Liberty

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/borowitzreport/2012/07/a-letter-from-mark-zuckerberg-facebook-stock.html ;)

[amazonsearch]The Halo Effect:...and the Eight Other Business Delusions That Deceive Managers[/amazonsearch] Just started, but I can already tell it has potential. Mostly debunking delusions and cognitive biases that affect business people. A lot of it I'm sure I know about, but as I always say, it's a good idea to review the obvious once in a while. No need to get too esoteric...

Tesla might be overvalued, but I wouldn't put it in the same category as the others.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-26/buffett-3-billion-dow-stake-may-be-repaid-after-kuwait-case.html

Just for fun, here's a piece but someone who has no idea what he's talking about: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2012/07/24/warren-buffett-great-investor-lousy-insurance-salesman/ ::)

Congrats!

Not really designed for public consumption, but here's some of the stuff I look at: [] management interests aligned with shareholder? Pro-shareholder policies? [] moat around business? Durable competitive advantage? Low-cost producer? [] good runway for future growth? Small fish in big pond? Growing market? [] management has integrity, intelligence, energy? [] good track record? [] is stock undervalued? Sufficient margin of safety? [] good defense? Would it do well in bad environment? Over-leveraged? Dependant on external sources of financing? [] good capital allocation? [] transparent communications with shareholders? [] do I understand the business well enough? circle of competence? [] have I looked at the short thesis for this business? What would kill it? Can lower cost operator (china) come in and kill it? [] could I do better by being patient? [] do I understand the downside and upside? Opportunity cost? [] does business provide clear value to its customers? [] Are you looking at normalized earnings or are you looking at boom/depress earnings? [] vetted by investor(s) I respect? [] any pricing power? How would it do with high inflation?

Don't judge before you've tried it ;) Blind taste tests with similar products aren't as easy as most people think... Even wine experts often fail tests comparing pretty different wines afaik.

That will work only as long as they are right, though. They kind of have earned a freebie with their past work, and enough people will trust Block to make the stock tank, but if they are wrong on a big one, then the next one probably won't work nearly as well... Kinda like Buffett's line about a reputation taking a long time to build and but a very short time to lose.

;D

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-18/internet-adrs-rebound-on-bets-selloff-overdone-china-overnight.html

Or perhaps it's because you've read so much on the subject already (Buffett, etc) and because the basic ideas remain the same whoever says them... Maybe if you had come across this book before all of that it would have seemed more valuable. Personally, I quite liked the book. I find a lot of value in reinforcing key concepts periodically.

Thanks. I had only ever read Marks and seen photos of him. In the flesh he actually looks much younger than I expected. Anyone knows how old he is? I saw 66 somewhere, but I'm not sure it's a good source.

Indeed, though so far he seems to have done both, though too earl to tell if it'll stay that way.

As he says in the interview, it wasn't the original plan, but he had to put more in than he expected (possibly because of 2008).. Still, he's certainly go conviction and the ability to deliver!

Interesting stuff. Fascinating guy. We need more like him, tackling hard problems rather than building yet another Web 2.0 startup that intends to sell out to the first acquirer..

Watched it. Always fun to hear Warren speak, even though I can't say I learned too much..

Thank you!

If anyone has a link to the video archive of the whole thing, that would be great. thanks.

Thanks for posting. I think there's more of the interview here: http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000102436&play=1 They also have Simpson & Bowles along with Buffett in the third segment..

I just finished the book. It was surprisingly good. I expected maybe a few useful ideas to add to a mental model, but not much... It turned out to be well argued, well written, and very motivating. A good companion to Waitzkin's The Art of Learning.

Sorry, in Dutch. It basically says that it will be able to post tweets automatically with your account and that they can change your account details. I've seen many people get it already, but I'll do this with a new account where I don't mind if they spam tweets under my name. :-X I believe that what this means is that you are authorizing one tweet, even if it is worded more broadly. I've seen many other sites (dropbox.com) use this feature. But I guess we could get confirmation from someone at MOI.

Bloomberg: [glow=red,2,300]S&P 500 Has Longest Drop Since May[/glow] Since may? Really? And we're all the way to early July. That must be historically significant! I know why they do it, kind of, but I can't help but find it funny.

Ha! I didn't mean that I use the iPad for phonecalls, but I can see how the juxtaposition gave that impression :) I do use the iPad for Facetime with the family sometimes, though, but that doesn't look quite as silly as what you had in mind...

I'm probably the only person here who has the cheapest non-smartphone that I could find running on a prepaid card of $100 for 1 year (about $8/month, hard to beat) :) I have an iPad 3, though..