WEB on CNBC Monday with Ted, Todd, and Traci

[bmichaud]

Ok so in the interview today Todd said that he reads 500 pages PER WEEK.

 

This article that was flying around early last year said per day: http://www.thereformedbroker.com/2013/04/29/read-500-pages-like-this-every-day/

 

I thought Todd misspoke when he said it, but then he repeated it. See the video here: http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000251628&__source=yahoo%7cheadline%7cquote%7cvideo%7c&par=yahoo

 

500 pages a week makes FAR more sense. I felt like a complete loser when I started tracking how much I read - did not understand how it was possible for Buffett to read 500 per day, track all of his 80+ businesses and talk on the phone to everyone and their brother.

[APG12]

Great interview, the 3 T's didn't disappoint. Although Todd and Ted mentioned their personal BRK ownership, would like to hear that it is their largest holding. In a sense, this continuity would carry a lot more weight for me than what they say, buy etc. Coming from the world of PE/hedge funds where ownership is gifted with OPM, eating your own cooking will be a testament that they have transitioned into the ownership culture at BRK. Maybe too early yet.

 

Anyone have the link to the full interview?

 

This is the closest I've found:

 

http://www.valueinvestingworld.com/2014/03/warren-buffett-on-cnbc.html

[Mephistopheles]

Ok so in the interview today Todd said that he reads 500 pages PER WEEK.

 

This article that was flying around early last year said per day: http://www.thereformedbroker.com/2013/04/29/read-500-pages-like-this-every-day/

 

I thought Todd misspoke when he said it, but then he repeated it. See the video here: http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000251628&__source=yahoo%7cheadline%7cquote%7cvideo%7c&par=yahoo

 

500 pages a week makes FAR more sense. I felt like a complete loser when I started tracking how much I read - did not understand how it was possible for Buffett to read 500 per day, track all of his 80+ businesses and talk on the phone to everyone and their brother.

 

Exactly...I think I wrote about it in the thread last year too, asking how it is humanly possible. The "per week" was a relief to hear, especially when repeated it as you mentioned!

[Grenville]

Yeah, it's nice to hear that it's 500/week and not per day!

[Yours Truly]

I also looked the following quote:

 

And-if for some reason you think American business over the next 50 years is likely to be

way less productive than it has been in the past-- then you can come to a negative

conclusion on it. But I--came to a conclusion on that farm that it was likely to produce a

little bit more over the years and that the crops would bring a little bit more over time

and I bought it on a 10% yield-basis to start with.

 

I recall in one of the past Alice Schroeder videos where she outlines his thought process and in particular to the fact that Warren needed 10% yield up front to be comfortable with an investment.. that quote just backs it up quite nicely

[kiwing100]

 

Transcript for those of you interested

 

http://www.cnbc.com/id/101461797

[oddballstocks]

Ok so in the interview today Todd said that he reads 500 pages PER WEEK.

 

This article that was flying around early last year said per day: http://www.thereformedbroker.com/2013/04/29/read-500-pages-like-this-every-day/

 

I thought Todd misspoke when he said it, but then he repeated it. See the video here: http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000251628&__source=yahoo%7cheadline%7cquote%7cvideo%7c&par=yahoo

 

500 pages a week makes FAR more sense. I felt like a complete loser when I started tracking how much I read - did not understand how it was possible for Buffett to read 500 per day, track all of his 80+ businesses and talk on the phone to everyone and their brother.

 

Exactly...I think I wrote about it in the thread last year too, asking how it is humanly possible. The "per week" was a relief to hear, especially when repeated it as you mentioned!

 

OH MY GOSH...IT'S PER WEEK!?!?!?!?!  Thank goodness, I was just surfing Amazon to find a book on divorce, our marriage is on the brink.  I can't even think about the bills from Amazon, let along spending time with my family, I need to hit my daily quota.  I'm a learning machine... I couldn't wait to add "divorce" to my list of mental models....

[reddog66]

OH MY GOSH...IT'S PER WEEK!?!?!?!?!  Thank goodness, I was just surfing Amazon to find a book on divorce, our marriage is on the brink.  I can't even think about the bills from Amazon, let along spending time with my family, I need to hit my daily quota.  I'm a learning machine... I couldn't wait to add "divorce" to my list of mental models....

 

oddball,

 

You nailed me.  However, to save you some time, I would suggest His Needs, Her Needs if you want a better marriage.  It really helped my wife and I.

 

I did purchase several copies, both in print and on kindle from Amazon.

 

I happily recommend it as one of the few valid things I can contribute to the forum.  (I often find myself feeling like Karl Childers upon reading comments here)

 

Then again, perhaps you would be better served just sticking to Franklin's essay "Advice on the Choice of a Mistress".  It's a much shorter read.

[Nnejad]

Ok so in the interview today Todd said that he reads 500 pages PER WEEK.

 

This article that was flying around early last year said per day: http://www.thereformedbroker.com/2013/04/29/read-500-pages-like-this-every-day/

 

I thought Todd misspoke when he said it, but then he repeated it. See the video here: http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000251628&__source=yahoo%7cheadline%7cquote%7cvideo%7c&par=yahoo

 

500 pages a week makes FAR more sense. I felt like a complete loser when I started tracking how much I read - did not understand how it was possible for Buffett to read 500 per day, track all of his 80+ businesses and talk on the phone to everyone and their brother.

 

Exactly...I think I wrote about it in the thread last year too, asking how it is humanly possible. The "per week" was a relief to hear, especially when repeated it as you mentioned!

 

OH MY GOSH...IT'S PER WEEK!?!?!?!?!  Thank goodness, I was just surfing Amazon to find a book on divorce, our marriage is on the brink.  I can't even think about the bills from Amazon, let along spending time with my family, I need to hit my daily quota.  I'm a learning machine... I couldn't wait to add "divorce" to my list of mental models....

 

bmichaud, you're not alone - me and a co-worker also started tracking our reading after that quote.

[Kraven]

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. 

[Guest longinvestor]

The 500 page per week reading is still significant given what Ted Weschler said during the interview. It takes all of 5 minutes for them to put an idea in the "too hard" pile.  What they do actually read is the real deal then. Ted W also said that the time to act comes when the price is right. Not necessarily when the reading is done. Ted said he has been following the dialysis business for a long time (the 1980's) so any current reading is built on top of a deep knowledge base. 

 

Looks like they are fast learners. This being the first public interview after they took the job, I feel just fine with this part of the WEB transition. Of course it is a hard act for them to follow but the longer the transition (hope WEB lives to a 110) the better it is for BRK.

 

Re: Traci, did I hear WEB say that the work she is doing now, "representing the shareholder at the subsidiaries", help the incoming CEO of Berkshire? Now, that is a very interesting transitional role. One worth watching.

[bmichaud]

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.

 

[oddballstocks]

OH MY GOSH...IT'S PER WEEK!?!?!?!?!  Thank goodness, I was just surfing Amazon to find a book on divorce, our marriage is on the brink.  I can't even think about the bills from Amazon, let along spending time with my family, I need to hit my daily quota.  I'm a learning machine... I couldn't wait to add "divorce" to my list of mental models....

 

oddball,

 

You nailed me.  However, to save you some time, I would suggest His Needs, Her Needs if you want a better marriage.  It really helped my wife and I.

 

I did purchase several copies, both in print and on kindle from Amazon.

 

I happily recommend it as one of the few valid things I can contribute to the forum.  (I often find myself feeling like Karl Childers upon reading comments here)

 

Then again, perhaps you would be better served just sticking to Franklin's essay "Advice on the Choice of a Mistress".  It's a much shorter read.

 

Just to be clear, my post was a joke.  It seems to have gone over most people's heads.  I am happily married.  Speaking of books, a former boss swore by this book as he was getting divorced: http://www.amazon.com/Screw-Bitch-Divorce-Tactics-Men/dp/1559500697/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1393963303&sr=8-1&keywords=screw+the+bitch

 

I'm hoping that there were at least a few people out there laughing, but maybe my humor doesn't translate well into words.  Now back to those 10-K's, I have 387 pages to go today and time is slipping away...

[oddballstocks]

To ensure there is no ambiguity...I'm not endorsing that book.  I'm just saying that I had a former boss who loved it, talked about it constantly and I found it amusing that it exists.

[Nnejad]

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.

 

I gave up tracking it after I was spending more time estimating and logging pages then actually reading. But I agree entirely - we were assuming it was counting articles, news and research reports, in which case 500 didn't seem out of the question. For example, I just printed 120 pages of research reports on a company for tonight.

[MrB]

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 ;-)

 

 

[Aurelius]

I'm hoping that there were at least a few people out there laughing, but maybe my humor doesn't translate well into words.  Now back to those 10-K's, I have 387 pages to go today and time is slipping away...

 

Your humor is great. I had a good laugh  ;D

 

[Liberty]

Not that it matters that much, but here's Brooklyn Investor on the 500 pages per day or week:

 

So here's an interesting comment.  Todd Combs said that he reads 500 pages per week because that's what Buffett said he does when he spoke to a class at Columbia a while back.  I saw this live on TV and he said this twice or more, and Buffett and Weschler were sitting right there and didn't correct him.  He clearly said 500 pages per week.

 

But that doesn't make any sense.  If Buffett and Combs only reads 500 pages per week, we should all sell BRK right now!  Why?

 

First of all, look at the BRK annual report.  That's 136 pages.  So 500 pages is like reading the BRK annual report 3.7 times.  That means that if you read the BRK annual report (or similar amount) once a day for four days, you're done!  You can read one annual report the length of BRK's in the morning and then go and play golf for the rest of the day.  That just doesn't sound right to me at all.

 

Buffett said a while ago in an offhand comment on CNBC that he spent the previous night reading the AIG form 10-k.  I think he said it took him three or four hours.  I don't remember which.  But the AIG 10-k runs around 370 pages. So if you get up and go to the office on Monday morning and read the AIG 10-k (you should finish by lunch), then you are more than half way through your work week?!

 

That makes no sense at all.  500 pages per week is way too little!

 

So despite Combs saying "per week" very clearly more than once on TV without being corrected by Buffett / Weschler, I still bet that he misspoke and meant 500 pages per day.

 

Being on live television for the first time can be very distracting, so I can understand things like that.  And the others may not have been as attentive either with the distractions of being on live TV.

 

Part of a longer post about the interview: http://brooklyninvestor.blogspot.ca/2014/03/buffett-on-cnbc-with-3ts.html

[Guest deepValue]

I find it funny that anybody cares how many pages Buffett reads per day. The point is to look at as many companies as possible. You can get on CapIQ and go through 300 companies each morning just by glancing at their descriptions and capital turns, selecting the ones that look halfway decent for further review, and then spending the rest of the day/week/month digging down into the interesting companies. Trying to hit an arbitrary page count (does Buffett really know how many pages he reads per day?) misses the point of the exercise.

[nkp007]

Everyone should just print things on scrolls. Then we would all read the same amount of pages.

[augustabound]

Maybe Buffett and Combs are Spritzers?  

 

Imagine how many pages they would read if they could speed up their reading to 500 or 1000 wpm and not have to physically turn pages.  ;D

 

Now, with compact text streaming from Spritz, content can be streamed one word at a time, without forcing your eyes to spend time moving around the page. Spritz makes streaming your content easy and more comfortable, especially on small displays. Our “Redicle” technology enhances readability even more by using horizontal lines and hash marks to direct your eyes to the red letter in each word, so you can focus on the content that interests you.

[adesigar]

500 pages per week would be extremely low. Im really surprised people think 500 per day is a lot to read. 500 pages per day sounds about right for someone who spends a major part of their day reading.

[west]

500 pages per week would be extremely low. Im really surprised people think 500 per day is a lot to read. 500 pages per day sounds about right for someone who spends a major part of their day reading.

 

This is my opinion, too.  Reading 500 pages a day shouldn't be a big issue, especially if the data is in a highly structured format that you're familiar with like a 10-K.  For me at least, if I know the structure of what I'm about to read, it greatly increases my ability to both read it fast and get the gist of it fast.

[Guest longinvestor]

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/03/05/berkshire-hathaway-doesnt-need-warren-buffett-and.aspx

 

Though not a big fan of Fool.com, some of their pieces are thoughtful and I like them. Especially when their writing aligns with my own thoughts ;)

 

As this article points out, WEB's piece of the BRK investment pie today stands at 8%, so the remaining 92% is carved up into the hands of Jain, Abel, Rose, Weschler, Coombs and Wertheimer, Montross, Nicely, Eastwood, Peltier and the operating chiefs at Marmon, Lubrizol down to the 80+ waterfront businesses. And then, throw in partners like 3G capital who will most likely bring in more deals like Heinz, casting a dragnet to catch BRK's billions. Granted, some of these capital allocation decisions will blow up, they won't be in the same league as WEB's decisions but the beauty here is that each of those capital allocators will be investing well within their own circles of competence, in their own or adjacent businesses.

 

"Berkshire has gotten too big" is urban myth.  (I received a lot of love saying this in another post in another thread, ha). WEB's letters during the last few years is trying to dispel this. What we are witnessing is nothing short of "the mother of leadership transitions". Books will be written about that as well.

[Charlie]

""Berkshire has gotten too big" is urban myth.  (I received a lot of love saying this in another post in another thread, ha). WEB's letters during the last few years is trying to dispel this."

 

Exactly  ;)

 

Annual report: "With this tailwind working for us, Charlie and I hope to build Berkshire’s per-share intrinsic value by (1) constantly improving the basic earning power of our many subsidiaries; (2) further increasing their earnings through bolt-on acquisitions; (3) benefiting from the growth of our investees; (4) repurchasing Berkshire shares when they are available at a meaningful discount from intrinsic value; and (5) making an occasional large acquisition. We will also try to maximize results for you by rarely, if ever, issuing Berkshire shares."

 

 

Munger would call this a Lollapalooza Effect. When 3, 4 or 5 factors are working in the same direction, you often get Lollapalooza Effects.

And Lollapalooza Effects can make you rich or kill you. And this one will make us richer.  :)