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1 " Develop into a lifelong self-learner through voracious reading; cultivate curiosity and strive to become a little wiser every day. "
― , Charlie Munger: The Complete Investor
2 " I believe in the discipline of mastering the best that other people have ever figured out. I don’t believe in just sitting down and trying to dream it all up yourself. Nobody’s that smart. "
3 " Envy is a really stupid sin because it’s the only one you could never possibly have any fun at. There’s a lot of pain and no fun. Why would you want to get on that trolley? "
4 " Remember that reputation and integrity are your most valuable assets—and can be lost in a heartbeat. "
5 " If something is too hard, we move on to something else. What could be simpler than that? "
6 " Mimicking the herd invites regression to the mean (merely average performance). "
7 " Man’s imperfect, limited-capacity brain easily drifts into working with what’s easily available to it. And the brain can’t use what it can’t remember or when it’s blocked from recognizing because it’s heavily influenced by one or more psychological tendencies bearing strongly on it … the deep structure of the human mind requires that the way to full scope competency of virtually any kind is to learn it all to fluency—like it or not. "
8 " We both insist on a lot of time being available almost every day to just sit and think. That is very uncommon in American business. We read and think. So Warren and I do more reading and thinking and less doing than most people in business. "
9 " Warren talks about these discounted cash flows. I’ve never seen him do one. "
10 " All the equity investors, in total, will surely bear a performance disadvantage per annum equal to the total croupiers’ costs they have jointly elected to bear. This is an inescapable fact of life. And it is also inescapable that exactly half of the investors will get a result below the median result after the croupiers’ take, which median result may well be somewhere between unexciting and lousy. "
11 " Learning from the success and failure of others is the fastest way to get smarter and wiser without a lot of pain. "
12 " In Buffett’s view, if you cannot write it down, you have not thought it through. "
13 " Buffett has said that if you cannot explain why you failed after you have made a mistake, the business was too complex for you. "
14 " If you want to get rich, you’ll need a few decent ideas where you really know what you’re doing. Then you’ve got to have the courage to stick with them and take the ups and downs. Not very complicated, and it’s very old-fashioned. "
15 " I observe what works and what doesn’t and why. "
16 " All skills attenuate with disuse. "
17 " Munger likes to say that a year in which you do not change your mind on some big idea that is important to you is a wasted year. "
18 " people who cannot be alone with their own thoughts are terrible candidates to become successful investors. "
19 " Successful investors … must possess an interest in the process. It’s no different from carpentry, gardening, or parenting. If money management is not enjoyable, then a lousy job inevitably results, and, unfortunately, most people enjoy finance about as much as they do root canal work. "
20 " Everyone makes mistakes, but Munger has repeatedly said that staying away from the really big mistakes, like cocaine and heroin, is vital. As an analogy, Munger has pointed out that if you are floating down a river and there are really dangerous whirlpools that are killing many people on a daily basis, you do not go anywhere near that whirlpool. Munger also pointed to alcoholism as a major cause of failure in life. His point on substance abuse is simple: why play dice with something that can ruin your life forever? His timeless advice in every setting is to avoid situations with a massive downside and a small upside (negative optionality). "