You and your friend have super powers. You can read minds and he can see the future. You start to play chess.
You and your friend have super powers. You can read minds and he can see the future. You start to play chess. He says that it’s really important that you know that you can only win at chess if you have the right moves, because otherwise, no matter what you do, you’ll always lose.
So you can’t just take any moves. You have to make the right moves. And you have to make the right moves soon because you can’t keep playing chess forever.
That’s what’s happened to the U.S. This year, we’re going to play China for the first time in an international team competition. The last time we played them, we lost the championship match.
And you know what’s really sad? We’re going to play them again.
Now, it’s a friendly competition. But it’s still an important one. So what’s the best way to prepare for it?
First of all, let’s remember that our strategy is simple. We just have to have the right moves. We don’t want to do anything too risky, because that’s when we make mistakes. We have to pick the right moves to win.
And there are two main ways to figure out what those moves are.
First of all, you have to trust your instincts. You have to know how to read the situation, to see the whole board and know where the other players are going to move. If you’re not sure, just ask someone.
The second way to figure out the moves is to look at what other people do. That’s why I invited you here tonight.
And I think that there are some lessons that can apply to the current state of our economy.
For example, look at what happened during the stock market crash of 1929. It wasn’t until the people who had the right moves started making moves that things started turning around. They weren’t too afraid to take risks. They trusted their instincts. They had the right moves.
What’s the difference between us and them?
The difference is that in the U.S. today, a lot of people aren’t making moves. They’re just sitting around waiting for the market to move in the right direction. And that’s where we’re headed right now. The people who can’t move are just sitting on their money. They’re worried about things that will probably never happen.
Meanwhile, the people who can make moves are doing well. That’s why I’ve invited some of the people who are making moves over here tonight.
First of all, I’d like to introduce my good friend Warren Buffett.
Warren Buffett isn’t just a great investor, he’s also a great philanthropist. He gives away millions of dollars every year, and he’s taken care of millions of people over the years. And he’s done it all without putting himself in financial trouble.
He knows what it’s like to struggle. And it’s hard for him to see people suffering around him, especially when they’re his friends. So I’m glad that he’s here tonight.
He’s also a great friend of mine. He told me that when I came to visit him at his office in Omaha, he and his wife made me breakfast. And when I thanked him for that, he said, “You’re welcome.” He wasn’t even thinking about the money. He was thinking about doing something nice for me.
Two people are playing chess. One person can read minds, the other person can see the future. This is a scenario where it’s reasonable to expect a fourth participant. One who is neither logical nor predictable, who lives inside the laws of quantum mechanics. A universal wave function, representing the future of the universe. This idea is called ‘quantum superposition’. In this scenario, the rules of quantum mechanics suggest that if you measure the quantum state of a system, it will simultaneously be in two different states.
This is how the topic of quantum superposition started.
There are two classic examples of quantum superposition. The most famous is Schrödinger’s cat. Imagine you have a cat and you want to know whether it’s alive or dead. For this you need a test chamber and a pair of spectacles.
The cat, or the test chamber, is placed in a box, and there’s a radioactive atom. The atom is in a superposition state. In this state, it’s in one state, where it’s neutral. And in another state, where it’s radioactive.
When you take the spectacles, they will show you two different pictures. But the cat doesn’t know that. So it’s in both states at the same time.
Then you open the box and the cat’s dead. The nuclear decay in the atom has killed it.
This is a classical example of superposition. But what if you’re not looking at the spectacles?
What if you’re looking at the spectacles, and the cat is looking at you?
In this case, the cat is not in a superposition state. It’s in one state, where it’s alive and in the other, where it’s dead.
What’s interesting about this scenario is that, although the cat is in a superposition state, it’s not in two superposition states. It’s in one state, where it’s dead and in another state, where it’s alive.