No. of Recommendations: 16
I recently read "Damn Right", a biography of Charlie Munger by Janet Lowe. It's about his life, and his relationship with WEB and many others, not his business philosophy, and it was fun to read. It made me think about Poor Charlie's Almanack, which many here have probably read, so I looked at it again. For those who have never read the Almanack, here is an excerpt from the introduction:
"When I started law practice, I had respect for the power of genetic evolution and an appreciation of man’s many evolution- based resemblances to less cognitively gifted animals and insects. I was aware that man was a social animal, greatly and automatically influenced by behavior he observed in men around him. I also knew that man lived, like barnyard animals and monkeys, in limited- size dominance hierarchies, wherein he tended to respect authority and to like and cooperate with his own hierarchy members while displaying considerable distrust and dislike for competing men not in his own hierarchy.
But this generalized, evolution- based theory structure was inadequate to enable me to cope properly with the cognition I encountered. I was soon surrounded by much extreme irrationality, displayed in patterns and subpatterns. So surrounded, I could see that I was not going to cope as well as I wished with life unless I could acquire a better theory- structure on which to hang my observations and experiences.
By then, my craving for more theory had a long history. Partly, I had always loved theory as an aid in puzzle- solving and as a means of satisfying my monkey- like curiosity. And partly, I had found that theory- structure was a superpower in helping one get what one wanted, as I had early discovered in school, wherein I had excelled without labor, guided by theory, while many others, without mastery of theory, failed despite monstrous effort. Better theory, I thought, had always worked for me, and, if now available, could make me acquire capital and independence faster and better assist everything I loved. So I slowly developed my own system of psychology, more or less in the self- help style of Ben Franklin and with the determination displayed in the refrain of the nursery story: “‘Then I’ll do it myself,’ said the Little Red Hen.” The Almanack, which contains many gems of Charlie wisdom, is available online for free at
assets.stripeassets.com - SP PCA ZINEIf you've never read it, you are in for a treat! Enjoy!
abromber
