I deeply agree. In investing, what ultimately matters is not how accurately one can calculate, but how long one can stay steady.

High-IQ individuals may be able to accurately decipher the logic behind candlestick patterns and quickly analyze the numbers in financial reports, but if they cannot control the impatience of wanting to win immediately, the panic of fearing total loss, or the arrogance of thinking they can coast on profits, no matter how precise their calculations, emotions will ultimately undermine them. It's like playing Texas Hold'em; a person who can calculate probabilities may still lose miserably if they are swept away by emotions and start playing recklessly.

Munger said, "You have to tame the gorilla within," and this "gorilla" represents those primitive, irrational emotions: wanting to chase when prices rise, wanting to cut losses when prices fall, feeling like a deity when making profits, and doubting the entire world when incurring losses. Most mistakes in investing are not due to a lack of intelligence leading to poor judgment, but rather due to emotional instability causing operational distortions—like being optimistic about an asset but selling it before dawn due to short-term fluctuations; or feeling as though one has discovered the truth after a windfall and starting to leverage heavily for a big bet.

Truly skillful investors possess a kind of "counter-instinctual" quality: when it's time to wait, they can crouch like a hunter waiting for prey, even if the prey dances before them three times; when it's time to hold firm, they can grip the helm like an old captain, even if the waves threaten to capsize the boat; when it's time to stop, they can concede like a chess player resigning, knowing that despite their desire to win, this game must come to an end.

This quality is unrelated to IQ; it resembles a kind of "emotional muscle"—it needs to be slowly developed through repeated acts of resisting impulses, digesting disappointments, and restraining ecstasy. As Buffett said, "Investing doesn’t require a super high IQ, just an ordinary IQ, plus the ability to control impulses." After all, the market is never short of smart people; what it lacks are those who can...