Set forth below is the text of a comment that I recently posted to the discussion thread for another blog entry at this site:
Hey, Rob!
Your name was brought up over on a reddit board for FIRE-minded folks and it ignited quite the firestorm! Some people were wondering if you’d be willing to go over there for an AMA (Ask Me Anything). Are you familiar with that format? The board is located here: https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/
I’d be thrilled to do an “Ask Me Anything” at Reddit. Are you able to say who the best person would be for me to contact to make this happen?
Rob
Anonymous says
Obviously that didn’t happen.
And speaking of things that don’t happen, I distinctly remember you saying that this was the year that you’d finally jump into political sites. It’s mid-October, still nothing. What gives?
Rob says
I still have it as an agenda item to contact more political sites. But as of today I have done very little in that regard. It’s possible that I will contact more political sites by the end of the year. It is also possible that that will be pushed off into next year. I am not making any promises.
This is hard work, Anonymous. All humans like to receive approval from their fellow humans. I give voice to unpopular investing truths on a daily basis at this site and I have been doing so for 15 years running now. I think it would be fair to say that I have done more of this than anyone else in the field, including Robert Shiller.
If you want to say that I should make an effort to push myself a bit harder, I am with you. If you want to say that I should get down on myself because I am not Superman, I am not with you. We need to encourage everybody who is doing good work in this field to do more of it. I do want to do more. I do want to make a bigger push. But I also want to give myself credit for the 15 years of good work that I have already done. The fact that I have done more than anyone else tells me that I am on the right track with the way that I am going about things.
I hope that helps a small bit. That was not an unimportant or irrelevant question. It was an odd one. given your perspective. If you want to wish me luck in my effort to push harder, I am all for it. I accept good wishes from people of all possible investing perspectives.
Rob
Anonymous says
So you’re feeling rushed? You’ve been talking about this for over seven years.
http://arichlife.passionsaving.com/2010/02/05/my-e-mail-to-yale-professor-robert-shiller-author-of-irrational-exuberance/
“I am planning this year to devote a good bit of effort to getting political blogs involved in my effort to open the internet to honest posting on the flaws in the Buy-and-Hold Model.”
But next year for sure!
Rob says
I hope so, Anonymous.
When you Goons started posting abusively on the morning of May 13, 2002, I thought that it would last three days tops. How long could people keep a smear campaign going when the matter at stake was a mathematical calculation?
But here we are 15 years later. I think it would be fair to say that the joke was on me. I think it would be fair to say that I was wrong re that one.
Rob
Evidence Based Investing says
“If you want to say that I should make an effort to push myself a bit harder, I am with you.”
No, you shouldn’t push yourself a bit harder, you should push yourself a bit smarter.
Work smarter, not harder.
Rob says
I’ll give it my best shot, Evidence. I can do no more and I can do no less.
I naturally wish you all the best that this life has to offer a person.
Rob