Professional BUSINESSS TRAININ 2020
Warren Buffett really loves this ‘favorite’ riddle from Abraham Lincoln — and it makes perfect sense why
“Abraham Lincoln once posed the question: ‘If you call a dog’s tail a leg, how many legs does it have?’ and then answered his own query: ‘Four, because calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it one,’” Buffett writes.
He then cheekily adds: “Abe would have felt lonely on Wall Street.”
POWER PLAYERS
Warren Buffett really loves this ‘favorite’ riddle from Abraham Lincoln — and it makes perfect sense why
Published Mon, Feb 25 201912:56 PM ESTUpdated Mon, Feb 25 20191:59 PM EST
Warren Buffett
David A. Grogan | CNBC
Warren Buffett released his widely anticipated annual shareholder letter on Saturday.
This year’s iteration of the letter was full of interesting points — some of the highlights being a bearish stance on gold, looming cybersecurity risks, a veiled swipe on politics and long-term plans to continue acquiring businesses.
But what particularly stuck out was a riddle from none other than Abraham Lincoln (a.k.a. the “Ancient One,” the “Rail Splitter,” the “Great Emancipator,” “Honest Abe”) — and it stuck out less like a sore thumb and more like a green thumb.
“Abraham Lincoln once posed the question: ‘If you call a dog’s tail a leg, how many legs does it have?’ and then answered his own query: ‘Four, because calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it one,’” Buffett writes.
He then cheekily adds: “Abe would have felt lonely on Wall Street.”
It pays to be a skeptic
Lincoln’s riddle signifies the difference between illusion and fact. In other words, you can get away with a lot by changing the definition of something, but changing definitions won’t change reality.
By including this timeless quip, Buffett points a finger at bankers and corporate CEOs who present their “earnings” in a way that disingenuously excludes “a variety of all-too-real costs.”
