Book on Investing By a Dying Banker

This blog has been dormant for a long time, but from time to time I'll post about topics that strike my interest.

There's an interesting article on a book being written by a man who used to be a banker on Wall Street and who is now dying of a brain tumor.  I haven't read the book (not sure if it's available yet), but two things stuck out for me - first, if you hire someone to make investment recommendations or manage assets, make sure that they are fee-for-service (paid because they work for you) and not compensated for selling you something (on commission); and second, you can't beat the averages in the long run and indexed (passive) investing, diversified across and within asset classes, is the best way to achieve the best long-term return with the least volatility (ups and downs across the whole portfolio).  These are principals of investing I've believed in, and followed, for a long time.