Charlie Munger on incremental growth, evolution, and more - Top 5 Quotes and Ideas from Charlie Munger - KEEP GOING
This edition of the Keep Going newsletter is dedicated to Charlie Munger.
Brook Slagle • 2023-12-03
yo! brook here.
This edition of the Keep Going newsletter is dedicated to Charlie Munger.
For those who don’t know who Charlie Munger was…
Munger was the Vice Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, multi-billionaire, philanthropist, polymath, religious reader, and last but not least… Warren Buffett’s right-hand man. A legend nonetheless.
(not a conclusive list)
In remembrance to him (passed away last week on 2023-11-28), here are my top 5 ideas (and quotes) from Charlie Munger.
1. Incremental growth:
“Spend each day trying to be a little wiser than you were when you woke up. Discharge your duties faithfully and well. Slug it out one inch at a time, day by day. At the end of the day—if you live long enough—most people get what they deserve.”
From the Tao of Charlie Munger
Related on learning machines:
“I constantly see people rise in life who are not the smartest, sometimes not even the most diligent, but they are learning machines. They go to bed every night a little wiser than they were when they got up, and boy, does that help, particularly when you have a long run ahead of you.”
From the Tao of Charlie Munger
2. Killing your ideas and evolution in thinking:
“Any year that passes in which you don’t destroy one of your best loved ideas is a wasted year.”– Out with the old and in with the new. This shows an evolution in our thought process, which means we are actually thinking.
From the Tao of Charlie Munger
3. Avoiding stupidity, not seeking brilliance:
“People are trying to be smart—all I am trying to do is not to be idiotic, but it’s harder than most people think.”
From the Tao of Charlie Munger
4. Avoiding talking about things you don’t understand:
“I have what I call an iron prescription that helps me keep sane when I naturally drift toward preferring one ideology over another. And that is I say “I’m not entitled to have an opinion on this subject unless I can state the arguments against my position better than the people do who are supporting it. I think that only when I reach that stage am I qualified to speak.” Now you can say that’s too much of an iron discipline..it’s not too much of an iron discipline. It’s not even that hard to do.”
From the 2007 USC Commencement Address by Charlie Munger
5. Inversion and solving problems by thinking of them backwards:
“The way complex adaptive systems work and the way mental constructs work, problems frequently get easier and I would even say usually are easier to solve if you turn around in reverse. In other words if you want to help India, the question you should ask is not “how can I help India?”, you think “what’s doing the worst damage in India? What would automatically do the worst damage and how do I avoid it?” You’d think they are logically the same thing, but they’re not. Those of you who have mastered algebra know that inversion frequently will solve problems which nothing else will solve. And in life, unless you’re more gifted than Einstein, inversion will help you solve problems that you can’t solve in other ways.”
From the 2007 USC Commencement Address by Charlie Munger
📚 (BONUS) on reading:
“In my whole life, I have known no wise people who didn’t read all the time—none, zero. You’d be amazed at how much Warren reads—and how much I read. My children laugh at me. They think I’m a book with a couple of legs sticking out.”
I haven’t imbibed enough Charlie Munger. The impact he has had on many of today’s greatest thinkers, investors, writers, etc… will only grow, even now that he is gone.
Rest In Peace Charlie Munger.
KEEP GOING
B.S.