You Can't Please All the People All the Time
Many of you have heard the following quote by Abraham Lincoln and the common variations thereof:
A common variation is the following:
"You can please all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot please all the people all the time."
So I was teaching my 8:00 a.m. Intro to Logic course this morning when the second quote above hit me as a necessary truth. The scuttlebutt around my class is that students are finding the material too easy, so much so that they are finding the required discussion section to be a waste of time. Now, needless to say, I have little patience for an attitude such as this. You can certainly bet what would happen if I erred on the other extreme and made the class too hard for everyone to keep up with. So certainly there is a middle ground to be found between the two extremes of being too easy and being too hard.
I have been in logic courses in which the professor had erred on the side of being too rigorous and set the bar a little too high, so much so that the students were literally scrambling to make heads or tails of the material. This is perhaps the exact opposite of my teaching philosophy, in which I need to try to bring as many people on board as possible so that they can all achieve the high goal at the end of the course; especially in a logic course in which the material is so exhaustingly cumulative that once one falls behind it is nearly impossible to get caught up. Moreover, I think of logical reasoning as a skill rather than a piece of knowledge. Take any skill you like and it is something that one works slowly and methodically to develop, whether it is learning to build a house or learning to play the piano. Likewise, I would rather give the students a slow and steady entree into the world of logic (and see them all achieve more than a house of cards) than to overwhelm them with more than they can handle. I think somehow the students are convinced that they will remain unchallenged throughout the entire term. If they think that, then boy are they sorely mistaken!
So I had it in my mind to go in and lay down the law for them at our next class meeting, but then I thought of the house-building / piano-playing metaphor; and I figured that this might just convince them to take a proverbial chill-pill and go with the flow of the course. Again, you can please all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot please all the people all the time.
The same is true of the investment world, by the way. A single glance at the Wall Street pundits on CNBC will illustrate this very principle. If the market goes up, then the arguing begins about which investments will make the most money the following day. (Don't even get me started on the foolishness of worrying about daily market fluctuations!) If the market goes down, then the pundits begin their arguing about how soon the next recession is right around the corner. It is enough to make the long-term investor's head spin with some combination of frustration and pity.
So what does one do in a trying situation like this, in which not everyone can be pleased all the time? Well, despite my best efforts at putting forward the contrary impression, I am actually rather thin-skinned when it comes to criticism; especially about my teaching, for which I am very passionate. In fact, I spent most of today with my figurative tail tucked between my figurative legs at the thought that my logic course was vastly unchallenging. But nonetheless, I have sat in (and not to mention taught) more logic courses than the students and the TAs combined, so I know I have an idea of what I am talking about regarding sound teaching methods for a logic course. So despite my semi-wounded pride, on Friday I am going to dust myself off, stand up tall, and give those students a run for their money.
The same is true for you investors out there. Don't let the brouhaha of the Wall Street world deter you from your well-thought-out investment strategy. You will encounter all sorts of critics that will make you rethink your strategy and/or your ability to achieve your financial goals. Stay the course and dust yourself back off. Keep funding those 401(k)'s and IRAs, pay yourself first, think long-term, and rejoice for the stocks that go on sale every time the market has a downturn. If anyone tells you otherwise, tell 'em the logic professor told you so!
