12 Weeks of Poor Charlie: Talk 1

I was bummed out to hear that Charlie Munger had died on November 28, 2023. He’s had massive influence over the past 70 years in the world of business and investing. While there have been controversies, the impact and wisdom he’s imparted is worth evaluating. For someone with such influence in the world, he remained relatively away from the spotlight. It was only really in recent years that Charlie became more well known and in somewhat more spotlight compared to his partner Warren Buffett.

I’d pre-ordered a copy of the new edition of Stripe Press’s Poor Charlie’s Almanac. I’m a sucker for really well printed books — they continue to serve as great references and conversation starters when I have guests over or even in video calls! Stripe Press books are well printed, illustrated on good paper for ~$20 price vs similar researched dense books that go for lot more.

great hardcover book of “Poor Charlie’s Almanac” from Stripe Press

I got this yesterday on December 9, 2023 and while I was reading it, I realized, hey! there are 11 chapters and each one is a talk or some wisdom that can be discussed. Maybe I can post one talk for each day and it can be a “12 days of Poor Charlie.” So here it is for the first day December 10, 2023. I’d like to note that I’m doing this as a fellow admirer of biographies and learnings as I’ve learned a lot from Charlie either via first hand accounts like the excellent last (possibly the only) podcast he did with Acquired: https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/charlie-munger

The table of contents is pretty interesting:

Poor Charlie’s Almanac Table of Contents

I own a decent number of Stripe Press books and at least the ones I own, I didn’t see a Foreword by John Collison. As a business leader I look up to himself, it’s interesting to see his take on Charlie and what he learned from Charlie’s teaching, writings and from their interactions.

The foreword from Warren is very thoughtful and glowing endorsement of his partner Charlie and how grateful Warren is to have such an amazing partner in business. What’s more interesting is Charlie’s rebuttal. It’s very amusing and I’ll leave this to reader of the book to enjoy.

After some thoughtful anecdotes from the kids and family, there’s a brief biography before the talks start. What’s notable with Charlie’s biography is how late he started and how much hardship he had to endure

• Although he attended several universities he still didn’t have a bachelor’s degree when he applied to Harvard Law School. Thankfully he had a family friend, former Harvard Law School dean Roscoe Pound to intercede on his behalf and he got in. While this is truly luck to some people, but I read this as he was smart enough to have a dean of premiere law school to vouch for Charlie (ie stake his own reputation), and Charlie did graduate in 1948 as Magna Cum Laude as one of 12 students.
• He divorced in 1953 and soon after his son Teddy was diagnosed with Leukemia — then a fatal disease. This was truly heartbreaking to read “A friend remembers that Charlie would visit his dying son in the hospital and then walk the streets of Pasadena crying.”

This was all before Warren and Charlie reconnected and as they say “rest is history.”

Talk 1: June 13, 1986: Harvard School Commencement Speech

I was very confused where this Harvard School was because elsewhere on the internet the same talk is quoted as Harvard University in 1995 — like this youtube video which seems longer at 1 hour too. It was given at what looks like a prep school now called Harvard-Westlake School.

Munger provides prescriptions for a life of misery, including being unreliable, disregarding vicarious wisdom, giving up after experiencing setbacks, and ignoring the lessons of those who have come before. He emphasizes the importance of objectivity and self-criticism in achieving success, citing the examples of Darwin and Einstein. Munger concludes with a backward toast to the class of 1986, encouraging them to aim low in order to rise high.

I didn’t know about this talk but it’s been covered as great speech by the likes of James Clear too https://jamesclear.com/great-speeches/how-to-guarantee-a-life-of-misery-by-charlie-munger

There are lot of interesting aspects here

• Referring to Carson’s prior speech as the starting point to set base on fundamentals like not indulging in addiction, envy or resentment.

Getting key points to be miserable that are unique to Charlie’s talk across like

• Be Unreliable — or as Charlie puts it “if you like being distrusted and excluded from the best human contribution and company this prescription (being unreliable) is for you”
• Don’t learn from others’ mistakes — “This prescription is a sure shot producer of misery and second-rate achievement”
• Go down and stay down — “Because there is so much adversity out there, even for the lucky and wise, this will guarantee that, in due course, you will be permanently mired in misery.”
• Last one is a story of a quote that is often attributed to Charlie — “I wish I knew where I was going to die, and then I’d never go there” if you keep doing things that are going to kill you, at some point it will.. guaranteeing misery

While Charlie starts as “not having significant public speaking experience, I do hold a black belt in chutzpah,” this is no small talk to condense these great advices in ~6 pages in this book.

Lets invert and actually look at the lessons

• Being Reliable: this is very important. Keep your appointments, dates, and expectations. This is step one to maintaining any relationship. You can get a pass once or twice but when it becomes a pattern people give up on you
• Learn from others’ mistakes: There’s a lot of emphasis these days on “First Principles Thinking” but that doesn’t mean you go and make all the same mistakes when you can go and read what else others have done. You don’t want to make first principles mistakes either.
• This too shall pass: I don’t want to belittle actual depression and chemical imbalances that make people feel crummy but failure can be one more step to success. I’m thankful that Charlie avoided the famous Edison quote about genius being 1% perspiration or 60,000 bulbs that’s been so overdone by now.
• Avoiding things that can kill you/your business: I don’t know if I fully agree here. You definitely want to fit this with the second advice and determine if what you’re doing is something actually new or a path already trodden and guaranteed to kill you.

I’m planning to slowly post these as I get through this book but let me know what you think about this chapter.