> On a related note, the disinterested interest thing is why I've never met a talented professional. By that, I mean the classic suit-and-tie professionals. Law

> On a related note, the disinterested interest thing is why I've never met a talented professional. By that, I mean the classic suit-and-tie professionals. Lawyers, doctors, accountants,... I think your comment is directionally correct if you look at the bulk of practitioners, but I wonder if you’ve looked in the right places for the exceptions. As one example, some of the best legal thinkers I have met were in law schools. That said, I’ve also met some “practicing” lawyers who had that passion — at retirement age, they are often the sages that people make pilgrimages to see (my friend’s father was one of these for estate law). There are also professionals who pursue their compulsory continuing education aggressively. For doctors, this is actually a litmus test I use when I am looking for a new one (usu. due to moving). I had a dentist who, after establishing his practice, went back to school to get his MD so that he could work on the more interesting problems of oral surgery. He then joined the Army reserves as a doctor/dentist to help the Army with some of the unique medical problems they have (iirc, it was mostly oral surgery). > ... bankers You may be right here. That said, if you expand “banker” to “financier” or something like that, you can probably find some. Buffet and Munger come to mind. John Mauldin as a writer on economics/finance also comes to mind as a lesser-known personality. There seems to be a potentially long list. > I don't think of retired accountants doing taxes for fun. Although rare, they exist. I have a retired family member who is one of them.