42 THE INVESTOR
creative solutions, so he devised the following strategy. He would
sit in a comfortable chair with rocks in his hands and pans on the
floor under the rocks. Then he would doze off. The rocks would
fall, hitting the pans and waking him. He would try to recall where
his thoughts had been as he drifted off to sleep. Author Sandra
Weintraub reports that her surveys of inventors show that 75 per-
cent use their dreams to invent new products. Skeptical sensing
types need to open themselves up to the reservoir of knowledge
that is “hidden” within. I will have more to say on this in Parts 3
and 4, the chapters on creativity and intuition.Thinking and Feeling: Stretching Exercises
A portfolio manager I know, who has a strong preference for think-
ing, is extremely good at making objective decisions. Even if the
investments involve highly charged issues like natural disasters or
birth control products, he is excellent at discerning the key vari-
ables. He sees the situations as purely logical, one thing leading to
the next, and bases his decision on potential profitability. This ability
to detach is captured in Peter Lynch’s description of a cancer insur-
ance company:As the new products begin to pay off, cancer insurance is less
important to the bottom line. In 1993, noncancer policies ac-
counted for 68 percent of AFLAC’s new domestic sales. Taking
a lesson from its Japanese operations, AFLAC is selling these new
policies through payroll deduction plans, to companies that range
in size from 2 or 3 employees to 10,000 [“Company after My
Own Heart,” Worth Online, Mar. 1994; <www.worth.com>].The gruesome effects of cancer are irrelevant to Lynch’s analy-
sis. This objectivity is very effective in investing. The problem for
thinking types occurs when the emotions flare up, as they inevita-
bly do. An example with a colleague, the portfolio manager men-05 ware 42 1/19/01, 1:06 PM