I get asked a lot for good investing books/blogs/articles to read. Have I read The Wealthy Barber (yes) or The Intelligent Investor (yes)? Do I watch the cable business news channels? Did I read that Globe and Mail or Financial Post or Wall Street Journal article? The answer typically is yes although most of what I read from these various sources has little long term value to me or the people that entrust me with their financial affairs.

 

                What I do read a lot of though, are things outside of the “investment” field. Now you are probably wondering how I can do my job if I don’t know absolutely everything I can about every little piece of newsiness there is to know. The answer to that: most of what passes for news is actually quite pointless. Some of it is even very damaging to long term success. A fair amount of it is too late to the party as to be laughable. Some portion of it is just salacious rumour mongering designed to keep our attention. [Yes I know it is hard to believe but more and more “news” is actually just opinion]. It is in my best interest and therefore the best interest of the people that entrust me to help them to be able to weed out all of the chaff and find the wheat.

 

                The more important reason I am not all-consuming of financial market information? I am too busy reading and learning and talking with people in other fields. This is a hugely important part of my day because it allows me to escape my silo and learn new things from other industries. What is even better is knowing people in other walks of life. I can read a book about web development and that is fantastic for my knowledge but being able to ask questions of a developer is how you deepen your knowledge base.

 

                I have started attending events in the city geared towards different industries. Events that are designed for networking but also quick bits of information about the participants within that industry. The people with the deep knowledge of their space. Reading a book gives me shallow knowledge. Having someone with experience to answer questions allows me to deepen my knowledge on a subject. The goal is not to become an expert on everything because that’s simply not possible for anyone. Rather the point is to help me better understand a lot of things but also to connect with these market-knowledge people. Those people will be key parts of my future learning and I hope they see me in the same way. I hope they want to learn about my industry the same way I want to learn about theirs. We will all benefit in the long run.

 

 

(Orville and Wilbur Wright c. 1909)

 

                The history of knowledge in the world is something we rarely think about. When you step back you realize that we know more than our grandparents, who knew more than their grandparents and so forth. Knowledge grows exponentially not linearly. Orville and Wilbur Wright flew the first successful airplane only 115 years ago. We built upon their learned knowledge to make flying spaceships in less than 60 years! Those leaps required learning advancements taken from other industries. Knowledge was layered and mixed to create new knowledge.

 

                If you are young and starting out in your career think about what you want to learn in your field but also think about other fields that interest you. Find out how to meet people in those jobs and how to work together to expand everyone’s knowledge. You will be surprised at how much can translate across a variety of industries and you may just figure out a new way to peel the apple for your own industry. Layer your knowledge by working with people that are smarter than you in the areas you want to know. Their knowledge combined with your knowledge can benefit each of you in ways that learning from your subject’s experts cannot. Shallow Knowledge will help you win Trivial Pursuit but Deep Knowledge will help you win in your career.