As my longtime readers are aware, no one has campaigned more assiduously to be the heir to the legendary investor Warren Buffett than Bill Ackman. The puppy love that Ackman has long displayed for Buffett is charming, and speaks to the great admiration and respect that the younger Ackman, age 55, has for the avuncular Buffett, who will turn 91 next month.

The differences between the two men, of course, remain far more notable than their similarities. Ackman is all big city-Harvard swagger—he is a graduate of the college and its M.B.A. program—the kind of guy, as I’ve written, who puts a tennis court on his office roof, which is above an 11th Avenue car dealership, and who tells you his SAT scores before he really knows you. Buffett, like me, a graduate of Columbia Business School, lives in Omaha and is the epitome of oracular Midwestern folk wisdom, both in his plain-spoken demeanor and in his approach to his investments, which tend toward stalwart American brands such as Apple, American Express, Coca-Cola, Geico, Kraft Heinz, and See’s Candies. When he’s not busy with financial engineering, Ackman’s biggest holdings are of the more insurgent variety, such as Chipotle, Lowe’s, and Domino’s Pizza.