In investing, staying within your circle of competence can be tremendously valuable. Shane Parrish does a good job of discussing this mental model on his website, Farnam Street, in an article titled Understanding your Circle of Competence: How Warren Buffett Avoids Problems.
Investing in biotech companies is outside my circle of competence and I have no edge in analyzing which products in a company’s pipeline are likely to succeed, how they are positioned compared to competitors and the potential market opportunity even if the drug is approved by the FDA. I often reach out to a group of friends that have Ph.Ds in neuroscience, cancer immunology and molecular biology to help me understand certain opportunities. Despite their sage advice, I often come away thinking I am attempting to read tea leaves.