netnet

I called and was told that it will be the first week in Feb, but that it had not been finalized. Now I don't know if that means the room, the time or the exact date. The woman at the Journal, said that she would know by 12-11.

[amazonsearch]The 5 Elements of Effective Thinking[/amazonsearch] Two of Charlie Munger's essential ideas are that by continual learning one can out think one's intellectual betters and that Warren is a learning machine( and obviously so is Charlie). Unfortunately, he never (to my knowledge) talks about the techniques of learning other than being assiduous, which he defines as sitting on your ass and reading and developing a lattice of mental models, which sort of begs the question, i.e. how to best learn them. Now with that flatulent preamble, here is my nominee as one of the best books of 2013 (although published in 2012) --The 5 Elements of Effective Thinking by Starbird and Burger. Both are mathematicians, but don't be put off by that!! Their techniques for learning AND thinking are applicable across almost all disciplines. (And there is not an equation in the book. Isn't it amazing how it is culturally okay to say this, implying innumeracy, but I could not say something like " there are no long paragraphs or sentences in the book", implying illiteracy. Anyway, I digress.) The book is worth re-reading several times; in fact they suggest as much. It is useful for the student and the professional, anyone who wants to learn and think! Give it to yourself and any student in your life. (By the way, I just saw that Starbird is teaching an edx course to which I am really looking forward! https://www.edx.org/course/utaustinx/utaustinx-ut-9-01x-effective-thinking-1178

dcollon-- You beat me to the punch. I was just going to review this book in combination with Konnikova's Mastermind, How to think like Sherlock Holmes. They are both pretty good-- for a quickest return on invested time, read Bevelin and look at Konnikova's (edited) lecture here: http://www.thersa.org/events/video/vision-videos/the-scientific-method-of-the-mind or the full audio: http://www.thersa.org/__data/assets/file/0010/1009846/20130123MariaKonnikova.mp3 . I enjoyed both books, but the Konnikova book seemed to be drag on a bit. Nevertheless both are quite useful, I found myself using the methods quite usefully not 24 hours after I finished the Konnikova book. The strength of these books is that these narratives of Holmes really reinforce the techniques and ideas that other authors may have covered in greater depth, but without the compelling stories.

I just clicked through to Amazon. There are two Billionaire Apprentices published this summer. How's that for a coincidence, which one is the recommended one? by Raghavan or Maude?

I have to (partially) agree with Kraven here. There is not enough information to make a decision. Now with more info then you can make a more considered judgement and then considering hypothetical companies is useful to improve thinking. What are the growth prospects? How do the competitive situations of the companies compare? How do the managements compare? Are these normalized earnings? Or how do they vary? Are these the owner earnings? What is the real cash flow? etc. etc. you get the picture; you need more information. If B has vastly greater investment opportunities or has such a large and widening moat, i.e. a superior competitive position to A, then B is absolutely the way to go.

I played in high school and college. I'll join!

Thanks, I had forgotten about that one.

Thanks for the suggestions,!!! I had completely forgotten about Munger's CalTech interview and hadn't heard the recording of the Harvard talk.

In honor of Charlie Munger's half birthday, I'm going on a Munger Marathon. This month i will be reading every published speech or writing or bio I can find on Mr. Munger. Any suggestions other than: Damn Right The recently circulated Munger compilation Poor Charlie's Almanack The Annual Reports of the Daily Journal and Wesco Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting Various videos, UMich, USC, CNN and BBC interviews And last but not least his various book recommendations internet bibliography: http://www.rbcpa.com/Munger.html wikipedia innoculated investor http://www.focusinvestor.com/FocusSeriesPart3.pdf

if you register with them you can get 8 free articles a month.

We are all benefiting (mostly) from Moore's law. And as the transistors get packed on two thoughts come to my mind: [*]Software is eating the world. Every job and most aspects of life are touched by this, but fundamentally it is the increasing power and decreasing price of processors and memory. [*]Because this is an exponential function, you ain't seen nothing yet, Why? just look at an exponential function on a graph. Or think about the riddle of the lily pads that double everyday and the day before the pond is covered, is only half full. No innovation? there is innovation almost everywhere you look. Synthetic biology, genetics, robotics, material science including all nanotechnology, and everything that software touches. Thiel is smart guy and he's rich, but he is a wise guy as opposed to being wise man and he loves to throw out these bomblets.

more like a[glow=red,2,300] chartreuse[/glow] turkey.

I dont have the "unedited" version but here it is. If you do get hold of the OID version, I would love to read it ! This is the speech I am after--Stanford Law 1996, but unless I'm wrong (Mr.B can you check) this is not what was published in OID. It has edits, e.g. that say that Charlie is going to talk about Coca Cola but he doesn't, at least not in that section. thanks

That was a great compilation. Particularly the Wesco meeting notes all in one place. The funny thing is the 1996 Worldly Wisdom (Stanford) speech that I have been trying to locate is not their either. It's rather curious. There is a copy in Poor Charlie's Almanack, which I don't like the edits and a good version on OID, but their web site is down and I lost my OID issue.

That is one reading of what they said. I think that they were most irked that [*]They were compared to Singleton [*]And that they were being prodded to follow Singleton example, i.e. to breakup BRK, when in fact they are playing a different game.

No thanks, that was his UC Santa Barbara speech on the Problems with Academic Economics, 2003. I'm after his Stanford Speech on Worldly Wisdom, in 1996.

Sadly my dogeared copy of Munger's second Worldly Wisdom speech, given at Stanford ended up with some newspapers that were recycled. I have been looking for it over the internet, but can not find an "original". There are copies of the one in Poor Charlie's Almanack, which I have, but I don't like the editing job. Does anyone know where there is a copy, similar to the one in OID? Thanks!! Netnet

Morningstar did a 5 part valuation model or rather used 5 different valuation models on BRK Part 1 http://news.morningstar.com/articlenet/article.aspx?id=593686 Earning Multiple Part 2 http://news.morningstar.com/articlenet/article.aspx?id=593687 Book value Part 3 http://news.morningstar.com/articlenet/article.aspx?id=593689 Two column approach Part 4 http://news.morningstar.com/articlenet/article.aspx?id=593690 Insurance float Part 5 http://news.morningstar.com/articlenet/article.aspx?id=593691 Discounted cash flow (But ultimately how do you value Fort Knox with Buffett as commander?) http://submissions.morningstar.com/wp-content/uploads/brkvaluation5_0_1.jpg

Here is an article and an imbedded short <2 minute interview with Warren, circa 1962. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeremy-harris-lipschultz/warren-buffett-stock-market-interview_b_3219890.html

Agreed. She is either dense, ill prepared or both.

As usual, Buffett should be on CNBC's squawk the Monday after the AM. Does anyone know the time? --it's probably going to awfully early for us out on the Left Coast. Netnet

Here is one of Munger's talks that was a revelation to me: A Lesson on Elementary, Worldly Wisdom As It Relates To Investment Management & Business http://ycombinator.com/munger.html He gave a subsequent talk at Stanford Law School in 1996 as I recall with a similar title. I could not quickly find a link, but if you look for it yourself you will value it all the more ;)--aka the Ikea effect!! It's also in Poor Charlie's Almanack.

You are asking really intelligent questions. I adopted the idea that learning the models would be useless unless I applied them to reality all the time; because of course, all skills attenuate through disuse. I generated my list of models first by studying Charlie Munger's lessons, and by reading every book he's ever recommended. I also studied other sources like Farnam Street. Then I wrote down all the models that obviously had explanatory and predictive power. (This is such a simple idea) Then I had to make the models easily accessible memory-wise, so I used the linking method and then created a memory palace for them. When I'm making any kind of meaningful decision, I go through my checklist by walking through my memory palace. And of course the more I do it the easier it gets. What this mental routine has done for me is perfectly ridiculous. I can never thank Charlie enough for the gift he's given me. Wow, that's awesome! That is a truly great idea. Thanks

Listing mental model gets you past the availability bias--one model. Gawande's Checklist Manifesto touches on the usefulness lists. Checklist are not really models but habits of mind.

Here's a question: How do you use your list of mental models? Personally, I find I do not use them enough. I'm thinking of doing a daily or weekly scan down my list. In addition to looking through the list when confronted with major decisions or inflection points. My thinking is that I should probably combine this, ie. daily look at a summary of a mental model and weekly scan down the whole list. Lesser question, how did you derive you list? I have my own compilation but I like both Farnamstreetblog (three cheers) and thinkmentalmodels.com