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Mungerisms


Spekulatius

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Gems from the Daily Journal Meeting from Tren Griffin (who is well worth a follow on Twitter):

https://twitter.com/trengriffin/status/1228485879397662720?s=21

 

"When I was a meteorologist in World War II, they told me how to draw weather maps and predict the weather. But what I was actually doing is clearing pilots to take flights. I just reversed the problem. I inverted. I said, "Suppose I wanted to kill a lot of pilots." Munger

 

Priceless

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  • 5 months later...

I was trying to find info on businesses that BRK may be closing or selling & came across this.

 

“Technological change is destroying daily newspapers in America including the little ones like ours,” Mr Munger told Daily Journal investors. “The revenue goes away and the expenses remain and they’re all dying. Berkshire owns about 100 of them and it doesn’t matter because they’re all going to die. There’s nothing that can be done.”

 

“Think how different television is, [Walter] Cronkite is gone. We have all these clowns on the opinion service lying to us . . . and they’re really good at it,” he added. “The ability to mislead people is greatly underestimated.”

 

www.ft.com/content/03f977e6-4dde-11ea-95a0-43d18ec715f5

 

---

 

Between Jain, Able, Todd & Ted, who do you think would best model Munger?

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Guest longinvestor

I was trying to find info on businesses that BRK may be closing or selling & came across this.

 

“Technological change is destroying daily newspapers in America including the little ones like ours,” Mr Munger told Daily Journal investors. “The revenue goes away and the expenses remain and they’re all dying. Berkshire owns about 100 of them and it doesn’t matter because they’re all going to die. There’s nothing that can be done.”

 

“Think how different television is, [Walter] Cronkite is gone. We have all these clowns on the opinion service lying to us . . . and they’re really good at it,” he added. “The ability to mislead people is greatly underestimated.”

 

www.ft.com/content/03f977e6-4dde-11ea-95a0-43d18ec715f5

 

---

 

Between Jain, Able, Todd & Ted, who do you think would best model Munger?

 

Munger’s shoes are almost impossible to fill I think. It’s hard to imagine the annual meetings continue in the same fashion that it has for 40 years. But we have archives . Future questions are likely to be repeat from the past.

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I was trying to find info on businesses that BRK may be closing or selling & came across this.

 

“Technological change is destroying daily newspapers in America including the little ones like ours,” Mr Munger told Daily Journal investors. “The revenue goes away and the expenses remain and they’re all dying. Berkshire owns about 100 of them and it doesn’t matter because they’re all going to die. There’s nothing that can be done.”

 

“Think how different television is, [Walter] Cronkite is gone. We have all these clowns on the opinion service lying to us . . . and they’re really good at it,” he added. “The ability to mislead people is greatly underestimated.”

 

www.ft.com/content/03f977e6-4dde-11ea-95a0-43d18ec715f5

 

---

 

Between Jain, Able, Todd & Ted, who do you think would best model Munger?

 

Munger’s shoes are almost impossible to fill I think. It’s hard to imagine the annual meetings continue in the same fashion that it has for 40 years. But we have archives . Future questions are likely to be repeat from the past.

 

I was thinking in terms of how many bad decisions he's kept WEB from making by being the devils advocate. I'll bet he had a few choice barbs about airlines which didn't stop the purchases but may have helped create the about face.

 

The flip side of this might be that he cast a shade on opportunities last March.

 

I hope (for better & for worse) there will always be a curmudgeon involved in allocation issues.

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Guest longinvestor

Jain seems the closest to Munger out of that bunch. Insurance and fixed income investors are sharp, shrewd folks.

 

Think so too. Folks like Tony Nicely could fit the bill, as does Tom Murphy. But they are all old curmudgeons! Maybe minimum age of 80 is the qualification!

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  • 1 year later...
1 hour ago, Spekulatius said:

 

https://www.independent.com/2021/10/28/architect-resigns-in-protest-over-ucsb-mega-dorm/

 

The idea was conceived by 97-year-old billionaire-investor turned amateur-architect Charles Munger, who donated $200 million toward the project with the condition that his blueprints be followed exactly.

 

From the link, Chancellor Henry Yang has hailed it as “inspired and revolutionary.”

 

I was an Assistant Dean for Henry when he was Dean of Engineering at Purdue, about 30 years ago, until he left to become chancellor of UCSB. If Henry likes the idea it is probably worth doing. Henry is probably the longest running chancellor/president of any major university. It has been a while since I spoke to any faculty at UCSB, but when I did they loved him.

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Three of my friends shared similar sized windowless room in the college dorm in one of the topmost institute in Mumbai. Two of them are in the US working with Facebook and EY earning $300K-500K after studying further in the US. 

Even I have stayed in that small room on an occasion and none of them complained. 

UCSB facility might not be perfect but it is certainly AMAZING compared that dorm. 

It is interesting how much can be achieved when we focus attention on important things.  

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20 hours ago, boilermaker75 said:

 

From the link, Chancellor Henry Yang has hailed it as “inspired and revolutionary.”

 

I was an Assistant Dean for Henry when he was Dean of Engineering at Purdue, about 30 years ago, until he left to become chancellor of UCSB. If Henry likes the idea it is probably worth doing. Henry is probably the longest running chancellor/president of any major university. It has been a while since I spoke to any faculty at UCSB, but when I did they loved him.

He can be a god, this design is ludacris. No windows are insane. The plans also doesn't have great common rooms for just relaxing. 1 toilet for 8 people? What happens when the air conditioning breaks (it's a student dorm, it will break). Crazy design...

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22 hours ago, DooDiligence said:

Somebody should remind Chuck about this one.

 

"Guard against the effects of hubris and boredom"

 

Personally, I think he's lost his mind, despite the appearance of being "sharp" at AGM's.

There's a fine line between sharp and smug.

 

https://25iq.com/charlie-munger-book-to-date-chapters-1-5/

I don’t think he lost his mind but he is getting increasingly hard nosed and incapable of changing his mind. Thats probably understandable for a 97 year old

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If my memory is correct, his pre-Buffett investments were primarily in real estate. I guess he wants to go back to his early days. Nothing wrong with that, but no windows is crazy. 
 

At my dorm in university, I believe we had three toilets and three showers for 8-10 guys. It wasn’t an issue at all. Having only one toilet might have created issues. Particularly if it broke down. We didn’t have AC on the fourth floor either. 

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Every initial roll-out includes dumb errors - that's why we have sounding boards.

Obviously the concept is great, but design execution just needs a little work ...

 

Apparently these things are not co-ed? It's OK to have large amounts of unfilled rooms, simply because the gender balance is off? ... Charlie, the waste!

Something against windows? Keep the crazies down and there's a lot less 'wear and tear' .... Charlie, the incremental operating costs!

The man hasn't lived in a household full of women??? .... Charlie, what the hell are you thinking!

 

SD

 

Edited by SharperDingaan
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4 hours ago, gfp said:

Oh it's not so bad.  Remember what a typical undergraduate dorm looks like.  Mine was a concrete cell with no privacy and double occupancy.  Restrooms shared for an entire floor, no kitchens, period.  Quite a bit of detail in this presentation:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IgEAYCEphg6x6WDQ8NQGuILqN31SA6LP/view?__source=newsletter|warrenbuffettwatch

 

Thanks for sharing that. I never lived in a dorm, but that looks at least as nice as many at the school I attended.

 

We also had no need for surfboard storage. It seems to me that indoor space might be less important in a climate where that is a valuable amenity.

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I just took a look at the plans and that looks nicer than the dorm and other places I lived in during university. I understand the need of adding more beds densely, and the rooms are small and basically only for sleeping. Once you wake up, you're in the community areas with what looks like quite a bit of natural light. I think it looks ok. One or two years in there wouldn't be there worst at all. It has elevators and AC! 

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9 hours ago, gfp said:

Oh it's not so bad.  Remember what a typical undergraduate dorm looks like.  Mine was a concrete cell with no privacy and double occupancy.  Restrooms shared for an entire floor, no kitchens, period.  Quite a bit of detail in this presentation:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IgEAYCEphg6x6WDQ8NQGuILqN31SA6LP/view?__source=newsletter|warrenbuffettwatch

 

Exactly what my dorm was like. Of course I only lived there one year!

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