Investing without the privilege of knowledge

Mike Maples Jr. posed a very valid question in his article “Crypto Commons”:

“Would you have wanted stock in a railroad?

Investing in stocks is obvious today, but imagine you were a blacksmith or fur trader in 1870, and someone offers a share of stock in a railroad. It wasn’t “valuable” like money because you couldn’t go to the store and buy things with it. And you couldn’t say to a train conductor “I want to use my share of stock to take a ride on this train.”

Imagine you’re a British aristocrat in 1870, and your primary assets are in European land. Do you invest some of your “old money” wealth into the New World stock markets in search of better growth prospects? Land is tangible and known. Stock in a railroad is a walk on the wild side. Do you feel lucky?”

Obviously, thanks to the lack of knowledge / information (stock value compounding over a period of time) / then ecosystem prevailing, I would not have invested in early / mid 20^th century.

As Nick Maggiulli (Of Dollars and Data) correctly stated:

“While it might seem shocking to you how ignorant many of our ancestors were, it’s only surprising because we have something they don’t have—the privilege of knowledge.”

“However, though buy and hold might seem obvious now, that’s only because we have the benefit of hindsight, ubiquitous data, and modern computational resources.  A century ago, who had access to anything remotely this useful?  No one.  People didn’t have the documented market history and technological capabilities we have today, so why should we have expected them to “buy and hold” back then?  If anything, their history was riddled with banking panics and far more instability, so I can’t blame them.”

May be we today have to think something completely different to stay ahead of the curve. Since current knowledge is already factored in the prices of the stocks or assets. What is required is a leap of faith in supporting i.e. Crypto Currency / Space tourism / Mars Housing etc.

It is worth reading below two articles which takes us on a new journey:

https://blog.usejournal.com/crypto-commons-da602fb98138

https://ofdollarsanddata.com/the-privilege-of-knowledge/