Does education make you a bad investor?

One way society measures success is in wealth. And you can earn wealth  by investing. Now some – maybe most – investing seems to be for no other purpose than to move money around and make more magically appear. That’s what has turned me off from investing in the past. But you could also make the argument that if you invest wisely, you can help the growth of businesses that make the world better.

But does education prevent you from being a good investor?

Now wait a minute. You might want to point out that a bunch of big guys on Wall Street and hedge fund investors are Ivy League educated and they make plenty of money. But let’s remember that those same investors and bankers are the ones who gave is the mortgage crisis of 2008.

And if The Big Short is to be believed (Can you tell I’m a real expert on finance, using documentaries as sources?), these “experts” caused the crash because they all followed each other into the same “sure” bets.

And if William Deresiewicz of Excellent Sheep is to be believed, they learned to follow at their elite, Ivy League schools.

Backing up this idea is an interesting quote I came across from investor Guy Spear when I was catching up on Rule #1 Invested Podcasts.

“Strenuous academics… is so devastating to an inner score card…. [without it] you are [more] willing to zig when others zag and… not fearful to go off the beaten path.”

And of course, this willingness to go your own path is important to being an entrepreneur as well.

What do you think? Does more education make you a worse investor?