Friday Filosophy v.12.02.2022

Friday Filosophy v.12.02.2022

Friday Filosophy v.12.02.2022 brings quotes and words of wisdom from Charlie Munger. 

Charlie Munger was born in Omaha, Nebraska. As a teenager, he worked at Buffett & Son, a grocery store owned by Warren Buffett‘s grandfather. His father, Alfred Case Munger, was a lawyer. His grandfather was Thomas Charles Munger, a U.S. district court judge and state representative. 

He enrolled in the University of Michigan, where he studied mathematics. During his time in college, he joined the fraternity Sigma Phi Society. In early 1943, a few days after his 19th birthday, he dropped out of college to serve in the U.S. Army Air Corps, where he became a second lieutenant. After receiving a high score on the Army General Classification Test, he was ordered to study meteorology at Caltech in Pasadena, California, the town he was to make his home. 

Through the GI Bill Munger took a number of advanced courses through several universities. When he applied to his father’s alma mater, Harvard Law School, the dean of admissions rejected him because Munger had not completed an undergraduate degree. However, the dean relented after a call from Roscoe Pound, the former dean of Harvard Law and a Munger family friend. Munger excelled in law school, graduating magna cum laude with a J.D. in 1948. At Harvard, he was a member of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau

In college and the Army, he developed “an important skill”: card playing. He used this in his approach to business. “What you have to learn is to fold early when the odds are against you, or if you have a big edge, back it heavily because you don’t get a big edge often. Opportunity comes, but it doesn’t come often, so seize it when it does come.” He also used a card analogy to explain an approach to stock trading. He maintained that treating the shares of a company like baseball cards is a losing strategy because it requires one to predict the behavior of often irrational and emotional human beings.

  • Knowing what you don’t know is more useful than being brilliant
    • Most people spend their time wrestling with the consequences of poor decisions. Both the truth is it’s much easier to avoid stupidity then try to be smart.
    • Admit you know nothing. Remove ego from the equation
  • A majority of life’s errors are caused by forgetting what one is really trying to do
    • We set goals, pursue them, then get distracted
    • To achieve something meaningful, you need to constantly correct course
    • Set a North Star and keep it front of mind
  • Mimicking the herd invites regression to the mean
    • If you do the same thing as everyone else, you’ll get the same results
    • But most people are: 
      • Unhappy
      • Unfulfilled
      • Unmotivated
    • Following society’s standards traps you in them
    • Be bold. Go against the grain.
  • To get what you want you have to deserve what you want
    • Naval once said the world is an efficient place
    • You can’t control results, but you can control your”
      • Character
      • Work Ethic
      • Willingness to learn
    • Earn what you want
  • The fundamental algorithm of life – repeat what works.
    • It’s easy to overcomplicate success
    • Both the truth is everything you do creates feedback. Smart people listen
    • When something goes poorly do less of it
    • When something goes well, do it much more
  • Those who keep learning will keep rising.
    • Most people stop learning at 18. Munger is still going at 98
    • Knowledge is an asset that compounds over time
    • The more you know, the better you think. Better choices, great consequences
    • Schedule time to study
  • You don’t have to be brilliant, only a little bit wiser than the other guys, on average, for a long time.
    • Berkshire Hathaway is valued at $991.89 Billion
    • Buffet and Munger’s approach?
    • Rationality and Patience
    • It isn’t a sexy approach, but the results sure as hell are
  • The best thing a human being can do is help another human being know more
    • The best way to live your life is in service to other people. Especially now with the online opportunities
    • Be generous with your ideas. Share what you know and helps others win
  • We insist on a lot of time being available almost every day to just sit and think
    • We live at a time of constant input. Everyone wants to maximize every moment for productivity.
    • But life is a cause and effect
    • Decisions are the key to success. Time to think is the priority
  • You must know the big ideas in the big disciplines and use them routinely
    • Principles from:
      • Mathematics
      • Physics
      • Biology
      • Philosophy
      • Engineering
    • All have a profound impact on life
    • Study mental models. Build a toolkit. Treat your mind like your greatest asset.

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