An Embarrasment of Riches, page-60

I think it's a case of do as I say not as I do. He was on the board of many companies and very much an activist investor pushing for change and passionate about the interests of the small holder.
He could have taken his cash out of Geico as he controlled it, the importance of control is huge.
His thinking changed over his lifetime.
When he wrote securities analysis in the 1930's he put much stock in deeply analysing the prospects of companies but later in life when he wrote the intelligent investor he believed that it was impossible to pick future prospects at all.
Inasmuch as the future is known its priced into analyst expectations but very little is known for certain.
Pretty Zen.
His approach there was to buy a vastly diversified portfolio purely on the numbers as you say. There's a lot to be said for this.
I can't do this now as the market is too hot. Bond yields are awful a hard time for investors all around.
I don't follow what he said exactly, it's a great starting point but I have my own ideas. It's important to understand that he lost money during the great depression, the experience led to the margin of safety concepts.
I think he was over engineering things by adding excessive diversification though. If you buy a company for say 30% of what it is worth and you have a really good idea of what it is worth you are not immune to adverse unexpected outcomes but it is very unlikely that they will reduce the value of your business below what you paid.
Then you diversify but how much? Depends how confident you are 4 big holdings and wide diversification just on the numbers?
Seems like a good plan for me, that will be my way. Not one size fits all though.