farnamstreet

In his Columbia University lecture this year, Li Lu mentioned two books recommended by these two. The first one, recommended by Mohnish Pabrai was: [amazonsearch]The Shipping Man[/amazonsearch] The second one, recommended by both Charlie Munger and Pabrai was [amazonsearch]1491[/amazonsearch].

For those of you not into video, you can find an adapted version of the talk: The speech was so popular, it was turned into a book: This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life

The bed is no longer available!

I'm booked into the Fairmont Royal York for the night of the 10th, if anyone wants to share the cost of a room (two double beds) — it'll work out to about $100 each after taxes — let me know. If you want to pay more than 50% of the room cost that works for me too ;) (PS I don't put out and I don't snore.)

This is a decent one The Bank Director's Handbook: The Board Member's Guide to Banking & Bank Management

[amazonsearch]Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work[/amazonsearch] This is a great book that I think many people on the board would enjoy. You can learn more about it here http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2013/03/how-to-make-better-choices-in-life-and-work/

A lot of people are recommending feedly to me, although I haven't personally switched yet. http://www.feedly.com/ Personally, I'll wait to see what is created and what filters up in late may early June. I suspect we'll see a lot of new products. In my mind, this is a great example of how Microsoft misses the little things. If they were clever they would do a bing reader and make switching from google reader to bing reader a breeze (one click). In combination they should also try to capitalize on the growing anger towards google by making switching from gmail to hotmail or outlook.com only a few clicks.

Sanjeev, Let's try something. No need to remove them, although I appreciate the offer. If people enjoy them, they are free to leave a modest (or large!) donation as it takes a bit of effort to put those together. https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=UWNRQ6NNZQUQL

Interstingly, those are the notes available here http://myinvestingnotebook.blogspot.ca/2013/02/daily-journal-meeting-notes.html As you know, a lot of work and effort goes into creating soemthing so extensive; feel free to leave a donation if you find them valuable https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=UWNRQ6NNZQUQL

Looks like they want to raise $50m (from the 8k http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/93859/000092189513000219/form8k07428_02052013.htm) As to why? ... The Company has postponed a special meeting to implement a dual class structure of its common stock and thus gain increased flexibility in structuring acquisitions and financing transactions. In the absence of a dual class structure, the Company intends to conduct a rights offering as an alternative means of financing future acquisitions or investments to augment the Company’s growth.

For more context on Mulally, I really enjoyed: American Icon: Alan Mulally and the Fight to Save Ford Motor Company

Mr. Biglari, along with his affiliates, and certain directors of the Company make investments in the Lion Fund (other than the amounts invested by the Company), which are not subject to special profits, interest allocations, or incentive allocations. I'm curious, from an accounting point of view, does anyone know if the incentive fees that would have been charged for Biglari and the directors are required to show up in the proxy as (e.g., other income)? If not, why not?

Any recommendations for something close (preferably walking distance?)

https://duckduckgo.com/ — We believe in better search and no tracking Also, Google's "knowledge" has other implications: http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2012/03/the-filter-bubble-what-the-internet-is-hiding-from-you/

Glad you enjoyed it. A friend put me onto that book and it was a great read. She was a fan of "My Symphony," a poem by William Henry Channing that is somewhat along the Munger lines of thinking (he doesn't exactly 'talk gently')... My Symphony To live content with small means; To seek elegance rather than luxury, And refinement rather than fashion; To be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not, rich; To study hard, think quietly, Talk gently, Act frankly; To listen to stars and birds, babes and sages, with open heart; To bear all cheerfully, Do all bravely, Await occasions, Hurry Never. In a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common. This is my symphony.

This could be the best 12 minutes of your day. http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2012/12/secrets-from-the-science-of-persuasion/

I thought this was interesting: On the stock split: What is said today (2012) Because of the lower expected trading price and the greater volume of shares available for trading (as a result of the initial dividend of the new BH shares), we expect that a more liquid market will develop for the new class of shares than presently exists for the current class. http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/93859/000092189512002061/defa14a07428_10192012.htm What was said in 2009 (from the chairman's letter) Daily our emphasis is on the value of the company, not on its stock price. Our view is that if we assiduously tend to the former, the latter will fall in place. We are seeking to assemble and align ourselves with long-term investors whose purpose is to prosper in concert with the company. Because of our communications, these well-informed investors, we expect, would set prices for our stock that are reasonable. To attract knowledgeable long-term owners, we will initiate a reverse stock split. A reverse stock split of 1-for-20, effective on December 18, 2009, will reduce the number of outstanding common shares of Steak n Shake from the present figure of roughly 28.8 million to 1.4 million. Thus, for every twenty shares you now own, you will end up with one. In no way does your wealth alter nor does that of the company’s intrinsic business value. The economic pie is the same; it just will be sliced into bigger pieces. This change, we hope, will dissuade speculators from participating in our stock. We are attempting to eliminate those who erroneously think that it is easier for a $10 stock to go to $20 than a $200 one to go to $400. If anyone can dig up the proxy that talks about the reverse split, I'd be interested in what that said.

Professor Sanjay Bakshi teaches MBA students two popular courses: “Behavioral Finance & Business Valuation (BFBV)” and Financial Shenanigans & Governance” at MDI, Gurgaon. He's not all theory — He's also a practitioner with an enviable track record. Flirting with Floats: Part I http://fundooprofessor.wordpress.com/2012/07/09/flirting-with-floats-part-i/ Flirting with Floats: Part 2 http://fundooprofessor.wordpress.com/2012/07/16/flirting-with-floats-part-ii/ Flirting with Floats: Part 3 http://fundooprofessor.wordpress.com/2012/08/12/flirting-with-floats-part-iii/

Guy was a little hard to hear, but he mentioned these two books: Matsushita Leadership Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage

Direct to PDF http://rememberingtheobvious.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/wesco-charlie-munger-letters-1983-2009-collection.pdf Alternate link http://myinvestingnotebook.blogspot.ca/2012/08/charlie-mungers-wesco-letters-1983-2009.html

http://goo.gl/Njq8d

http://myinvestingnotebook.blogspot.ca/2012/06/bill-ackman-pershing-square-q1-2012.html PDF is downloadable from the link above.

...To conclude, the best way to is to mitigate interventionism is to ration the supply of information, as naturalistically as possible. This is hard to accept in the age of the internet. It has been very hard for me to explain that the more data you get, the less you know what’s going on, and the more iatrogenics you will cause. http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2012/05/noise-and-signal-nassim-taleb/

Here is the story from the examiners report : Buffett was surprised that Lehman had prepared a draft letter announcing the deal, because he never got close to a deal with Lehman. Buffett took it as a negative that Fuld suggested that Lehman executives were not willing to participate in a significant way. Second, Buffett did not like that Fuld complained about short sellers. Buffett thought that blaming short sellers was indicative of a failure to admit one’s own problems. ... Buffett was concerned that Fuld had not been forthcoming about the issue. The problems Buffett saw in the 10‐K along with Fuld’s failure to alert Buffett to the issue in Japan cemented Buffett’s decision not to invest in Lehman. http://myinvestingnotebook.blogspot.ca/2012/05/what-really-happened-with-lehman.html If you want the source documents, it starts on page 664 http://www.jenner.com/lehman/

I'm curious — Where do you find local mom and pop businesses for sale?