in a very competitive world when they’re fighting against other very bright, hardworking people. And it makes sense to load up on the very few good insights you have instead of pretending to know everything about everything at all times.” http://ycombinator.com/munger.html
Complexity:
“A rough rule in life is that an organization foolish in one way in dealing with a complex system is all too likely to be foolish in another.” http://www.tilsonfunds.com/Mungerwritings2001.pdf#search=%22%20%22charlie%20Munger%22%20Outstanding%20investor%20digest%22
Compounding
“Understanding both the power of compound return and the difficulty of getting it is the heart and soul of understanding a lot of things.” http://www.sandmansplace.com/Sandman_Favorite_Quotes.html
“Never interrupt it unnecessarily” http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:IuDIHXun74MJ:www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1578643031%3Fv%3Dglance+%22Charlie+Munger%22+%22I+didn%27t+get+to+where+I+am%22&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1
“Understanding both the power of compound interest and the difficulty of getting it is the heart and soul of understanding a lot of things” http://www.feedblitz.com/f/f.fbz?PreviewFeed=7799
“We’re not crying wolf at how hard it is to compound at the old rates—it can’t be done. Look how tough it is to earn $100 million pretax doing anything; few ever accomplish it. Then $1 billion, the $5 billion, then $10 billion….” Poor Charlie’s at 77 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1578643031/104-7644521-2497538?v=glance&n=283155
Confidence
“I have a black belt in chutzpah. I was born with it. Some people, like some of the women I know, have a black belt in spending. They were born with that. But what they gave me was a black belt in chutzpah.” http://www.tilsonfunds.com/MungerUCSBspeech.pdf
Confirmation bias:
“Most people early achieve and later intensify a tendency to process new and disconfirming information so that any original conclusion remains intact. They become people of whom Philip Wylie observed: “You couldn’t ’t squeeze a dime between what they already know and what they will never learn.”http://www.poorcharliesalmanack.com/pdf/page146.pdf
“The great example of Charles Darwin is he avoided confirmation bias. Darwinprobably changed my life because I’m a biography nut, and when I found out the way he always paid extra attention to the disconfirming evidence and all these little psychological tricks. I also found out that he wasn’t very smart by the ordinary standards of human acuity, yet there he is buried in Westminster Abbey. That’s not where I’m going, I’ll tell you.” http://www.loschmanagement.com/Berkshire%20Hathaway/Charlie%20munger/The%20Psychology%20of%20Human%20Misjudgement.htm
“The human mind is a lot like the human egg, and the human egg has a shut-off device. When one sperm gets in, it shuts down so the next one can’t get in. … And of course, if you make a public disclosure of your conclusion, you’re pounding it into your own head. http://www.loschmanagement.com/Berkshire%20Hathaway/Charlie%20munger/The%20Psychology%20of%20Human%20Misjudgement.htm
“This is why organizations solicit public pledges. Hell, it’s the reason for the marriage ceremony.” Talk at Cal Tech, “Bad Judgments, Common Causes, cited in Lowenstein at 169
Consultants:
“I have never seen a management consultant’s report in my long life that didn’t end with the following paragraph: “What this situation really needs is more management consulting.” Never once. I always turn to the last page. Of course Berkshiredoesn’t hire them, so I only do this on sort of a voyeuristic basis. Sometimes I’m at a non-profit where some idiot hires one. [Laughter] ” http://www.loschmanagement.com/Berkshire%20Hathaway/Charlie%20munger/The%20Psychology%20of%20Human%20Misjudgement.htm
Contrarian:
“We have a history when things are really horrible of wading in when no one else will.” http://www.fool.com/news/foth/2002/foth020515.htm
Corporate Governance:
“The system has deteriorated, and the reputation of the system has deteriorated even more than the system,” he said, noting that “a lot of people are mad at corporate governance,” including the kind of white-bread Republicans who should be the system’s biggest supporters. “When even they are mad at Corporate America, “Corporate America has a serious problem.” http://blogs.barrons.com/techtraderdaily/2006/06/26/the-wit-and-wisdom-of-charlie-munger/
Costco:
”I admired the place so much,” Munger says, “that I violated my rules (against sitting on outside boards). It’s hard to think of people who’ve done more in my lifetime to change the world of retailing for good, for added human happiness to the customer.” http://www.sandiegometro.com/1998/nov/money.html
Costs
“We don’t have an isolated group [of senior managers] surrounded by servants. Berkshire’s headquarters is a tiny little suite. We just came back from Berkshire’s board meeting; it had moved up to the board room of the Kiewit company and [it was so large and luxurious that] I felt uncomfortable .” http://www.tilsonfunds.com/wscmtg04notes.doc
Cost of capital:
“Obviously, consideration of costs is key, including opportunity costs. Of course capital isn’t free. It’s easy to figure out your cost of borrowing, but theorists went bonkers on the cost of equity capital. They say that if you’re generating a 100% return on capital, then you shouldn’t invest in something that generates an 80% return on capital. It’s crazy.” http://www.tilsonfunds.com/
Crime:
“A few public hangings will really change behavior. One of our Presidents said if he could execute three people each year for no cause, it would make it a lot easier to govern. When someone said that’s not enough, he said, “Oh yes it is, because I’d publish the list of people under consideration.” (Laughter) http://www.tilsonfunds.com/wscmtg05notes.pdf
Crowd Folly:
“’Crowd folly’, the tendency of humans, under some circumstances, to resemble lemmings, explains much foolish thinking of brilliant men and much foolish behavior — like investment management practices of many foundations represented here today. It is sad that today each institutional investor apparently fears most of all that its investment practices will be different from practices of the rest of the crowd.” http://www.tilsonfunds.com/Mungerwritings2001.pdf#search=%22%20%22charlie%20Munger%22%20Outstanding%20investor%20digest%22
Culture:
“For many of our shareholders, our stock is all they own, and we’re acutely aware of that. Our culture [of conservatism] runs pretty deep.” http://www.fool.com/news/foth/2002/foth020515.htm
“I think the foundation at Berkshire [Buffett’s stake in Berkshirewill pass to the Buffett Foundation upon his death] will be a plus because there will be a continuation of the culture. We’d still take in fine businesses run by people who love them.”
