Reflections from my dinner with Charlie Munger

0:00 What you're about to hear, I have never released on this feed before. Earlier this year, I got to have dinner with Charlie Munger. I spent over three hours with him shortly after that happened. I was asked the question, What did you learn from that experience? And I actually recorded my answer to that question. And so you're about to hear that recording now. Before we get to that, I wanna tell you one of the first thoughts

0:22 that I had when I woke up this morning. I heard the news of Charlie Passing away yesterday. And I was actually surprised at one of the first things I thought about this morning was There's actually a quote.

0:33 Of something that Sam Walton had said in his autobiography. Sam Walton said that he borrowed more ideas from sole price. than anyone else. And Sam was in the business of learning from other entrepreneurs. In fact, in that same book, he says Everything that I've done I've copied from somebody else.

0:50 I'm in the same business. That is why founders exist. I'm in the business of learning from other entrepreneurs. And I realized this morning that I've borrowed More ideas. for my own life and my own business. From Charlie Munger.

1:04 than anyone else. Charlie's a hero to me. Charlie changed my life and I'm going to miss him. I hope you enjoy these notes from my dinner with Charlie Munger. What did you learn from having dinner with Charlie Munger? In case you haven't seen it yet.

1:19 I just made a uh an episode. Episode two ninety five. It is about the book The Tower of Charlie Munger, but it is also about the fact that I got invited to have dinner at Charlie Munger's house. I got to spend over three hours with him. And I got to ask him any question.

1:34 No no limits. Like you could ask him whatever you wanted. And so the first thing that I learned is he's exactly As advertised. The the Charlie that you see at the Berkshire meeting, the Charlie that you've uh maybe watched speeches on, the Charlie that you've read books on. That is the same guy.

1:50 He really does read all the time. His bookshelves were fill when he says, Hey, you should become friends with the eminent dead. He says he's a biography nut. I thought, you know, uh close to three hundred biographies for the podcast so far. He makes me look like a biography amateur. He had books on his shelves, and don't worry, he let me look through shelves and I I'm gonna order a bunch of these books. They're really hard to find. I've already tried to track a bunch of them down. But

2:10 He he he lives what he preaches, the fact that hey, you should become friends with the eminent dead. Uh, the fact that you should find what you're good at and you should pound away at it forever. It took him forty one years. To find his life's work. But once

2:24 Once he became a full time investor, he knew that that's what he was going to do for his whole life. He's just obsessed with it. He loves this idea where he could design his own schedule. He never wanted to have people to manage much people. He wanted to read all the time and make money with his mind. And so while I was with Charlie, it was so incredible. uh to be able to meet one of your heroes. Like he had, you know, a heavy influence. Like I've stolen so many of his ideas.

2:46 That I had prepared a list in advance of a ton of questions and and things that I wanted to talk to about. I never looked at my phone once. So the way I'm gonna answer this question Is what I did is when I got back to my hotel after I I knew I was like this you know

3:01 Charlie Mung this is like a night Charlie Munger may never remember. Right,'cause you think he's ninety nine years old, think about all life experiences that this guy's had. what's in his brain, right? It's a night that he may never never remember and it's a night I'll never forget. So I just wrote down, like What are the things that I wanted to remember? And so to answer this question, I just want to run Through

3:19 with you. There's like one main theme. Well what's interesting about Charlie is like a lot of his ideas interact with each other and they they combine and they m they become even more powerful. It's like this Lollapalooza effect that he talks about all the time. So What I would say is like the main

3:34 thing that I took away from the dinner that I think is Something I've already tried to put in practice. It it's really important to me, like something that clicked when I was I was reading um It's episode two eighty six. I think the book is called has a terrible title. It's like all I wanna know is where I'm going to die so I won't go there.

3:51 But while I was going through the words of Charlie and Warren Buffett In that book, something clicked. And I think it clicked with a lot of people because When you put a podcast out, right, I just do these things by myself. And then I release it and I have no idea what the reception will be.

4:05 And what's interesting to me is like people will pick up on specific lines and like those lines will resonate far and above everything else you said in the podcast and so something I said on my podcast that clicked for a lot of clicked for me. was that learning is not memorizing information. Learning is changing your behavior. If I spend all the time reading about Charlie Munger, Watching his Q and A's at the Berkshire meeting.

4:25 Listen to speeches. reading books, uh reading people that were influenced by them, and it doesn't change my behavior. I'm just wasting time. And so the the main theme, the the thing that jumped out the most was Charlie has an almost complete indifference to problems. His perspective, if I could summarize it, would be like hey, troubles from time to time.

4:43 Should be expected. They're an inescapable part of life. So why let it bother you? Just handle them and then move on. And this Idea.

4:54 I he's talking about in p in business, there's problems that are inescapable and in your personal life. And this idea combines with two other ideas that he talked about at the dinner, and he talks about, you know, in the books and in speeches and everything else. In that Charlie looks at nearly everything. Through the lens of history. And

5:10 The his perspective, if I could summarize it, it was like You're not changing human nature. Things will just keep repeating forever. And so the fact that this guy has deep historical knowledge, right? He knows that human nature just repeats over and over again. And the fact that because of that hu that deep historical knowledge he knows that you're no one's getting through life without problems.

5:27 So then that leads to the summation and what's gonna change hopefully changes the behavior, which is actually the learning part, right? Where's like, okay. Just because problems are inevitable doesn't mean you're like you want an abundance of them. So his whole thing is like wisdom is prevention, which is only three words. And it's crazy if you just sit there and think about What that actually means.

5:43 And his whole point is like listen. Problems are inescapable. But you need to do your best. To avoid problems, and the way you do that. This is s the the third

5:52 uh idea that ties together. Is you go for great. It's harder to do, but it makes your life easier if you go for great. Great businesses are rare. Great people.

6:02 are rare. But they're worth the time. To find Great businesses throw off Way less problems.

6:09 Then Average or poor businesses. just like great people have way w will cause way less problems in your life than average or low quality people In the podcast. I hope you listen to the whole thing.

6:21 Uh, I hope it's even good. I was just so excited. And on such like a high, I don't even know if it made sense. I listened to it back, I'm like, Okay, I think this is good. But um but I you know, I was just so I was just so influenced by Just being able to meet'em it it

6:35 You know I I'm just sh incredibly grateful for it. That and like I didn't want to try to hide my excitement. You know, and the fact that yeah, he is my hero. Like he I know he's a human being just like you and I, but I do admire him and I do think he's the wisest person I ever come I've ever come across, and I am you know, trying to in many ways like pattern my life after him.

6:52 Um, like in my own unique way. On that episode I I talk about like a description of you know if you're around like a low quality or average quality Human Uh there's this this phrase that my wife says in Spanish that

7:04 It's just perfect and it describes it and it says that person could drown in a cup of water. And so that one thing, go for great. Like spend the time to to find a great business. I already think like this, you know, took me thirty something years to find

7:17 My life's work, which obviously I think founders is my life's work. I believe it to be my life's work. I think it's a absolutely great business. It's something I'm obsessed with. And so now taking Charlie's advice I know that the likelihood is that I'm not going to be my business isn't going to go away because of competition. My business is going to go away because humans can't handle success.

7:35 And so They always say it's like uh Charlie No Charlie sa Charlie says it's fantastic. It's like It's not that getting r it's not getting rich that you have to worry about, staying sane. Most people never find a great business, right? Then once they get into a great business.

7:47 they get bored or their their attention span dwindles, whatever the case is, and then they just screw it up by jumping around. And that's why d a lot of Charlie's theme is like patience, patience, patience. He said something in the dinner That was fantastic. I wish I could have written it down, but He said that like the advantage that him and Warren have you know, they they repeat this. It's like it's temperament. And

8:04 He used an adjective I couldn't remember what it was, but he's like we just part of our success is we had this This unusual combination of extreme patient. Extreme patience. And like ferocious aggressiveness when they find like a good business,'cause they're just sitting, sitting, sitting, waiting for something, they find it and they they act incredibly fast.

8:23 So I just wanna tie this up before I go on to other'cause I can go off on a bunch of tangents on the on here, but This idea it's just like okay. Go for great. It'll make your life easier if you go for rage. Find great business. And you know.

8:34 Maybe that's one great business, maybe it's two. It's certainly not. Fifty. And I really think you just need one. So Find a great business and then surround yourself with great people.

8:44 And if you do that, you're still gonna have problems in life. You'll just have a lot less. And then you'll know. What did Charlie say? Right? I got a little Charlie Monger on my shoulders. Oh, this is a problem. That's fine. I'm gonna handle it. I'm not gonna whine about it. handle it, I'm gonna move on my life because problems are just part of life. If you're truly getting wiser

8:59 you'll learn how to avoid most of the problems that are underneath that are under your control. So that is the main lesson. Here's a few other ones that that we talked about. Do not spend time on regrets. That doesn't mean you shouldn't be learning from your mistakes. Like everybody's gonna make mistakes. Rub your nose in your mistakes, so you're making sure. that you're not making that mistake again, he talked about that early part of his career. When they were just buying.

9:20 quote unquote great values, but crappy businesses. You you have to learn from that. It's just like no th these crappy businesses are You're getting them for that price for a reason. It's like just pay a little bit more and get a great business.

9:33 And then just keep that business forever. And so that's part of him saying, Hey I don't regret that I made me these mistakes and getting in these bad investments or getting in these bad businesses. Like they taught me something. And then I just moved on. I'm not gonna worry about it. And then I also got to ask him, I was like, Well

9:46 What I love to do and you see this on the podcast overly is like I spend a ton of time in these books thinking about like their earlier life. And not the the ninety or seventy or eighty year old version of Charlie, but like what was Charlie doing when he was twenty? What was he doing when he was thirty? What was he doing with forty one when he decided, hey, I'm gonna be a full time investor. I'm not gonna

10:04 Practice law anymore. And I was talking to him about that. I was like, Man, I'm like reading about you at this y young age. And you kinda see they're they're stumbling onto their ideas, they're kinda trying to figure them out. And they're getting closer and closer to like what Berkshire is going to be. And at that time Berkshire didn't even exist.

10:21 And I was just like, looking back at this, now you know, at your age, like Are you surprised how successful?'Cause I'm thinking about the young Charlie Mungo, the young Warren Buffett. And how are you s uh surprised how successful that you and Warren turn out to be? And he goes, How could you not be? And then that led to this tangent'cause You could tee Charlie up with a question?

10:40 But Charlie's gonna talk about whatever Charlie wants to talk about. And He should, because The the amount of information that's in this guy's brain. And the entire night he just told story after story after story of this This amazing business they bought, or this amazing deal, or th this went bad, or oh I thought this was right.

10:56 And his recall was absolutely incredible. And This went on a tangent and he's like, Actually I think that me and Warren get too much credit. No, that was interesting. And he was talking about the fact that

11:08 He finds really odd. To be so wealthy and so loved. And he his point is like that's not a normal human reaction. Like there is this Egalitarianism. In human nature.

11:20 that you know the people Just in general. Any level of success, especially on his level, right? Multi multi billions of dollars of wealth produced for himself and his family. Like that's not usually Yeah, people's

11:33 can react most people will react poorly to that. And what I thought about this after, I was like, you know what? I wonder If it's because he spent him and Warren spent so much time teaching other people. Like if you think about what poor Charlie's almanac is.

11:47 what the questions that he takes at the Berkshire meeting is. Or. what um what the share born buffett shareholder letters are. Like those are They're their lessons. Like they're all they're doing is saying, Hey, we learned all this stuff.

11:59 And this is uh what we learned. Let's take time into writing out the lessons and the form of the sharehold letters and then sharing the lessons that we learned. to answering the questions at the meeting. And in And in aggregate, you know, you have what is that, four or five decades? I think it's like fifty or sixty years that they've been doing this. Fi say let's just say half a century. A half a century of documented

12:20 lessons and then they turn it out and they just make it available for free for everybody else. And so how many entrepreneurs, investors, executives, people interested in business have been educated by Warren and Charlie over their lifetimes. Millions. That's not an understatement. Millions of people. And this is certainly the way I feel. Like I don't look at I don't I don't do this anyways,'cause I I it's it's remarkable how many smart and successful people I meet.

12:41 That are still like caught up in envy. that are worried about. Like this is crazy to me. And it's something I learned from Charlie. He's like the world isn't run by greed. It's run by envy and and like you just have to to have a good life, you have to cure yourself of envy. Like somebody else is getting richer than you, who gives a shit? That is always going to happen.

12:57 It has nothing to do with you. Why does it bother you? And I think that's how most people view Warren and Charlie. Like, yeah, these guys are super rich, way more successful. But like look at all the information they put out there that's valuable, look at all the information that could change your life. Um so that's my own personal opinion, like I didn't get a chance to ask him. I didn't ha even r have that thought at the time.

13:15 I just thought about that when I was writing these notes. I was like, Oh, that is kinda like why why is that so different? You know, there's no There's nobody outside. Of Warren Buffett's Uh Charlie Munger's house.

13:27 You know. uh w protesting or like with a guillotine or all this crazy things that people do. when you you get to like the top of like the world's richest people list, you know? There is like a an interesting like why is that the case? Like why are they the the exception? So my guess is again, they spent a ton of time teaching others. Not the thing, ask the question like

13:47 What role did like your parents play in like your drive for success? Like were you trying to like show mom and dad like, hey, this is what I could do. And you know, Charlie's like, No, he's like, I always had an inner clock. I just do what I wanna do and I don't care. about the ideas or thoughts of other people. And as a result this inner clock, he talks about like deals like they turn down, they could make

14:08 They they get all kinds of crazy deal flow from their positions, as you can imagine. I think the teaching aspect of that is a huge part of it. And yet they they they have opportunity to make like a bunch of money risk free and it's like s uh a business they that, you know, may harm other people or they just didn't like it. And they would turn it down. And so that's this whole like interclock thing. It's like I'm just gonna do what I wanna do. And that was a larger thing too, where Charlie's not His whole thing is like he likes people that like one of his favorite entrepreneurs is Jim Sinegal from Costco.

14:35 Um, I I gotta ask him I was like, Why can't I find any information on J Jim? He doesn't give speeches, there's no books. It's like'cause he's busy working. I thought that was hilarious. But um He just like if you think about it, he's like well

14:46 Just go out and build a business that helps other people. Like what is The whole business model of Costco is like they use their size to get unbelievable deals, unbelievable deals for their customers. And then instead of like marking up more than they could, they just pass that savings on to There are millions and millions of customers.

15:02 And I think I read in the the the Tower Charlie Monga they have like a hundred and fifty million checkouts a year. That that information's, you know Maybe a decade old, so it's probably even more now. So like What is the aggregate goodwill? of like s just amount of savings that

15:16 that this idea that Jim had And then he grew over multiple decades. Like what is the benefit to his customers and to society at large? Like it's it's large. Like you're saving a ton of money. Because of this unique business. uh that that Jim built. And I think that's what Charlie would

15:30 give you advice to do. It's just like do something That other people value. And then do it for a long time. and really, really, really give a shit about the business that you like you can tell his whole thing is like, hey You're gonna you're gonna have more success, another like hack of his, and I hate using that word.

15:45 Another like good idea of his, maybe that's a better way. is just like if if you just move yourself into a business that where you have an intense interest That's gonna cure most of your problems. Like you're just gonna think about all the time. Uh, you're gonna w constantly improve it. You're not gonna quit.

15:59 And that right there is probably, you know, eighty to ninety percent of it. And then something else that was lucky about is the fact that um the night started in Charlie's library. So he was sitting there, we're in a small group And he's back is to like uh behind him is All his bookshelves.

16:14 And I was just scanning his bookshelves as he's talking. And I noticed a bunch of books uh that I had read so I was able to like bring up these obscure books. Like I brought up the fact that I saw Henry Kaiser's uh biography on the shelves. And I read that book like four years ago. It was episode sixty six of

16:31 Uh founders. And so then Charlie just goes into it. I just bring up Kaiser and like what he thought about him and like his recall. was just unbelievable. You know, he hadn't read that book in a long time. Winds up knowing Henry Kaiser's partner could tell you about the

16:43 The businesses that Henry built. I can tell you about the role that he played in World War Two building the Liberty Ships. We talked about the fact that Kaiser bought uh was one of the people that built uh helped build the the Hoover Dam. And so this this kind of thing just w happened. You just mentioned one person, he could talk about it forever. And that m really made me realise it's like okay, anybody at ninety nine years old is gonna have some kind of cognitive decline.

17:05 But imagine. Like just how powerful. This guy's mind was when he was younger and like that's he did a lot of work to do that. You know, he's read thousands and thousands of books. Books spent thousands and thousands.

17:17 Tens of thousands, I don't know, a hundred thousand hours. deep in thought, thinking about the stuff he's learning, thinking about the things that are going on in the world, thinking about what he want like how the businesses that he wants to build. And so that knowledge First hand, he's always talks about how knowledge compounds like be a learning machine, go you know, he says go to sleep every more night a little smarter than you were. And if you do that over a long period of time, it really makes a difference. Like you see that in his conversations. Like, Oh, this guy lives his ideas. He's not just out there

17:41 BS in people. It's like this is just I'm just telling the ideas that I use in my life, and if it was valuable for me, it's probably valuable for other people. Like I just think that's It's it's Part of his wisdom is just how simple it is. And what Charlie would tell you is like, okay, well, if it's simple advice, like why are more people using it? It's just like it's in human nature to overcomplicate things.

17:58 And so that's his his whole point is like why he repeats things over and over again. Because it's like you just have to keep it as simple as possible. Because you're likely just by like your natural tendency is going to overcomplicate your life. And then of course one of the questions I had to ask him was I I wanted to talk to him about Ben Franklin, because Ben Franklin was his hero. Charlie makes like these busts.

18:17 of uh people he admires and two of the people he has busts of. Or Ben Franklin and Lee Kwan Yu. Calls Leequan U like the Warren Buffett of Singapore Singapore? But when we're talking about Ben Franklin Uh I brought up this book uh that covered I think it was episode two fifty one.

18:31 It's uh Franklin and Washington about their f their partnership they had. And he didn't he hadn't read the book yet. But he knew all about like uh Franklin's relationship with Washington and so what he w he was talking to us a lot about, like the you know, he believes it's unlikely to ever have another life as remarkable as Ben Franklin, that he was Number one in business, number one in science, number one in politics, all like

18:52 w at the same time in one life form is or lifetime is just like that's never we're never gonna see that again. And he just thinks he's just absolutely wise and remarkable. And if you read Ben Franklin, you realize that what Charlie did is just take a lot of Franklin's ideas and then Update them and reword them. Um, but in a lot of it's th they they think very similarly. uh and the way they communicate.

19:10 Uh it's very s it's it's very similar as well. But what I thought was interesting is the hi the important part that jumped out'em is the fact that Ben Franklin did something very smart. He says Ben Franklin did something very smart his whole life was that he sought out other impressive people like George Washington. He did this when he was young, he did this when he was old. He did it his entire life. And then Charlie went in and says Andrew Carnegie did this too and then I got to ask him a follow up question. I was like, Well

19:32 Is is this something that you did in your life? And immediately he says, Absolutely and still do. And he was t pointing out it's like you find go for great. Goes back to that main idea, right? Go for great, find other And first of all, build yourself up into an impressable impressive, formidable person. That takes a lot of work, right? But once you do that, then you find other people that are like you. And then you build relationship with them and they made

19:53 In many cases they had friendships and business relationships with the same people that they met in their youth their entire lives. A lot of them have, you know, passed away since then. But It was something very important. And Charlie still does this where He seeks out other You know, young

20:07 interesting, smart people, or whatever the case is. Every single person at this dinner with me. There's only I think five of us. I th they're all we're all fifty years, sixty years younger than Charlie. And he was also talking about like If he doesn't see people in person, like he'll he'll seek out and he'll talk to other smart people on Zoom.

20:24 You know, he's still doing this at ninety nine, he's still curious, he's still reading. Still paying attention to what's going on in businesses. He's like not never gonna stop. He's like the only way this is gonna stop is when he dies. Another thing goes back to like the just building your business around a set of simple ideas. They have that that notoriety, that like cult like following because of the their

20:42 Just constant teaching. Concentration everything they learn. You know, a lot of people call them first. They see a lot of deals first, and so They combine that idea with the fact that

20:52 They made so much money because they had they always had a ton of cash. And they could move fast. And he would tell deals You know. crazy examples where like somebody calls on like a Saturday and they're like, Hey, this B business is like

21:05 having a bunch of trouble. There's maybe one subsidiary that Charlie Moore knew about in advance'cause they're like they know what's going on, they know what they're interested in, they're just waiting for the opportunity to get it. And uh in one case they're like hey Uh if you want this

21:19 Uh, we need four hundred and fifty million dollars. And this is like on a Saturday morning or something. And we need it by Monday. And it was interesting'cause the lawyers are telling Warren and Charlie, No, we can't do this. Like we don't have a contract yet. We have to go through it. We should inspect it. And because of their relationships, because of the fact that they know in their mind like what assets they want.

21:38 And Charlie said, like Warren and Charlie ignored the lawyers. They're like, No, we think this is a good deal. Warren wired the money. First thing Monday morning without even an email. No contract, no email. Just on the strength of the relationship with the person calling them and the fact that they knew the the actual value of the asset that they were buying.

21:54 And Charlie said something like they made a couple of billion dollars on that deal risk free. And so that's just like one example of a bunch of He just walked us through like The way they thought about things. And again, it's it's like Yes, if you look at Birchhart today, unbelievably complicated. You can't imagine like how the hell this thing came to

22:12 to exist. But if you look at it from their perspective, it's like okay, we started out doing one thing I mean like forty He's like forty one, I think Warren. L let's say he's mid forties, Warren's like uh late thirties, you know. as they're like trying to figure this out. And then they just keep building on it, keep learning from it, and over time, that's when you get it's like super complicated. But from their from their perspective, it's like oh it's like simple because we were learning as we went.

22:32 And then we had an idea. It's like oh whoop, we made a wr wrong mistake here. Okay, we'll just course correct real quick and then we'll keep We won't do that next time and then we'll just keep and building and building. This goes back to like I really do believe in something that's so important. Time is just gonna carry most of the weight. Time is gonna do most of the work. The hard part for you and I is like Finding a truly great business.

22:49 with truly great people around us and just staying there. And not all of the advice that he was giving us was was business advice. Like Something's interesting. Few people there were parents. He says he's like, Listen, I didn't try to steer my kids or my grandkids into what they should do for a living. This is

23:04 Very similar. And I this is like also being self aware. It's like Charlie knows he's rare. Like he's very aware that he is rare. Like the idea that you're gonna have somebody like him Like you're just gonna keep birthing. You know, I think he's got like ten kids, like thirty something grandkids, who knows how many?

23:19 This is just unlikely. Like he's a one in a ten million kind of person. And so he's like listen, one, he thought it was it was beneficial that he got rich he got wealthy later in life. But If you ask him like this is something people struggle with, you know, they're like, Hey, in many cases they you are interested in entrepreneurship, you're interested in investing, you build a very successful life. Some of that success is financial.

23:40 And then all of a sudden like your kids are growing up and like comfort that that Charlie didn't grow up in. And so like how do you do with that? And he's like Of course. Of course, some of them are going to be less motivated because they were born rich. Like what there's no solution to that problem.

23:54 And then he talked about Like what do you do? Like you know, people struggle with like when they're wealthy. It's like What do you do? Like you're gonna give that money to your kids? And his advice was

24:04 The most unique'cause this is something that appears over and again in these biographies that I read. And No one has the answer. Uh everybody's like I don't know, I don't know what to do. Like sometimes it turns out well, sometimes it turns out bad and his whole

24:15 You have to give them the money. Or they're gonna hate you for it. And his whole point is it's like you wanted you had kids, you wanted to build a good relationship with them. you've tried to lead by example, that's all you can do. And what's the point of like building wealth?

24:28 And then saying, Sorry, kids, like I'm giving this all away and then having it's he's like it's just in human nature. His whole thing let's go back to what what's at the very top of my list. He's like he looks at everything Through the lens of history. You aren't changing human nature, things will just keep repeating forever. Are you learning from that? Are you learning from history or not?

24:44 And in Charlie's case, he's obviously learning from history and he's like, Oh you know, they're just gonna hate you for it. So I think when his wife died he said something like His wife died I think ten or twelve years ago and they had given away I think they give away half their fortune to like their kids and grandkids. You know, and that's dispersed through like a lobe big amount a large amount of people, but it's still a lot of money.

25:03 And you know, he he thought that w that's what you should do. He's like, there's no point. in doing all this and then having getting to ending your life and you're having a bad relationship with your kids or having your kids resent you. He's like that's that just doesn't make any sense. And so yeah, of course. In some cases they're gonna be less motivated'cause they're born rich.

25:19 That too is also human nature. And then I had a selfish question I got to ask him. I was like, Charlie, like why didn't you write an autobiography? Like what? Come on, man. That would be fantastic. And he says to he's say answer his question, he said uh his his Answer was very simple.

25:34 It's too hard to do correctly and I didn't want to do it. And there's also enough enough people out there like categorizing and summarizing and organizing his thoughts. Uh, I thought it was funny, it's like one of my personal goals is like, Okay, live a life so remarkable. that somebody writes a book about it and then you can have that book on your shelf before you die. And so I found There's a few books about him on his shelf.

25:53 One of them I haven't done for the podcast and it's shame on me. It's called Seeking Wisdom from Darwin to Munger, I think. Um, so th I'll I'll do that soon. Uh maybe I'll like Maybe like a month or two. Um I don't wanna keep doing just

26:05 Not all Charlie Munger episodes, but I'll definitely do that episode. Um, and I don't think I want to wait too long because I want like the the This is like dinner. from him to still be, you know, in like fresh my mind. Um so he didn't want to write an autobiography. He did talk about that.

26:20 Poor Charlie's almanac is being reprinted. And uh there's gonna be an online version soon through Stripe Press. I think that's coming later on this year, which is fantastic because I ha I have a physical book, but I would love to be able to search that book and to have a Kindle version would be excellent. Charlie is who he says he is. Like he loves a good deal. He talked about like Look at the shirt I bought.

26:40 You know, it was twelve dollars. I've had it forever. Look at this watch, you can't get it cheaper. Uh he lived in a modest house. It was a it was a don't get me wrong, it was a nice house, but there's no way That you think that a multi billionaire lives in that house. And so that goes back to, you know, he is who he says he is. He's just like, listen, I like to read. I like to make money with my mind.

26:59 I like to talk to interesting, smart people, I like to think about the world. And he's like he built a world around that. He just happened to be Yeah, unbelievably good at that. To the point where like, you know, his brain can essentially produce an unlimited amount of money. And that leads me to the last thing that I wrote down and

27:16 I think it applies not he's gonna say this for investing, but it applies to building a business. Like If done, done at the highest levels. Entrepreneurship, investing at the highest levels, they produce the most material. They produce the most wealth in the world. That that should tell you right from the outside, at least it's not easy. It's

27:31 Supposed to be hard. It's going to be hard. It fights against e your nature every bone of your body, ever all of your nature. 'Cause m most of these businesses, like all the um what Peter Till says in zero to one is like problem with the technology issue now.

27:45 is that they optimize for growth at the expense of durability and that doesn't make any sense because all the value of a company is coming ten, twenty, thirty years into the future and everybody quits. Before they collect the value. Charlie and Warren just said, Okay, well this is gonna compound, we'll just ride this thing for the rest of our lives. Which again is obviously the smart thing and go for grape.

28:04 And so the last thing you say was Being good at investing is a very rare skill. It is not distributed widely. And it will never be. And so when I think of entrepreneurship, it's not an art or a science, it's a practice.

28:16 And so when I'm hearing Charlie say that to me, it's like being good Being a good founder is a very rare skill. It is not distributed widely. And it will never be. And so what I'm doing with that information is I'm gonna keep it my practice for as long as possible. I'm gonna use

28:29 the lessons from history together entrepreneurs as leverage. And then I'll let time carry most of the weight. And at the end of that I will be in possession of a very rare skill. And that is where I left it. I just have one ask or one suggestion. Uh for you.

28:44 One of my favorite things that Charlie ever said he said at the Berkshire meeting. uh Berkshire annual meeting back in two thousand ten. And he said that the best thing that a human being can do is help another human being no more. And so the one suggestion I have for you is I'm going to leave a link in the show notes.

29:01 In the la for the last few years of his life, Charlie was working hand in hand with Stripe and Stripe Press. to republish a new version of poor Charlie's almanac. There's going to be a digital version for the first time. There is a several hour interview that Charlie recorded with John Collison, one of the co-founders of Stripe. I already have an advanced copy. In fact I have two advanced copies. of the striped press version of poor Charlie Somanac.

29:26 It's incredibly well made. The book is actually released next week. It is a great collection of the knowledge that Charlie Munger accumulated over his lifetime. And that he wanted to share with other people. So I will leave that link down below. I highly recommend

29:40 Pre ordering the book and buying copies for yourself and for your loved ones. I will also leave a list of all the Charlie Munger episodes. that I've made so far. I would start with episode two ninety five, which I reference in this. It's called I Had Dinner with Charlie Munger. Episode two eighty six. It's titled Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger. It's based on the book All I Wanna Know.

29:59 is where I'm going to die, so I'll never go there, buffet and monger a study in simplicity and uncommon common sense. Then episode two twenty one. is on uh Charlie Munger's biography. Titled Damn Right. Episode ninety.

30:13 Is the first time I ever did an episode on poor Charlie's Almanac, the original version. I'm rereading poor Charlie Zomanac now, a stripe press version, and eventually we'll do an episode on that in the next week or two. That's episode ninety. Episode seventy nine is on the book The Complete Investor, which is about Charlie Munger, and finally episode seventy eight. Which is the first time I made an episode on this fantastic little book called The Tow of Charlie Munger.

30:37 That list of episodes will also be in the show notes as well. I highly recommend starting with episode two ninety five if you have not listened to it yet. Thanks for listening and I'll talk to you again soon.

What you see above is a preview of the first minutes. One unlock costs 10 credits and covers this episode forever: full segment and word-level timestamps on this page, plus .txt, .srt, .vtt and word-level JSON downloads, as many times as you like.