Charlie Munger, your wisdom lives on

Update Week 48 2023

Yesterday we received the sad news that Charlie Munger passed away at the age of 99. For those less involved in investing, he may not be known or only recognized as Warren Buffett's right-hand man. If you've been reading my writings for a while (which would be in Dutch), you'll know that I looked up to Charlie Munger even more than I look up to Buffett.

It may sound ridiculous that someone I've never met could be a real mentor. Last week, I also booked tickets to attend the Berkshire Meeting in 2024, hoping to see him at least once.

I can't really put into words what his death does to me. Although I am not qualified to write much about him or pay tribute to who he was, for years I felt like his student, trying to translate his wisdom into investing and daily life.

For me, Munger embodied two characteristics - rationality and honesty, often to the point of bluntness. With targeted one-liners, he could dissect entire industries and companies. Buffett said about Munger: "Charlie has the best 30-second mind in the world. He goes from A to Z in one go. He sees the essence of everything even before you finish the sentence."

His brutal honesty was also a breath of fresh air in today's politically correct society. In a world where everyone tiptoes around subjects and you can be "canceled" for every word, he named things as they are.

Not my favorite saying, but the one I most often go back to is "Invert always invert", a phrase he borrowed from Carl Jacobi. And that's what I'm going to do now. I will reverse the feeling of sadness by listening to and reading his statements and wisdom once again. I am sharing here some of my favorite things I came across online.

This image made by "From Growth to Value," includes some of the heuristics that we as investors battle, as Charlie mentioned in his well-known speech  The Psychologie of Human Misjudgement (listen on Youtube)

Also these 99 onliners summarized by Compounding Quality op X (Twitter) is worth reading

And finally, this five-minute video to bring a smile to your face:

Update

Every week (except for holidays and when there is no news) I publish a post with all the newsworthy facts and the analysis of published reports by our companies. As our selection is still growing, the updates are not that large, but they will continue to get more frequent and larger as we add positions to our selection.

This week, the update is a bit earlier. I will be away for a few days.