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Charlie Munger provides a list of prescriptions for a miserable life, including ingesting harmful substances, cultivating envy and resentment, being unreliable, learning only from personal experiences, and giving up after facing a few setbacks.
Munger explains the advantages of scale in business, such as greater distribution, increased social proof, and expanded market dominance. He highlights the importance of specialization and the cascading effect that can lead to a winner-take-all situation. He also discusses the disadvantages that new entrants face when trying to compete with established players.
Munger emphasizes the value of learning from the experiences and mistakes of others. He advocates for a broad-based education that includes the study of multiple disciplines and encourages a mindset of curiosity and wisdom. Munger also emphasizes the importance of trust, storytelling, and understanding the psychology of human behavior.
Munger promotes the power of inversion, which involves solving problems by considering the opposite approach. He highlights the importance of prevention, both in personal life decisions and in business ventures. Munger stresses the need to avoid stupidity, trust one's own judgment, and actively seek wisdom by learning from the success and failures of others.
The most important job in a startup is hiring great people, as they will determine the success of the company. Steve Jobs emphasizes finding people who do great work and hiring them. Similarly, David Ogilvy prioritized hiring individuals with social skills and talent. Rockefeller believed in hiring talented individuals as he found them, not just when there was a specific need. Nolan Bushnell looked for creative people and would ask about their reading habits during interviews. Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger agree that hiring the right players is crucial for success, and they follow Ogilvy's philosophy of hiring people who are bigger than themselves to build a team of giants.
Vannevar Bush had an unusual interview process where he discussed a technical problem with the candidate and hired them immediately if they came up with an effective solution. Nolan Bushnell found that asking about reading habits during interviews helped him identify creative and curious individuals. This approach allowed him to build his companies on a foundation of creative people.
Warren Buffett and Jeff Bezos believe in the importance of constantly raising the bar when hiring. They believe that each new hire should raise the overall talent pool, leading to a company of giants. They prioritize hiring individuals who are better and more talented than themselves, as this leads to a stronger team.
Charlie Munger emphasizes the importance of getting incentives right in business and management. He believes that understanding the power of incentives is crucial for success. Munger highlights the tendency for people to mindlessly imitate others and the negative consequences it can have. He encourages entrepreneurs to recognize the value of incentives and design reward and punishment structures that align with desired behaviors.
Munger shares insights on hiring the best talent and building a strong company culture. He advises hiring individuals who think like you and align with the values of the company. Munger emphasizes the importance of recruiting top talent and creating an environment where employees feel surrounded by equally talented individuals. He also stresses the significance of aiming for fault-free, rapid performance in tasks and the power of hiring based on confidence and self-motivation.
What I learned from reading the NEW Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charlie Munger.
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Listen to this incredible conversation between Charlie Munger and John Collison on Invest Like The Best.
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(2:00) The practical wisdom of Poor Charlie's Almanack, this ode to curiosity, generosity, and virtue will similarly compound at successive generations of entrepreneurial readers extend his lessons to their own circumstances.
(12:00) Education is the process whereby the ability to lead a good life is acquired. — Socrates: A Man for Our Times by Paul Johnson. (Founders #252)
(22:00) Trust is one of the greatest economic forces on earth.
(29:00) Charlie is content to trust his own judgment when it runs counter to the wisdom of the herd.
(31:00) Animated: Charlie Munger: The Psychology of Human Misjudgement
(31:30) Aim for durability. Durability has always been a first rate virtue in Charlie’s eyes.
(32:00) Charlie only focuses on great businesses and great businesses have moats.
(33:00) Johnny Carson by Henry Bushkin. (Founders #183)
(42:00) You can flourish in a niche: People who specialize in the business world —and get very good because they specialize— frequently find good economics that they wouldn't get any other way.
(45:00) Being so well known has advantages of scale. This is what you might call an informational advantage. It increases social proof.
(46:30) Business Breakdowns episode on Coca Cola
(49:00) Occasionally scaling down and intensifying gives you a big advantage. (You can find great profit margins this way)
(50:00) Sam Walton: Made In America by Sam Walton. (Founders #234)
(51:00) Scale and fanaticism combined is very powerful. (Think Sam Walton)
(57:00) I also believed then, as I do now after more than fifty years as a money manager, that the surest way to get rich is to play only those games or make those investments where I have an edge. — A Man for All Markets: From Las Vegas to Wall Street, How I Beat the Dealer and the Market by Ed Thorp. (Founders #222)
(1:08:00) The best thing a human being can do is help another human being know more.
(1:14:00) Optimism is a moral duty. — Edwin Land
(1:17:00) You want to maximize the playing time of your top players.
(1:17:00) The game of competitive life often requires maximizing the experience of the people who have the most aptitude and the most determination as learning machines.
(1:22:00) The most important rule in management is get the incentives right.
(1:25:00) Never, ever think about something else when you should be thinking about the power of incentives.
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