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MrB

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    The Joy of Less, A Minimalist Living Guide - Francine Jay

    in Books

    Posted

    Thanks for this. I may check it out. I personally own no furniture and sleep in a sleeping bag on the floor of my apartment, so this is not a concept that is new to me. A lot of people think I'm crazy, but I look at my bank account and think they're just projecting.

    I've been there. Although in fact it was the floor of someone else's apartment and there were four of us sharing the floor.

    Its not as glamorous as it sounds  :D....It's more fun sleeping in a bed.

    Are We Doing Any Good?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Another viewpoint:

    Most of us on this board compound wealth because we fundamentally believe in two things,

    a) there is nothing theoretical about buying a $1 for 50 cents and wait it out until you are proven correct, and

    b) owning 1% or 100% of a company should be though of as the same.

     

    Having said that, I think most will agree Dell, Microsoft, Google, etc did great things for humanity and credit should go to Michael, Bill, Larry, etc. Well in light of the above, if you own 0.0001% of Google, how about taking 0.0001% of the credit ;-)

     

    There is a real world connection between your ownership and what happens on the ground. If we did not have this system, what else would have distributed wealth more evenly? Its not perfect, but boy does it work!

    WEB on CNBC Monday with Ted, Todd, and Traci

    in Berkshire Hathaway

    Posted

    It never ceases to amaze me how literal people take Buffett's statements and any statements by anyone remotely connected with him.  There was never any way they were reading 500 pages a day.  Think about it from the standpoint of some easy reading, like a mystery paperback or something.  Certainly that would read faster than a dense 10-K.  Does anyone really think they could knock out a 500 page paperback daily?  Yet these guys were supposedly digesting 500 pages on a daily basis.  Even if they had said it it was clearly hyperbole.  Anyone who has worked with large documents would have realized in a heartbeat that it was impossible to have ever remotely reached this goal.

     

     

    I mean I understand the enjoyment of sarcastically addressing the entire group after they've shared their thoughts, but is it unreasonable to think that people would at least explore a statement like "500 pages per day"? It's not THAT obvious that 500 per day is out of the question.

     

    You'd be correct if someone thought actually reading 500 pages a day. I assumed it included scanning things like newspapers, which Buffett claims to "read" 5 per day. At say 30 pages per newspaper, that's 150 pages right there in probably two hours in the morning - or perhaps in his bathtub...

     

    Then add in a couple of 10Ks, BRK business unit reports etc.... and one could conceive how Buffett could arrive at 500.

     

    On the surface, reading 500 pages per day, is not the problem. One "imprecise" way we track our productivity on the research side is to review our printed pages/day on a monthly basis, since I print almost everything I read. We try and keep it over 400. I do hit 500 from time to time. Usually when I take a company's annual reports for the last 10 years and work through it. The problem with how it relates to the above statement is that I do not read every single word and number and once you get to the 10th report you are flying through the financial section and stop only at one or two notes, which you've now identified as the areas to focus on. So by the end of that day, did I actually read 500 pages? No. However, do I feel I have a good grasp on the information in those pages and most importantly a good grasp on the business. Yes and thereby mission accomplished.

     

    On a different level I noticed when "reading" the transcript of the above interview (48 pages) in about 40 minutes that because I've been reading Buffett for years and because I'm not interested in Joe's commentary I skip over so many sections that I in affect probably only truly read, I don't know. Maybe 10 to 20 pages. So 40 minutes for 10 pages actually makes me a slow reader ;-)

     

     

    Progressive Leader Peter B. Lewis Dies at 80

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    http://www.propertycasualty360.com/2013/11/25/progressive-leader-peter-b-lewis-dies-at-80?eNL=5293b022160ba0852d000092&utm_source=PC360DailyeNews&utm_medium=eNL&utm_campaign=PC360_eNLs&t=personal-insurance-business&_LID=125684197

     

    If I'm not mistaken, several years ago (1998/1999 maybe), Buffett when asked on which company in insurance he will use a silver bullet, he said Progressive. A great compliment. Charlie said at the time George Joseph from Mercury is a legend. He was then 80.

     

    “Was Warren Buffett Right: Do Wonderful Companies Remain Wonderful?” - Anyone??

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I enjoyed this blog piece http://www.project-firefly.com/node/18029

    In the footnote it says, "This document is a summary version of “Was Warren Buffett Right: Do Wonderful Companies Remain Wonderful?” For access to the original article, please ask your HOLT representative" HOLT is a Credit Suisse initiative.

     

    If anyone can get their hands on the original document and PM me then it will be great!

     

    Thanks

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