Volatile stock market, short selling, and unpredictable people

---On volatile days in the stock market, the best advice, generally speaking, is "to do nothing".  Following that maxim is difficult here and, given that recent volatility seems to be almost normal, impossible to follow.  This all started in recent weeks with the extreme volatility in bitcoin related stocks.  Now that volatility has spread like a virus, unfortunate reference, and moving from one stock to another.  Not so many at one time, but for the individual investor it is impossible to predict.  Yet it is now being called the retail investors revenge against the hedge fund short sellers.

Here, GME(Gamestop) was added to my investments a few weeks ago but then sold shortly thereafter when I saw that it's institutional ownership was 117%, a sure sign of a massive short. "They must know something that is impossible for me to have access to."  Making what should have been the correct decision leaves me just watching the craziness, a little envious but knowing that it is best to be on the sidelines for now.  Now just looking at relatively boring stocks like PBI(Pitney Bowes), oops now there it goes.  Steady now, could even GM be next? 

---At a more mundane level, supporting local business is not only good for the community, it is an important attribute of responsible service. On the weekend, my once a week housekeeper was checking out the finished basement and upon opening the utility room door, water began flowing out. There was a leak in my boiler that would not have been discovered until later, how much later who knows, when the hot water and heat ceased to work.  Fortunately I was able to call "Joe the Plumber", a very large man who has been my reliable service provider for at least 20 years.  Everyone around town knows him by that name(it's also on the side of his truck), and he was here less that an hour. Boiler fixed, and when I paid him a little extra he at first refused it, "not necessary" he said.  I insisted and he said "thank you".  This is the small town that I live in that is a only five minute drive from the border of New York City. 

---Chamath Palihapitiya is an institutional investor who is prominent in recent financial news. Under the guise of being a huge supporter of climate change related stocks, his various SPAC's are almost illiquid.  He is referred to by some as an Elon Musk type brilliant person. Now he is contemplating a run for governor of California. A mystery to me, I don't get it.