TwosWrite things down

Poor Charlie's Almanack by Charlie Munger

Poor Charlie's Almanack by Charlie Munger

by Parker · 102 things on Twos

Acquire worldly wisdom and adjust your behavior accordingly. If your new behavior gives you a little temporary unpopularity with your peer group... then to hell with them
Look for a partner both smarter and wiser than you are. Seek a partner who will never second-guess you nor sulk when you make expensive mistakes. Look also for a generous soul who will put up his own money and work for pennies. Finally, join with someone who will constantly add to the fun as you travel a long road together
Old-fashioned Midwestern values: lifelong learning, intellectual curiosity, sobriety, avoidance of envy and resentment, reliability, learning from the mistakes of others, perseverance, objectivity, willingness to test one's own beliefs
I wanted to get rich so I could be indpendent
Repetition is the heart of instruction
Focus on the task immediately in front of you and control spending
When you're buying jewelry for the woman you love, financial considerations probably shouldn't enter into it
Do well with the work you already have on your desk and more will come in
Choose clients as you would friends
You have to learn to be a follower before you become a leader
As you pat yourself on the back for behaving well, you will improve your future conduct
The only life worth living is dedicated in substantial part to good outcomes one cannot possibly survive to see
If you live right, the inferior part of life is the early part
The best a young person can hope for is to get old before he dies
The wealthy are sure to suffer if they are lacking in moral and providential skill
The best armor of old age is a well spent life preceding it; a life employed in the pursuit of useful knowledge, in honorable actions and the practice of virtue; in which he whoo labors to improve himself from his youth, will in age reap the happiest fruits of them; not only because these never leave a man, not even in the extremest old age; but because a conscience bearing witness that our life was well-spent. together with the remembrance of past good actions, yields an unspeakable comfort to the soul
When you borrow a man's car, you always return it with a full tank of gas
Do the job right the first time
Find out what you are best at and keep pounding away at it
"Simplicity is the end result of long, hard work, not the starting point." - Frederick Maitland
"When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe." - John Muir
Any year that you don't destroy one of your best-loved ideas is probably a wasted year
Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not
Patience: the art of waiting without tiring of waiting
A great business at a fair price is superior to a fair business at a great price
All investment evaluations should begin by measuring risk, especially reputational
Avoid dealing with people of questionable character
The only way to win is to work, work, work, work, and hope to have a few insights
Develop into a lifelong self-learner through voracious reading; cultivate curiosity and strive to become a little wiser every day
Intellectual humility—acknowledging what you don't know is the dawning of wisdom
Resist the natural human bias to act
Enjoy the process along with the proceeds, because the process is where you live
Face your big troubles; don't sweep them under the rug
Example is not the main thing in teaching—it is the only thing
If you don't keep learning, other people will pass you by
What people think are fixes aren't really fixes. People don't think about the consequences of the consequences
It's not bringing in the new ideas that's so hard. It's getting rid of the old ones
If all you succeed in doing in life is getting rich by buying little pieces of paper, it's a failed life. Life is more than being shrewd in wealth accumulation
A lot of success in life and business coms from knowing what you want to avoid: early death, a bad marriage, etc.
Avoid evil, particularly if they're attractive members of the opposite sex
If your new behavior earns you a little temporary unpopularity with your peer group, then to hell with them
Be satisfied with what you have
Beware of envy
Envy is a really stupid sin because it's the only one you could never possibly have any fun at
Spend each day trying to be a little wiser than you were when you woke up. Discharge your duties faithfully and well. Step by step you get ahead, but not necessarily in fast spurts. But you build discipline by preparing for fast spurts... Slug it out one inch at a time, day by day. At the end of the day—if you live long enough—most people get what they deserve
I know known no wise people who didn't read all the time
One of the great defenses if you're worried about inflation is not to have a lot of silly needs in your life—you don't need a lot of material goods
Those of us who have been very fortunate have a duty to give back
How to guarantee misery: 1. Ingesting chemicals in an effort to alter mood or perception; 2. Envy; and 3. Resentment.
Life is hard enough to swallow without squeezing in the bitter rind of resentment
Be reliable
No man's life should be accounted a happy one until it is over
All human beings are perfectly free to control their own lives and to live in harmony with nature
Many hard problems are best solved only when they are addressed backward
"There is no royal road to learning; no short cut to the acquirement of any art." - Anthony Trollope
If you tell people why, they'll understand it better, they'll consider it more important, and they'll be more likely to comply
Even if it's obvious, it's wise to stick in the why
"Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others." - Jack Welch
"What you measure is what you get. What you reward is what you get." - Jack Welch
"The consistent lesson I've learned over the years is that I have been in many cases too cautious. Almost everything should have been done faster." - Jack Welch
"You can learn from everybody." - Sam Walton
You have to figure out what your own aptitudes are. If you play games where other people have the aptitudes and you don't, you're going to lose
Spend less than you make; always be saving something. Put it into a tax-deferred account. Over time, it will begin to amount to something
3 basic rules for your career: 1. Don't sell anything you wouldn't buy yourself. 2. Don't work for anyone you don't respect and admire. 3. Work only with people you enjoy
Have low expectations, have a sense of humor, and surround yourself with the love of friends and family
Live with change and adapt to it
The incessant concentration of thought upon one subject, however interesting, tethers a man's mind in a narrow field
The very first step towards success in any occupation is to become interested in it
Life is like a poker game, wherein you have to learn to quit sometimes when holding a much-loved hand
The fun never stops
Properly done, if teaching isn't the highest calling of man, it is near it
Intense political animosity should be avoided because it causes much mental malfunction, even in brilliant minds
"The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them." - Mark Twain
It is usually best to simplify problems by deciding big "no-brainer" questions first
"The company that needs a new machine tool, and hasn't bought it, is already paying for it."
To a man with only a hammer, every problem tends to look pretty much like a nail
No one who achieves success does so without acknowledging the help of others. The wise and confident acknowledge this help with gratitude
Almost all new ideas have a certain aspect of foolishness when they are first produced
Truth is hard to assimilate in any mind when opposed by interest
Filial piety: a love and respect for one's parents and ancestors. Take care of your parents; do not be rebllious; show love, respect, and support; display courtesy; ensure male heirs; uphold fraternity among brothers; wisely advise one's parents; conceal their mistakes; display sorrow for their sickness and death; and carry out sacrifices after their death
The safest way to try to get what you want is to try to deserve what you want
Deliver to the world what you would buy if you were on the other end
The acquisition of wisdom is a moral duty
Just as civilization can progress only when it invents the method of invention, you can progress only when you learn the method of learning
Problems frequently get easier to solve through "inversion." If you turn problems around into reverse, you often think better
Envy, resentment, revenge, and self-pity are disastrous modes of thought
"If you would persuade, appeal to interest, not to reason." - Benjamin Franklin
If at all feasible, you want to maneuver yourself into doing something in which you have an intense interest
The best antidote to folly from an excess of self-regard is to force yourself to be more objective when you are thinking about yourself, your family and friends, your property, and the value of your past and future activity
Don't go to live auctions
The brain of man conserves programming space by being reluctant to change, which is a form of inconsistency avoidance
Few people can list a lot of bad habits that they have eliminated, and some people cannot identify even one of these. Instead, practically everyone has a great many bad habits he has long maintained despite their being known as bad
The automatic tendency of humans to reciprocate both favors and disfavors has long been noticed as extreme
Social-proof tendency, an automatic tendency to think and act as he sees others around him thinking and acting
Learn how to ignore the examples from others when they are wrong, because few skills are more worth having
Man's imperfect, limited-capacity brain easily drifts into working with what's easily available to it
The strength of extra-vivid images should be used as a device for improving one's own memory by attaching vivid images to many items one doesn't want to forget
All skills attenuate with disuse
Be careful whom you appoint to power because a dominant authority figure will often be hard to remove, aided as he will be by Authority-Misinfluence Tendency
Tendency is not always destiny, and knowing the tendencies and their antidotes can often help prevent trouble that would otherwise occur
Comparing predictions with outcomes is a very smart thing to do
Psychology-based tendencies: 1. Reward and punishment superresponse tendency 2. Liking/Loving tendency 3. Disliking/Hating tendency 4. Doubt-avoidance tendency 5. Inconsistency-avoidance tendency 6. Curiosity tendency 7. Kantian fairness tendency 8. Envy/Jealousy tendency 9. Reciprocation tendency 10. Influence-from-mere-association tendency 11. Simple, pain-avoiding psychological denial 12. Excessive self-regard tendency 13. Overoptimism tendency 14. Deprival-superreaction tendency 15. Social-proof tendency 16. Contrast-misreaction tendency 17. Stress-influence tendency 18. Availability-misweighting tendency 19. Use-it-or-lose-it tendency 20. Drug-misinfluence tendency 21. Senescence-misinfluence tendency 22. Authority-misinfluence tendency 23. Twaddle tendency 24. Reason-respecting tendency 25. Lollapalooza tendency