In Search of Perfection
Ahhh, perfection! The ever-elusive goal of getting everything correct all the time.
Given the powerful advances in technology and data analysis, one would think that we must be incredibly close to capturing perfection. The immense capabilities of artificial intelligence to gather applicable data and synthesize it into concisely correct answers must have us on the cusp of perfection, right?
Yet, out of the 24,388,543 individually submitted brackets being tracked for the 2025 NCAA men’s basketball tournament, not a single one remains perfect. None.
I suspect many of those brackets were completed in haste with minimal thought. Some may have even used preferred mascots as their selection criteria.
However, I also have a strong suspicion that perhaps more than a few thousand of those brackets took dedicated individuals hours of analysis to create, and some may have even been developed using artificial intelligence. For naught.
The only way to guarantee a 100% certainty that you will be the proud owner of a perfect bracket is to simply complete one for every possible scenario (and be sure to include the play-in games).
The bad news is that, according to the NCAA, you would need to fill out 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 (9.2 quintillion) brackets between Sunday’s bracket reveal and the first games on Tuesday. Busy, busy.
That small set of 9.2 quintillion different outcomes is for a tournament with only 68 teams competing over the course of a few weeks with a binary outcome for each event – one team will win and one team will lose each game.
Imagine the number of scenarios for a global tournament with thousands of teams competing over years with nonbinary outcomes. That is called the financial markets.
We humbly acknowledge perfection is an unattainable goal when investing. The variables are too numerous and the future is still too unpredictable (even with incredible technological advances).
Instead, we help our clients focus on the variables they can control (investment risk, savings habits, tax efficiency) while acknowledging life also will require them to navigate variables no one can control or predict (economy, financial markets, other peoples’ decisions).
If someone you care about has a financial bracket that could use some personal attention from caring yet humbly imperfect bracketologists, our financial advisors are available to assist.
Quote of the week: John Wooden: “If you’re not making mistakes, then you’re not doing anything. I’m positive that a doer makes mistakes.”
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The opinions voiced in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. All performance referenced is historical and is no guarantee of future results.
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