is the mother's milk of Wall Street," he said. “People have this whole different attitude just because there's a little number up there flashing around all the time. It makes them think they have to do something.”

Think about that for a moment. A feature that makes markets convenient—the ability to buy or sell at any moment—has been twisted into a psychological trap. The flashing ticker, designed to inform, has become a command to act. Most investors have inverted the relationship entirely. They believe the market is instructing them, when in reality it exists merely to serve them.

This explains a great deal about why ordinary investors struggle to build wealth even during extended bull markets. They mistake activity for productivity. They confuse motion with progress. Every price movement feels like it demands a response, every piece of news like a call to action. The result is a kind of financial restlessness that benefits everyone except the investor.