CDOQ

I just finished reading a fantastic book- Seeking Wisdom: From Darwin to Munger  by Peter Bevelin. The book offers a systematic approach to becoming a better thinker and a better decision maker. It synthesizes thinking of two of my heroes- Charlie Munger  and Charles Darwin.   The book gives you fundamentals from various disciplines- biology, physics, chemistry, mathematics, and psychology and then shows you how they are applied to reality. The core idea of the book is to understand that there 28 common misjudgments  people make, why we make them, and if we just learn to avoid them, we will be much better decision makers and will live better lives. And, it also outlines guidelines to better thinking.  One of the guidelines of better thinking is better attitudes. I think that changing attitudes can do wonders for people. Following are the attitudes for better living adapted from the book:  1. Life is long if we know how to use it....

If you stop caring about what others think and develop an independent mind, I guarantee that you will live a happy life. 

Why do we complain of Nature? She has shown herself kindly; life, if you know how to use it, is long. But one man is possessed by an avarice that is insatiable, another by a toilsome devotion to tasks that are useless; one man is besotted with wine, another with is paralyzed by sloth; one man is exhausted by an ambition that always hangs upon the decisions of others, another, driven on by the greed of the trader, is led over all lands and all seas by the hope of gain...many are kept busy either in pursuit of other men's fortune or in complaining of their own; many, following no fixed aim, shifting and inconstant and dissatisfied, are plunged by their fickleness into plans that are ever new; some have no fixed principle by which to direct their course, but Fate takes them unawares while they loll and yawn- so surely does it happen that I cannot doubt the truth of that utterance which is greatest of poets delivered with all the seeming of an oracle: "The part of life we really l...

The road to hell is paved with good intentions - Saint Bernard of Clairvaux

I spent the last weekend in Omaha, Nebraska with two of the my heroes- Charlie Munger and Warren Buffett . After attending the Berkshire Hathaway (BH) for a few years, I still get amazed how a shareholder meeting attracts 40,000+ people and the meeting is about two guys having fun. Everyone else  enjoys watching them have fun. The format is six hours of open Q&A. There is no preparation by Munger and Buffett. Anyone can ask anything about anything expect what BH is going to buy/sell next. You will see it in the notes  that a wide variety of topics are covered. Notes from previous years are available here . The David Sokol issue was covered by Buffett and that part of the meeting has been recorded so I have not covered it in my notes. You can see it here. Munger talked more this year compared to previous years. I just love this man. He is brilliant! Following are my random notes from the meeting: Buffett does two things in his job- 1) keep operating manag...