Perspicacity 25. He doesn’t believe that you can change your life midway. You can’t be a total jerk and then be nice later in life. If you know where you want to go, you might as well get there sooner. Lifelong learning works and it is a lot fun.
Q14: How should we prioritize our time based on which stage of life we are in?
Munger: Charlie said that he did not have much advice apart from his general advice to invest in personal learning—he believes in continuous improvement. He doesn’t believe that you can change your life midway. You can’t be a total jerk and then be nice later in life. If you know where you want to go, you might as well get there sooner. Lifelong learning works and it is a lot fun. He is 88 years old and he is learning more about astrophysics. What could come from it? Very little—but he is really enjoying it. The good news is that he understands astrophysics better than an average 88 year old.
Perspicacity 26. He doesn’t like credit card companies that are pushing credit on people who will inevitably hurt themselves with credit. Firms should only make money by selling things that are good for customers—not things that are more like gambling. Yes, he is directing these comments at our leading investment banks.
Q15: Will he do this event again next year? How does BRK take care of its cash? Is the company at risk to bank or counterparty failure?
Munger: Said he is glad to host the event this time but he doesn’t want to continue because he thinks we need a new cult hero. So, by not hosting the event next year, he is actually trying to help us by allowing us to move on.
BRK is dependent on the modern financial/deposit systems and computer trading systems. Unfortunately, BRK has to deal with people who Warren and Charlie don’t like or are whose actions elicit skepticism. For example, he doesn’t like credit card companies that are pushing credit on people who will inevitably hurt themselves with credit. At one of the Wesco meetings he said that firms should only make money by selling things that are good for customers—not things that are more like gambling. Yes, he is directing these comments at our leading investment banks.
Perspicacity 27. On Career: Select something you like doing. A man is a prisoner of his talents. Law may not have been perfect for his talents and interests but it was the next best.
Q16: If you were a college age students and had 20 years to become an expert in a specific field, what would focus on?
Munger: He said that this is an easy question. When you are looking around for something to do as a young person, you have to select something you like doing. He has never been good at things he wasn’t interested in— he is way more effective when he is interested. If god has given you a passion for drawing buildings then you have to be an architect—which is a terrible way to make money by the way. However, he has an architect friend who says he doesn’t care if it is a bad way to make money. The man doesn’t care because in his mind it isn’t work. A man is a prisoner of his talents. This statement is true in his life as well. He couldn’t have been a ballet dancer or a professional football quarterback. Law may not have been perfect for his talents and interests but it was the next best. Unlike others, he was not willing to be ill-paid.
Perspicacity 28. Devout The Best Hour Of The Day For Yourself
Q17: He once said he sold the best hour of his day to himself. What does that mean? Is Coca Cola (KO) as good today as it was 20 years ago?
Munger: When he was a lawyer, he said he spent an hour to himself in the morning and then gave the rest of the day to his clients. Most people would not admit it if they did that but he thinks it was very valuable.
KO is not as good as it was 20 years ago. Compared to the big companies that sell consumer products however, it is better. But, it is like BRK in that the company is so big that it is hard to move the needle. Think about it this way: if we have to drink 8 glasses of water a day and company can slightly improve the taste of that water, it is a cheap and easy way to get people to drink those 8 glasses of water. It is hard for competitors to knock off a cheap product with a great brand name. That may not be true with a $500 computer though. If he were investing for pension funds, there wouldn’t be an account that didn’t have KO in it. It doesn’t mean KO will do wonders for people, but compared to other companies, he would rather own KO.
Perspicacity 29. Day Plan: Said he fills his duties first because he doesn’t want to disappoint people. But he says no to many new opportunities. There is an advantage if you have a temperament that allows you to cope with problems that others can’t understand.
Q18: How does he plan his day?
Munger: Said he fills his duties first because he doesn’t want to disappoint people. But he says no to many new opportunities—he is brutal in that way. He has an amazingly open calendar—like that of
Buffett. He likes to have the freedom to take calls from friends and family. He doesn’t want to be booked like a busy dentist and this flexibility has worked for him. There is an advantage if you have a temperament that allows you to cope with problems that others can’t understand. He prefers hard problems and doesn’t want to be a dentist (who follows simple processes over and over).
Perspicacity 30. Not unrealistic that BRK will outperform indexes slightly.
Q19: Regarding Buffett’s comments on future performance, is it unrealistic that BRK will outperform indexes slightly over a few years?
Munger: No, it is not unrealistic. If they just held big common stocks it might not work. But, with a mixture of operating business and business owners selling to them because they don’t want to sell to someone else, Buffett may get his wish. However, Buffett might not get his wish to be there for 20 years to see it happen.
The Inoculated Investor http://inoculatedinvestor.blogspot.com/