"If something isn't worth doing, it isn't worth doing well."

This is one of my favourite Charlie Munger lines and I think it's very applicable for those of us who manage money, for clients or just for ourselves. Specifically, I'm referring to how we manage the never-ending flow of short-term information. Information that has a shelf life of a few hours or days and is useless in the overall scheme of things.

Think about it.

If we look back in 3 to 5 years, will it matter in any way that the market had a good (or bad) week in the middle of June, 2006? The wiggle on the long-term chart of the S&P/TSX index will be imperceptible.

Does it really matter if we're good at figuring out what the Fed is going to do next? Considering how many smart people are doing it, you'd have to be superhuman to beat the street at this game.

Will the fact that we correctly predicted CN Rail's quarterly earnings impact our long-term returns in the least?

Can we consistently make money by thinking about where the market leadership is going to come from next?

We spend far too much time dealing with and thinking about the barrage of information that does nothing to make us money. All it does is clog up our memory banks and take away from more productive research and thinking time. It isn't worth doing ... well or otherwise.

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