The awesome thing about the finance blogosphere in Singapore is that bloggers can build on each other's ideas. BigFatPurse has put up a really good article on first principles and why it can often be better than just employing analogies.  While it does not apply to every domain I know, analogies are not particularly good in investing. Many investors like to talk about Warren Buffett but forget that he can takeover entire companies and fire managers which destroy value, this has the effect of unlocking value from the stocks that he buys. Retail investors like us will not be that lucky. A value stock can be undervalued for decades tying our money down for years before they can be put to better use elsewhere. Of course the other problem of analogizing success is that we often come across successful relatives who brag about their investments becoming multi-baggers. This is ......