I’ve always wanted to be too smart for my own good. Regrettably, I usually have the opposite problem.

Especially when the subject is investing.

Correspondent Scott Winger suggests that as problems go, this isn’t much of one (the failing to be too smart for one’s own good part, that is, not the investing part). He and I have both seen very smart people fall into the trap of what I’ll call here intellect-induced ignorance (III, pronounced, Cockney-fashion, “Oy, oy, oy”). It’s what happens when genuinely smart people conclude the ideas of anyone who isn’t as smart as they are (often this means everyone else on earth) aren’t worth their attention.