IFB161: Circle of Competence, Semiconductor Industry, China Politics

Announcer (00:00):



You’re tuned in to the Investing for Beginners podcast. Finally, step by step premium investment guidance for beginners led by Andrew Sather and Dave Ahern. To decode industry jargon, silence crippling confusion, and help you overcome emotions by looking at the numbers, your path to financial freedom starts now.



Dave (00:37):



All right, folks, welcome to Investing for Beginners podcast. This is episode 161 tonight, Andrew and I are going to talk about the circle of competence. And ironically, we have a great question that we got from Alan that we’re going to talk about in regards to that, which will help us talk a little bit about the circle of competence. So I’m going to go ahead and kind of start us off. And so the first part of the question is Andrew. I am a new list, or to your, and these podcasts, and due to company analysis, I have a couple of questions, one short and one, not so short of answering. So we’re going to take the second part of the question and answer that first. So we’re going to do this a little and reverse for Alan. Still, Andrew and I have been talking a little bit about a circle of competence and lately, and I am trying to branch out of my comfort zone, I guess there is the best way of putting it and trying to find other companies that could be of interest to me as well as helping me make more money for my investment.



Dave (01:36):



Just like we’re all trying to do. And I have certainly become more comfortable with the financial company world I E banks and insurance companies. But when I started kind of going beyond that, I started struggling a little bit. So Andrew has worked in and out of this summer semiconductor industry for a little while now, and he’s far more fluent in that language than I am. And so I happen to be reading a 10 K the other day, and the numbers all look fantastic for this company. But when I started reading about the products and those kinds of things, my eyes started to gloss over because I had zero ideas of what they were talking about. And so Andrew and I were kind of going back and forth about all this. And I am coming at this from a level of, I’m trying to branch out on my circle of competence.



Dave (02:29):



And so we talk about the circle of competence. We talk a little bit about things that you’re comfortable and things, you know, and you have some area of expertise or passion. And I don’t know that semiconductors for me personally is going to be something that’s going to be a passion. Still, it may be something that I could develop a passion for and would be something that I could expand my knowledge about because when you’re passionate about something, then you’re going to be far more dedicated to learning as much about it as you can. After all, it’s something that a huge interest to you. And so tonight, Andrew and I thought we would answer Ellen’s question, but we also had kind of used that as a way of explaining a circle of competence. And,