Notes on the Lost Art of Investing
Information boom, lessons from history and why this publication exists.
This publication began as an attempt to understand why investing felt harder in an age that promised it would become easier.
We live in the most informed era in financial history. Never before have investors had access to so much data: real-time prices, endless charts, earnings transcripts, podcasts, AI screeners, zero-commission trading, instant global access. And yet — most investors are not doing better.
The Information Boom, and the Absence of Results
The dominant assumption of modern investing is simple: More information leads to better decisions. In practice, the opposite often happens.
More information → more opinions
More opinions → more activity
More activity → higher costs, worse timing, lower patience.
Today, the edge is no longer access. It is restraint. AI can summarize a 200-page annual report in seconds. Charts can be generated instantly. Commission costs have collapsed to near zero. Yet long-term outperformance remains rare.
Not because we lack tools, but because we lack subtraction of useless information.
Roaring Twenties and the start of Great Depression
There is an old Wall Street anecdote often attributed to Joseph P. Kennedy, who amassed great wealth during the bull market of the 1920s and is said to have exited equities shortly before the Great Depression.
When even the shoeshine boy began offering stock tips to him, Kennedy reportedly concluded that speculation had become too widespread — and it was time to step aside.
The story matters not for its literal accuracy, but for its insight: When investing becomes effortless, popular, and entertaining — returns disappear. Today, the shoeshine boy is everywhere.
He is:
on social media
inside AI prompts
in algorithm-fed “top stock” lists
Information is no longer scarce. Judgement and discipline are.
The Cost of Convenience
Modern markets removed friction: zero commissions, fractional shares, instant execution of trades, constant notifications.
All of this was sold as progress. To be frank, there is nothing wrong with that. But prior to that, investors for sure spent more time thinking, commit to decisions and live with the boredom of waiting for the results.
Why this publication exists
The Gilded Financier exists for one reason: To subtract noise in an age addicted to adding information.
This is not a newsletter for day traders, quick gains or prediction addicts.
It is a place for:
studying companies slowly
learning from financial history and great financiers of the past
respecting patience as a competitive advantage.
Most of what I publish here used to be my notes to myself on the long road to financial independence — shared publicly, carefully, and without urgency.
We are gilded with data, tools, and confidence, yet fragile in discipline, patience, and humility.
If you want different results, you don’t need another indicator.
You need fewer trades. Fewer opinions. Fewer distractions. You need subtraction.
What comes next?
Future pieces here will focus on:
companies, not tickers
history, not headlines
investors, not speculators
process, not performance screenshots
If that sounds boring — good. Boring has always paid better.
Welcome to The Gilded Financier.