15. Social-Proof Tendency Big-shot businessmen get into these waves of social proof. Do you remember some years ago when an oil company bought a fertilizer company, and every other major oil company practically ran out and bought a fertilizer company? And there was no more damned reason for all these oil companies to buy fertilizer companies, but they didn’t know exactly what to do, and if Exxon was doing it, it was good enough for Mobil, and vice versa. I think they’re all gone now, but it was a total disaster. —CHARLIE MUNGER, HARVARD UNIVERSITY, 1995
