"All I Want to Know Is Where I'm Going to Die So I'll Never Go There": Buffett and Munger a Study in Simplicity and Uncommon, Common Sense - Peter Bevelin  ## Metadata - Author: **Peter Bevelin** - Full Title: "All I Want to Know Is Where I'm Going to Die So I'll Never Go There": Buffett and Munger a Study in Simplicity and Uncommon, Common Sense - Category: #books ## Highlights - For instance, he learns from Buffett and Munger the best way to prevent trouble is to avoid it altogether by learning what works and what does not. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j79hs8qe8cwed9pwt4wzr6n5)) - “All I want to know is where I’m going to die so I’ll never go there.” ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j79hsx9rptjk5tahj82dwc2n)) - *"Outside science, it is amazing how little impact there can be from a powerful idea...Everyone's experience is that you teach only what a reader almost knows, and that seldom."* *- Charles T. Munger* ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j79hxssr8kt2ktaghhqqwndy)) ## New highlights added September 9, 2024 at 4:45 PM - It Is Better To Try To Be Consistently Not Stupid Than To Be Very Intelligent ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j7ackk4tq3njgyjjgkkbah87)) - "You don't have to be brilliant, only a little bit wiser than the other guys, on average, for a long, long time." ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j7acn58fx2p55wjzwqxnyvs8)) - "To some extent, the record of Berkshire —to the extent it's been good —has not occurred because we've done brilliant things, but because we've probably done fewer dumb things than most." ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j7acpjyacnheq7t5ye89phh0)) - "It's more interesting to see why smart people don't succeed, and to avoid [those errors of theirs]." ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j7adsqjv9dc518xr0f29mfkx)) - "Charlie...has always emphasized the study of mistakes rather than successes, both in business and other aspects of life. He does so in the spirit of the man who said: 'All I want to know is where I'm going to die so I'll never go there.'" ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j7aeew2sxjbma2pa4ytmzrds)) - Charlie will study how to make life miserable; to examine how business become big and strong, Charlie first studies how businesses decline and die; most people care more about how to succeed in the stock market, Charlie is most concerned about why most have failed in the stock market.'" ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j7aegkfsqcc6a9s1jedxc89v)) ## New highlights added September 10, 2024 at 5:45 PM - "And you've got to have one more trick. You've got to use those tools checklist-style because you'll miss a lot if you just hope that the right tool is going to pop up unaided whenever you need it." ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j7d1e61s5zswmys2p95h4240)) - "Usefulness is a great criterion. Rousseau said, 'Real wisdom is not the knowledge of everything, but the knowledge of which things in life are necessary, which are less necessary, and which are completely unnecessary to know.'" ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j7e7d0vh66hs764nrry4n46j)) - "And what could be more useful than learning the big and timeless principles that tell you how the world works —how reality works, how human nature works —so you know what to do or not do in different situations." ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j7e7decn7n4hmfrb9ngy563z)) - to know how to use knowledge is to have wisdom.'" ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j7e7ffadajaaechmh5ecj3hx)) ## New highlights added September 11, 2024 at 4:49 PM - "Extreme success is likely to be caused by some combination of the following factors: 1. Extreme maximization or minimization of one or two variables. 2. Adding success factors so that a bigger combination drives success, often in non-linear fashion, as one is reminded by the concept of breakpoint and the concept of critical mass in physics. Often results are not linear. You get a little bit more mass, and you get a lollapalooza result. 3. An extreme of good performance over many factors. 4. Catching and riding some sort of big wave." ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j7fmey3b5kyq6tqe1jyphfn4)) - "The trick is to have your brain work better than the other person's brain because it understands the most fundamental models — the ones that will do the most work per unit. In science, just a few formulas will correctly make an enormous percentage of all predictions. And similarly, in messy practical life, certain models will carry a lot of extra weight." ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j7grm53kmm79gx1rrbx6x6ta)) - "You really should understand human behaviour if you're going to run a business." ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j7grmrc7m1cmsv69v1t52xdx)) - As the late Zig Ziglar said, 'You can get everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want."' ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j7grt6ne220jacpdj6cbyx25)) ## New highlights added September 11, 2024 at 10:48 PM - "You have to forget about all those things. You have to do what works, what you understand, and if you don't understand it and somebody else is doing it, don't get envious or anything of the sort. Just go on and wait until you find something you understand." ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j7hcbzg86c5ep6rmgeq47bs7)) ## New highlights added September 12, 2024 at 6:49 AM - 'Half of the troubles of this life can be traced to saying yes too quickly and not saying no soon enough.'" ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j7j77eapbxz8bcx3564eva50)) ## New highlights added September 12, 2024 at 5:48 PM - "By far, the most important quality is not how much IQ you've got. IQ is not the scarce factor. You need a reasonable amount of intelligence, but the temperament is 90 % of it." ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j7kbaww4cpt1ntwq3gke2thv)) - "You will not be right simply because a large number of people momentarily agree with you. You will not be right simply because important people agree with you..." ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j7kbamr6bkr353afyw547age)) - What is not worth knowing is not worth knowing." ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j7kbbrvxxm4j40xp0e3p9hyh)) - "The big question about how people behave is whether they've got an Inner Scorecard or an Outer Scorecard. It helps if you can be satisfied with an Inner Scorecard." ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j7kbc0acka1hgw4fvp5q0h3a)) - "The French writer Nicolas Chamfort said, 'Men whose only concern is other people's opinion of them are like actors who put on a poor performance to win the applause of people of poor taste; some of them would be capable of good acting in front of a good audience. A decent man plays his part to the best of his ability, regardless of the taste of the gallery.'" ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j7kbem2xk9s566heyk7c9e9j)) - 'No one can persevere long in a fictitious character; for nature will soon reassert itself."' ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j7kbfsexm4wt5jg2fqzk8dry)) - "The difference between successful people and very successful people is that very successful people say 'no' to almost everything." ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j7kbhk7gjsa4ak7mb0cmefz4)) - "There once was a man who became the most famous composer in the world. But he was utterly miserable most of the time. And one of the reasons was that he always overspent his income. That was Mozart. If Mozart couldn't get by with this kind of asinine conduct, I don't think you should try it." ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j7kbmw5dg52183ys00ksqhhy)) - "I knew I wanted to make a lot of money. But that's because I knew I wanted to be independent440.. .Then I could do what I wanted to do with my life. And the biggest thing I wanted to do was work for myself. I didn't want other people directing me441...I was interested in being in a position to control the decision making process442.. .The idea of doing what I wanted to do every day was important to me443...The money itself is all going to charity." ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j7kbx8fw8x1kkpcntscyf7de)) - "I wanted independence445... I liked being able to say what I thought instead of what was expected of me." ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j7kbxtgmctyy6vd4hge5pp5p)) - "Borrowed money can magnify your mistakes, and it may magnify them to the point where they wipe you out449...Leverage is what causes people trouble so don't put yourself in a position where somebody can pull the rug out from under you." ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j7kbzxz1bgj7m6h3fx2rsyx7)) - any series of positive numbers, however impressive the numbers may be, evaporates when multiplied by a single zero. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j7kc1f6mrxbbzfsbz47ss1qp)) ## New highlights added September 13, 2024 at 6:49 AM - Never Lose Sight Of What You're Trying To Achieve Or Avoid ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j7mra882rzwkkwsfjb1gbwkc)) - "A majority of life's errors are caused by forgetting what one is really trying to do.” ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j7mrctzk139v27w8g8zc4cjj)) ## New highlights added September 13, 2024 at 1:48 PM - "We ask ourselves: 'What's important and knowable? And what among those things can we translate into some kind of action that's useful for Berkshire?'" ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j7nj2cqrmy9b41dv42shx47f)) - ...What counts for most people in investing is not how much they know, but rather how realistically they define what they don't know." ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j7nj3rjgagr7wj8wzqya9nvk)) ## New highlights added September 13, 2024 at 4:48 PM - "I generally try to approach a complex task by first disposing of the easy decisions1707...It is usually best to simplify problems by deciding big 'no-brainer' questions first." ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j7nx0nfnrr8zhxa7ymh82dbm)) ## New highlights added September 13, 2024 at 8:05 PM - "I constantly see people rise in life who were not the smartest, sometimes not even the most diligent. But they are learning machines18”... They go to bed every night a little wiser than they were that morning. And boy, does that habit help, particularly when you have a long run ahead of you." ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j7nzrspabkm2h5804g27hmab)) - "Cherish some man of high character, and keep him ever before your eyes, living as if he were watching you, and ordering all your actions as if he beheld them." ***- Seneca*** ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j7nzxfhw75khmxgsd67nk34c))