“Mr. Buffett says Prof. Samuelson believed the same thing he does: that markets are “generally very efficient but not perfectly efficient.†Mr. Buffett adds, “I do think if you know something about finance and about people, you may be able to identify someone out there who can overperform. But for every one you identify who can, there’ll be 1,000 others who don’t turn out to be able to.†Continues Mr. Buffett: “You’re betting enormously on your ability to be a reader of people, even more than your ability—or theirs—to select securities. They’re all promising overperformance and spending a lot of money on selling it very persuasively. Overwhelmingly this is a world of salespeople.†”
